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BRIAN  BORI', 
Kins  of  Irelaiui.  .v.   d.   1002-1014. 


BOSTON  CuLL^JiGK  LIBRARY 
CHESTNUT  UILL,  MASS. 


IRELAND'S  Crown 
OF  Thorns  and  Roses 

.  oit. 

THE  BEST  OF  HER  HISTORY  BY  THE 
BEST  OF  HER  WRITERS 

A  SERIES  OF  HISTORICAL  NARRATIVES  THAT  READ 
AS  ENTERTAININGLY  AS  A  NOVEL 

IRELAND  IN  PAGAN  DAYS— LEARNING  IN  IRELAND  BEFORE  ST. 
PATRICK— COMING  OF  THE  DANE,  THE  NORM.\N  AND  THE 
SAXON— THE  GLORIOUS  STRUGGLE  OF  '98— THE  GOLDEN 
ERA  OF  GRATTAN  AND  THE  IRISH  PARLIAMENT- 
CONSTITUTIONAL  AGITATION— BIOGRAPHIES 
OF  THE  IRISH  LE^\DERS— THE  GAELIC 
LEAGUE  RE-CREATING  AN  IRISH 
NATION— IRISH  ELOQUENCE 
—  ETC.  —  ETC.  - 


AN  OLD  STORY 
TREATED  FROM  A  NEW  STANDPOINT 

BY    THE    FOLLOWING    BRILLIANT    GALAXY 
OF    WHITERS 

MOST  REV.  JOHN  HEALY,  D.  D..  Archbishop  of  Tuam 
A.  M.  SULLIVAN 

VERY  REV.  SYLVESTER  MALONE 

RIGHT  REV.  PATRICK  O'DONNELL,  Bishop  of  Raphoe 
MARTIN  HAVERTY 

REV.  P.  F.  KAVANAUGH,  O.  S.  F. 

SIR  JONAH  HARRINGTON,  LL.  D.,  K.  C. 

VERY  REV.  MICHAEL  P.  O'HICKEY,  Maynooth  College 
T.  P.  O'CONNOR,  M.  P. 

SIR  THOMAS  HENRY  GRATTAN  ESMONDE,  Bart.,  M.  P. 
VERY  REV.  DR.  RICHARD  HENEBRY,  Ph.  D. 
PROF.  KUNO  MEYER,  Ph.  D..  and  others. 


GREAT  SPEECHES  ON  GREAT  OCCASIONS 

sparkling  gems  from  the  jewel  hou.se  ok 
Ireland's  unrivaled  oratory 

BY 

ROBERT  EMMET  A.  M.  SULLIVAN  THOMAS  SEXTON.  M.  P. 

THOMAS  FRANCIS  MEAGHER  CHAS.  STEWART  PARNELL 

REV.  DR.  CHARLES  O'REILLY  \V.  BOURKE  COCKRAN 

JOHN  F.  FINERTY 


compiled    and    edited    BY 

FRANK  J.  RYAN  and  P.  F.  HOLDEN 

EUBEIXISHED   WITH    NTTMKROU9    PORTR-4.ITS    OF   IRELAND'S    -VNCIENT    .4.ND    MODERN    LEADGB9 
PICTURES    OF    HISTORIC    PLACES,    ETC. 


BOSTOIC  COT.T.EGE  LIBRARY 
CHKSTNUT  HILUMASS. 


Copyright  1904 

BY 

F.  J.  Ryan 


123ltH) 


Printed  and  Bound  hy  M.  A.  DONOHUE  &  CO. 


/^6^^&^^.^^/y^ 


DEDICATORY 


TO 
HOX.    W.    BOURKE   COCKRAN    OF   NeW   YoRK 

CHAMPION  OF  LIBERTY, 

ELOQUENT  DEFENDER  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 
OF  AMERICA,  AND  ADVOCATE  OF  IRELAND'S  FREEDOM, 
THIS  BOOK,  WHICH  RECORDS  THE  GLORIOUS 
DEEDS,  THE  ANCIENT  GREATNESS  AND 
THE  FUTURE  POSSIBILITIES  OF 
THE  IRISH  RACE  IS  RE- 
SPECTFULLY DEDI- 
CATED 

BY  THE  EDITORS 


PREFACE. 

The  object  of  the  present  :work,  ^'Ireland's  Crown  of 
Thorns  and  Roses,"  or  studies  in  Irish  history,  is  to  present 
in  simple  form  an  outline  of  Ireland's  joy  and  sorrow  and  to 
stimulate  the  reader  to  a  deeper  study  of  Irish  affairs. 

It  has  been  the  constant  effort  of  the  compilers  not  to  en- 
cumber the  reader  with  a  mass  of  details,  but  to  sketch  events 
in  a  few  words  and  to  give  in  a  clear  and  connected  manner 
an  attractive  general  survey. 

The  present  work  places  in  connected  form  the  best 
thoughts  of  prominent  Irish  scholars,  bearing  on  the  great 
events  in  Ireland's  career. 

We  may  with  justice  repeat  here  the  following  sentences 
from  the  preface  of  O'Brennan's  Antiquities: 

"The  deeds  of  Greek  and  Latin  heroes  of  old  have  their 
names  emblazoned  in  the  pages  of  story ;  the  feuds  and  petty 
quarrels  of  their  insignificant  states  are  delineated  as  though 
they  were  great  wars  and  immense  nations ;  their  naval  arma- 
ments though  not  so  weighty  as  the  fishing  fleet  of  the  Galway 
Claddagh-men— perhaps  not  more  numerous— are  presented 
to  the  reader  in  such  highly  colored  langniage,  in  such  poetic 
ornamentation  that  youth  is  apt  to  compare  them  with  the 
Crimean  fleet  or  Spanish  Armada. 

**  Their  philosophers, lawgivers,  are,  and— no  doubt— justly 
held  up,  as  models  of  imitation.  At  the  same  time  we  seldom 
turn  to  Ollamh  Fodhla  (Ollav  Fyola)  who,  as  king,  legislator 
and  scholar,  was  never  surpassed.  As  you  take  a  walk 
through  the  delightful  works  on  Ireland  you  will  admire  on 
niches  on  either  side  of  you,  as  you  move  slowly  on,  men  dis- 
tinguished in  every  profession  and  pursuit,  kings,  princes, 
bards,  chroniclers,  generals,  admirals,  judges,  jirelates, 
priests,  orators,  senators.  In  fact,  Irish  history  is  a  glorious 
hall  of  science,  wherein  are  to  be  viewed  men  pre-eminent  in 
all  ages,  in  all  times  and  in  every  art  and  science. ' ' 

We  trust  that  this  volume  may  increase  the  interest  that  is 
now  so  general,  in  the  study  of  Irish  subjects. 

+  P.  J.  MuLDOON,  D.D.,  V.  G. 

Bishop  of  Tamasos. 

Feb'v  25,  1904. 


RIGHT  REV.  r.  J.  MULDOOX,  D.D.,  V.  G., 
Auxiliary  Bishop  of  Chicago. 


EDITORS'  NOTICE. 

WHAT  THE  BOOK  CONTAINS. — PLAN  OF  THE  WORK. 

It  can  be  safely  asserted  that  no  suck  book  as  the  present 
one  has  ever  before  been  offered  to  the  Irish- American  read- 
ing public.  It  is  more  than  a  history— more,  in  fact,  than  a 
collection  of  histories.  While  it  contains  the  cream  of  the 
best  and  most  interesting  Histories  of  Ireland  that  have  ever 
been  published,  it  is  also  a  collection  of  the  most  erudite  and 
absorbing  articles  on  live  Irish  questions  such  as  has  never 
yet  been  put  together  in  one  volume.  Not  a  worthless  line, 
not  an  unnecessary  word,  not  a  barren  idea  can  be  found  in 
it  from  cover  to  cover. 

It  has  more  than  once  been  said,  and  by  some  of  the  best- 
informed  in  literary  and  historical  circles,  that  the  worst 
feature— and  the  most  repellant  to  students— in  all  Irish  His- 
tories, and  indeed  the  same  applies  to  the  histories  of  other 
nations,  is  the  unwarrantably  large  space  given  to  accounts 
of  wars,  preparations  for  wars,  and  dry  enactments.  In  the 
case  of  Ireland,  there  is  scarcely  anything  to  record  from  a 
few  years  after  the  landing  of  Henry  the  Second  to  the  days 
of  the  Volunteers,  but  a  series  of  defeats— brightened  once 
in  a  while  by  a  few  glorious  victories,  years  of  religious  per- 
secution, and  the  slow  but  steady  encroachment  of  the  Saxon. 
The  Irish  people  have  had  sufficient  of  this  kind  of  reading 
and  if  Irish  History  is  not  half  as  popular  with  them  as  it 
should  be,  it  is  because  of  this  very  fact.  In  the  present  vol- 
ume, a  clean  sweep  has  been  made  of  the  great  bulk  of  the  dry 
and  uninteresting  matter  with  which  our  histories  are  filled. 

The  plan  of  the  work  may  be  briefly  described  as  follows : 

Section  I.  Ancient  Ireland.  (Covering  the  period  from 
the  coming  of  the  Milesians  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Danes.) 

Most  Rev.  John  Healy,  D.  D.,  Archbishop  of  Tuam. 
A.  M.  Sullivan,  Author  of  the  ''Story  of  Ireland,"  ''New 
Ireland,"  etc. 

Very  Rev.  Sylvester  Malone,  M.  R.  I.  A. 

Thomas  O'Neil  Russell,  Author  of  several  Gaelic  works. 


Editors'  Notice 

Section  II.  The  Nokman  Invasion.  ( Covering  tlie  period 
from  the  treachery  of  Dermot  MacMurrough  to  the  publication 
of  the  alleged  Bull  of  Pope  Adrian.) 

Martin  Haverty. 

Section  III.  The  Rising  of  '98.  (Being  a  full  history  of 
the  glorious  struggle  for  liberty  of  the  people  of  Wexford  and 
surrounding  counties  in  that  memorable  year.) 

Rev.  p.  F.  Kavanaugh,  0.  S.  F. 

Section  IV.  In  the  Days  of  Geattan.  (A  complete  his- 
tory of  the  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  with  pen 
pictures  of  the  leading  men  of  the  period,  and  a  description  of 
the  manners  and  customs  of  the  people  at  that  time.) 

Sir  Jonah  Barrington. 

Section  V.  The  Men  Who  Died  for  Ireland  in  '48  and 
'67.  (A  record  of  the  heroes  of  the  Young  Ireland  and  Fenian 
Movements,  with  a  brilliant  and  soul-stirring  description  of 
O'Neill  Crowley's  last  stand  for  Ireland.) 

M.  A.  Manning.  First  Editor  of  ''The  Dublin  Weekly 
Independent.  ' ' 

Section  VI.  Ireland's  Great  Constitutional  Battle  for 
Legislative  Independence.  (A  concise  but  complete  account 
of  the  Parnell  Movement,  with  character  sketches  of  its  most 
prominent  leaders.    Carried  down  to  the  present  time.) 

T.  p.  O'Connor,  M.  P. 

Section  VII.  The  Gaelic  League,  or  the  Work  of  Re- 
creating A  Nation.  (Scholarly  articles  on  the  mission  of  the 
movement,  and  its  steady  progress.  Brilliant  papers  on  Irish 
music  and  Irish  literature.) 

Right  Rev.  Patrick  O'Donnell,  Bishop  of  Raphoe. 

Very  Rev.  Dr.  O'Hickey,  Maynooth  College. 

Sir  Thomas  Henry  Grattan  Esmonde,  Bart.,  M.  P. 

Very  Rev.  Dr.  Richard  Henebry,  Ph.  D. 

Prof.  Kuno  Meyer,  Ph.  D. 

Thomas  O'Neil  Russell. 


Editors'  Notice 

Section  VIII.  Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions. 
(Sparkling  gems  from  the  jewel  house  of  Ireland's  unrivaled 
oratory.) 

Robert  Emmett. 

Thomas  Francis  Meagher. 

A.  M.  Sullivan. 

Charles  Stewart  Parnell. 

Thomas  Sexton. 

Rev.  Dr.  Charles  O'Reilly. 

Hon.  W.  Bourke  Cockran. 

John  F.  Finerty. 

The  editors  wish  to  state  that  the  works  of  Sir  Jonah  Bar- 
rington  and  Rev.  P.  F.  Kavanaugh  are  now  out  of  print  and 
can  only  be  had  in  this  volume.  The  notable  papers  by  Irish 
ecclesiastics  and  others  which  form  such  an  important  feature 
of  the  book  are  sure  to  be  received  with  enthusiastic  approba- 
tion by  all  scholarly  men  and  women.  The  high  standard  of 
the  writers,  the  interesting  nature  of  the  subjects  they  treat 
of,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  have  treated  them,  make  the 
book  worth  more  than  double  its  cost.  In  fact,  it  would  be  al- 
together impossible  for  the  average  purchaser  of  books  to 
obtain  the  same  amount  of  reading  matter,  on  the  same  ques- 
tion, and  of  the  same  quality,  for  five  times  the  amount. 

The  editors  therefore  anticipate  for  this  work  an  unpre- 
cedented sale.  It  is  by  far  the  greatest  book  of  its  kind  that 
has  ever  been  put  upon  the  market,  an  assertion  which  they 
feel  justified  in  making,  not  on  account  of  any  personal  part 
they  have  had  in  its  preparation,  but  because  of  the  distin- 
guished men  of  Irish  genius— some  dead,  but  many,  happily, 
still  in  the  land  of  the  living,  whose  names  adorn  its  pages, 
and,  further  because  of  the  intrinsic  worth  of  the  matter  they 
contribute— a  view  which  they  feel  sure  will  be  shared  in  by 
all  who  even  make  a  cursory  examination  of  its  contents. 

F.  J.  R.-P.  F.  H. 

November,  1903. 


TABLE  OF  PRINCIPAL  CONTENTS 


PAOB 


Dedication 3 

Preface 5 

Editors'  Notice 6 

Introduction 15 

Learning  in  Ireland  before  St.  Patrick 21 

Our    Milesian    Forefathers — The    Three    Queens    from 

WHOM  Ireland  Derived  Her  Poetical  Names 35 

Proofs  of  Ireland's  Early   Civilization — The  Triennial 

Parliament  of  Tara 39 

The  Free  and  the  Unfree  Clans — The  Romans  Afraid  to 

Land  in  Ireland 43 

King  Cormac  the  First — Nial  of  the  Nine  Hostages 74 

St.  Patrick  in  Ireland 49 

Ancient   Geographical   Divisions    of   the    Country — The 

National  Militia — The  Brehon  Laws 53 

The  Glorious  Muster  Roll  of  the  Irish  Saints — Coming 

OF  the  Danes 57 

Reign  of  the  Celebrated  King  Brian  Boru 61 

Dark  Times  in  Ireland  69 

The  Danes  Crushed — Ireland  ^'ICTORIous  at  Clontarf.  ...     73 

The  Leinster  Tribute ^. 81 

St.  Patrick's  Burial  Place 91 

Causes  that  Led  to  the    Nor.man    Invasion — Dermot  Mc 

Murrough's  Perfidy 103 

St.  Lawrence  O'Toole — Bravery  of  the  Northern  Princes 

— English  Law  Established  in  Ireland 117 

Description  of  Wexford  and  its  People — Making  Informers 

— Burning  of  Houses 133 

Father  John  Murphy — On  to  Oulart  Hill 147 

Battle  of  Oulart  Hill — Father  Michael  Murphy — Defeat 

OF  the  Meath  Militia 155 

Orangeism  in  Wexford — Councils  of  War 167 

Insurgents  Joined  by  Fathers  Roche  and  Kearns — Battle 

of  Ne^\town-Barry — Gorey  Surprised 177 

Battle  of  Ross — Bravery  of  an  Irish  Woman — ^A  Youthful 

Hero 187 

Insurgents  Acquire  Military  Discipline — The  Pike  Men.   199 

9 


10  Table  of  Principal  Contents 

PAGE 

Liberality  of  Wexford  Catholics — Severe  Measures  at 

Vinegar  Hill 203 

Battle  of  Arklow— Death  of  Father  Michael  Murphy  ...  213 

Battle  of  Fookes  Mill 221 

English  Government  Alarmed — Famous  Battle  of  Vinegar 

Hill 227 

Excitement  in  Wexford — Execution  of  Prisoners  on  the 

Bridge 235 

Retreat  from  Vinegar  Hill— Murder  of  Father  Roche  .  .  243 
Attack  on  Castlecomer— Capture  of  Father  John  Murphy  249 
Orangemen  Routed  at  Ballyrackeen — Vengeance  for  the 

Murder  of  Women  and  Children 255 

Battle  of  Ballygullen — Last  Stand  of  the  Gallant  Wex- 

fordmen 263 

Causes    of    Ireland's   Depressed  Condition — ^Aroused  by 

American  Independence 273 

The  Irish  Parliament  Previous  to  1779 — Character  of  the 

Irish    Peasant — Protestant    and    Catholic      Clergy 

Compared 285 

Ireland  Demands  Her  Rights 303 

Events  in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons — Character  of 

Grattan — Charlemont  and  the  Volunteers 315 

Humiliation  of  the  English  Government — ^The  Volunteers 

Gather  Strength 331 

The    Convention   at   Dungannon — Declaration    of   Irish 

Rights 343 

Grattan  Forces  the  Issue — Special  Call  of  the  House  of 

Commons — English  and  Irish  Parliaments  Compared.  .  359 
Triumph  of  Irish  Rights  Declaration  in  the  House  of 

Commons — Ireland  is  a  Nation 371 

England  Angered  at  Ireland's  Success — The  Volunteers 

Prepare  for  Action 383 

Credulity  of  the  Irish  Parliament — Popularity  of  Henry 

Grattan 395 

CoxMPARisoN  of  Grattan  and  Flood — Character  of  John 

Philpot  Curran 407 

Volunteers  Received  by  the  King — Ireland  Prosperous 

AND  Happy — Call  for  National  Convention. 421 

Brilliant  Scenes  at  the  National  Convention.. 433 

Heated  Sessions  in  the  Irish  Parliament 447 

English  and  Irish  Parliaments  Clash — Pitt  Working  for 
the  Union .^  .^, ._. . ,  ,^  ,^ ... ... ._.. ._,  -,,  459 


Table  of  Principal  Contents  11 


PAGE 


Ireland  Acts  on  Her  Independence— Agitation  for  Catho- 
lic Emancipation  Commenced 4G9 

French  Invasion  of  Ireland — "The  Races  of  Castlebar. "  i83 
Arguments  for  the  Union  in  Parliament — Violent  Speech 

BY  CaSTLEREAGH — PATRIOTISM   OF  SiR  JoHN    PaRNELL  .  .  .  .    497 

The  Union  Carried — Ireland  a  Nation  Extinguished 529 

The  Men  who  Died  for  Ireland 555 

O'Neill  Crowley's  Last  Stand 557 

The  Struggle  for  Home  Rule  587 

Isaac  Butt,  First  Home  Rule  Leader 591 

Butt's  Unsuitability 594 

Joe  Biggar's  " Active  Policy" 600 

Charles    Stewart     Parnell — History     of     the     Parnell 

Family 605 

Parnell  and  Biggar  Join  Hands 613 

Parnell's  Contempt  for  English  Parties 620 

Retirement  and  Death  of  Butt 626 

Michael  Davitt,  Father  of  the  Land  League 629 

Parnell's   Advice — "Keep   a   Firm  Grip   of   Your    Home- 
steads"    635 

Early  Life  of  Justin  McCarthy 640 

McCarthy's  Literary  and  Political  Career 644 

Thomas  Sexton,  "Silver  Tongued"  Orator 648 

Romantic  History  of  Arthur  O'Connor  652 

T.  D.  Sullivan,  Author  of  "God  Save  Ireland" 658 

James  O'Kelly,  Traveler,  Soldier,  Writer  and  Patriot.  .  662 

O'Kelly  in  Cuba,  and  with  the  Sioux 666 

John  Dillon  and  His  Patriotic  Family 670 

The  O'Gorman  Mahon,  Garrett  Byrne  and  Edward  Dwyer 

Gray  673 

Parnell  Elected  Irish  Leader 676 

House  of  Commons  Struggles  with  the  Irish  Question  . . .  683 

Parnell  Urges  the  Boycott  687 

Irish  Leaders  Placed  on  Trial  692 

The  Irrepressible  "Tim"  Healy  696 

Characteristics  of  Mr.  Healy 700 

William  O'Brien,  Founder  of  the  United  Irish  League.  .  .   704 
First   Home   Rule    Bill    Introduced    in    the    House   of 

Commons 709 

Home  Rule  Defeated 71 1 

The  L"'^nited  Irish  League 714 

Avondale,  Home  of  the  Parnells ; 715 


12  Table  of  Principal  Contents 


PAGB 


Recreating  a  Nation  ;  or,  The  Work  of  the  Gaelic  League  721 

Our  Language  Our  Noblest  Inheritance 724 

The  Language  of  Our  Sires _ _,  727 

Intellectual  Revival  in  Ireland .i.  735 

Irish  Music 745 

Survey  of  Celtic  Philology 750 

Irish  Manuscript  Literature 761 

Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions:  — 

Emmet's  Speech  in  the  Dock 771 

"Sword  Speech"  of  Thomas  F.  Meagher 775 

A.  M.  Sullivan  on  the  Manchester  Martyrs 776 

Parnell's  Defiance  to  Gladstone 781 

State  of  Ireland  in  1882,  by  Thomas  Sexton 782 

Rev.  Dr.  Chas.  O'Reilly's  Lecture  on  Thomas  Moore 799 

A  Plea  for  Ireland,  by  Hon.  W.  Bourke  Cockran 811 

Speech  of  the  Hon.  Jno.  F.  Finerty ,« .,^. ,..  832 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAOB 


King  Brian  Boru . _ Frontispiece 

W.   BOURKE   COCKRAN 3 

Right  Rev.  P.  J.  Muldoon,  D.D.,  V.G 5 

Rev.  Francis  L.  Reynolds 15 

St.  Patrick  Going  to  Tara 49 

Death  of  Brian  Boru 78 

Marriage  of  Eva  McMurrough  and  Earl  Strongbow Ill 

Rev.  p.  F.  Kavanaugh,  0.  S.  F 131 

Town  of  Wexford 135 

Enniscorthy 159 

New  Ross 187 

Vinegar  Hill .- 227 

A  Pikeman  of  '98 231 

Henry  Grattan 271 

John  Philpot  Curran « 417 

Daniel  O'Connell 555 

Robert  Emmet,  Thos.  A.  Emmet  and  W.  J.  McNevin 557 

Death  of  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald 559 

The  Brothers  Sheares,  and  Samuel  Neilson 561 

Theobald  Wolfe  Tone  and  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald 563 

Chas.  Stewart  Parnell 585 

John  E.  Redmond,  John  Dillon,  Thoinias  Sexton  and  Mich- 
ael Davitt 629 

Rev.  Michael  P.  O'Hickey,  D.  D.,  M.  R.,  I.  A 719 

Rev.  Dr.  Charles  O'Reilly 799 

Thomas  Moore .. . .  .^. ._.  806 

John  F.  Finerty ._.  .^ ...  .^  .i,  .^, ._. ...  .^.  .^  .^  .^  ...  .^  .^ ,« ._,  832 


13 


A  WORD  ABOUT  THE  COVER  DESIGN 

Doubtless  the  attention  of  the  purchaser  of  this  book  will  be 
at  once  attracted  by  the  unique  and  beautiful  design  on  the  cover, 
and  he  will  naturally  want  to  know  something  about  it. 

For  his  benefit  we  \Nish  to  say  that  the  border  surrounding  the 
figure  of  "Irish  Ireland"  is  copied,  with  some  modifications,  from 
an  illuminated  Irish  manuscript  called  the  "Book  of  MacDurnan, " 
executed  in  the  year  850,  and  still  preserved  with  all  the  original 
colors  as  fresh  and  bright  as  on  the  day  the  Irish  scribe  traced  them 
in  the  mellow  shadows  of  the  cloister.  This  class  of  work  and  its 
revival  is  receiving  much  attention  in  Ireland  at  present.  On  the 
same  order  of  merit  and  beauty  of  design  are  the  many  reproductions 
of  interlaced  work  from  the  "Book  of  Kells"  and  other  sources, 
placed  at  the  ends  of  chapters  throughout  this  narrative. 

Of  the  female  figure  it  can  be  safely  said  that  it  represents  the 
change  that  has  taken  place  in  Ireland  in  recent  years  by  the  propo- 
ganda  work  of  the  Gaelic  League.  Erin  weeping  beside  her  harp  is 
no  longer  a  true  representation  of  Ireland.  Our  artist,  Mr.  Gus 
O'Shaughnessy,  has  caught  the  correct  idea,  and  he  has  given  us  a 
figure  of  Ireland  hopeful,  courageous,  self-reliant  and  conscious  of 
her  own  resources,  strength  and  dignity.  One  hand  leans  upon  the 
harp  to  denote  Ireland's  love  of  music,  a  trait  that  has  distinguished 
her  for  generations,  while  the  other  holds  a  tablet,  indicative  of 
the  pre-eminence  of  the  Irish  nation  as  a  center  of  learning  in  the 
past,  and  conveying  the  suggestion  that,  through  education,  may 
be  found  the  remedies  for  the  many  ills  from  which  her  people  suffer. 

The  whole  design  is  strikingly  appropriate  on  a  book  such  as 
this,  and  like  a  flash  forces  the  comnction  on  the  observer  that  Ireland 
is  indeed  a  land  of  Art,  Literature  and  Music,  confirmatory  proof 
of  which  will  be  abundantly  found  inside  its  covers. 

Editors. 


14 


REV.  FRANCIS  L.  REYNOLDS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

There  is  no  study  that  should  so  naturally  interest  the 
people  of  any  nation  as  much  as  that  of  their  own  historj'. 
The  great  pulpit  orator,  Very  Kev.  Thomas  N.  Burke,  0.  P., 
in  his  lecture  on  "The  Future  of  the  Irish  Race  at  Home  and 
Abroad,"  has  truly  said  "Every  race,  every  i^eople  have  their 
own  history,  have  their  tale  to  tell  of  joj^  or  of  sorrow,  of  tri- 
umph and  of  shame;  and  among  the  great  family  of  nations 
we  Celtic  Irishmen  have  our  history  to  look  back  upon,  a  his- 
tory covering  many  centuries,  and  going  back  to  as  ancient 
and  honorable  a  source  as  any  j^eople  on  the  face  of  God's 
earth.  And  from  its  earliest  beginnings  down  to  the  present 
hour,  although  that  history  is  written  on  many  pages  in  tears 
and  in  blood,  and  although  it  tells  of  centuries  of  unavailing 
struggles  and  defeats,  and  of  a  people  ground  into  the  very 
dust,  it  is  still  a  history  of  which  no  Irishman  need  be 
ashamed— we  should  look  into  the  past  history  of  our  race, 
in  order  that  in  our  day  we  may  cultivate  all  that  made  our 
fathers  great  and  at  the  same  time,  taught  by  the  light  of  past 
experience,  avoid  the  mistakes  into  which  they  fell."  As  it 
is  with  religion,  so  is  it  also  with  patriotism.  The  more  we 
study  and  understand  our  religion,  the  more  religious  we  be- 
come ;  and  the  more  we  study  and  understand  our  history  the 
more  patriotic  we  become.  It  is  for  this  very  reason  that 
some  of  the  most  intellectual  and  far-seeing  men  of  our  race 
have  many  times  called  attention  to  the  lack  of  study  of  Irish 
history  by  the  youth  at  home  and  abroad ;  knowing  well  that 
this  deplorable  neglect  will  result  in  the  present  and  future 
generations  forgetting  and  even  repudiating  their  glorious 
ancestry.  What  citizen  of  America  is  not  made  more  in- 
tensely patriotic  by  the  study  of  American  history,  of  its  prov- 
idential discovery  by  Columbus,  of  the  development  of  her 
colonies;  of  the  Revolutionary  war;  of  her  seven  years*  strug- 
gle for  independence;  of  Lexington,  Bunker  Hill,  Valley 
Forge  and  Yorktown;  of  her  glorious  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence ;  and  of  her  Star  Spangled  Banner  proudly  floating 
on  the  breezes  of  heaven  and  proclaiming  to  the  world  Equal- 
ity and  Liberty  to  the  oppressed  of  all  nations? 

And  what  Irishman,  studying  the  pages  of  Irish  history  is 

15 


16  iN'rnuDi  (TiuN 

not  thrilled  by  tlie  antiquity  and  sublimity  of  ber  Civilization 
even  many  centuries  before  Christianity,  her  ancient  liter- 
ature, wealth,  manufacture  and  commerce  famed  in  all  the 
marts  and  ports  of  Europe ;  her  bards  and  learned  men  whose 
place  of  honor  at  her  assemblies  was  assigned  next  to  her 
Kings;  her  great  military  power  under  Niall  of  the  Nine 
Hostages  recognized  all  over  Europe ;  her  parliamentary  con- 
stitutions of  Tara  which  form  the  basis  of  parliamentary  pro- 
cedure even  to  the  present  day!  Of  Ireland  the  venerable 
Arch  Ollamb  writes:  *'0  Erin,  thy  granaries  are  full,  thy 
children  are  happy,  thy  daughters  are  virtuous,  thy  sons  are 
brave,  thy  old  men  are  wise,  thy  rulers  are  just,  and  thy  homes 
are  in  peace. ' '  And  since  the  dawn  of  Christianity  in  Ireland 
W^at  nation  presents  a  grander  history? 

Almost  from  the  very  beginning  of  St.  Patrick's  mission 
her  Kings,  her  warriors,  and  her  wise-men  recognized  in  him 
a  divine  messenger.  They  listened  with  reverence  as  he  told 
them  of  the  one  true  God.  How  he  came  down  from  heaven 
and  was  born  of  an  humble  Virgin  in  Bethlehem's  manger. 
How  he  lived  on  earth  in  poverty  and  misery ;  how  he  gave 
sight  to  the  blind,  hearing  to  the  deaf  and  speech  to  the  dumb. 
And  oh !  how  they  listened  with  breathless  silence  as  he  told 
them  of  the  ingratitude  of  man  for  such  benefits— of  the  dark 
sea  of  sorrow  and  anguish— of  his  passion  and  his  crucifixion 
by  those  whom  he  had  so  often  befriended.  The  recital  of 
such  wrongs  was  too  much  for  their  noble  natures  to  endure. 
Tradition  tells  us  how  they  drew  their  swords  and  with 
mighty  indignation  exclaimed:  "Oh,  that  we  were  there  to 
avenge  the  death  of  this  mild  and  this  merciful  Lord."  Yes, 
they  listened  and  they  loved.  They  loved  a  religion  which 
corresponded  to  the  natural  inclinations  and  aspirations  of 
this  noble  race,  and  they  vowed  that  never— no  never,  would 
they  abandon  the  religion  which  Patrick  had  brought  them. 
And  thus,  from  the  tall  and  stately  halls  of  Tara  down  to 
the  poorest  cottage,  from  the  proudest  chieftain  down  to  the 
humblest  clansman,  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land,  did  the  pure  light  of  Christian  faith  shine  forth  with 
noon-day  splendor.  Monasteries,  convents  and  seats  of 
learning  sprang  up  on  all  sides,  and  many  of  her  Princes  and 
high  born  dames  and  maidens,  forsaking  the  world,  sought  in 
the  cloister  that  happiness  the  world  could  never  give. 

Her  fair  valleys  and  smiling  plains,  her  steep  mountains 
and  shady  glens  were  adorned  with  religious  institutions.  The 


LsThourcrioN  17 

clear  tones  oi  cue  vesper  bell  resounded  from  hill  to  bill.  A 
continuous  praise  was  sent  up  to  the  throne  of  the  Almighty 
and  Ireland  became  the  "Isle  of  saints  and  scholars."  The 
fame  of  her  learning  spread  throughout  the  distant  countries 
of  Europe  and  thousands  of  pupils  thirsting  for  knowledge 
came  to  drink  it  in  at  its  fountain  head.  Monarchs  and 
Princes  invited  her  professors  to  civilize  their  countries,  to 
found  their  universities  and  preside  over  their  colleges,  and 
Ireland  became  the  instructress  of  Europe. 

In  Pagan  times  Ireland  sent  her  soldiers  all  over  Europe ; 
in  Christian  times  she  sent  her  Missionaries.  Where  her 
warriors  carried  the  sword  her  missionaries  carried  the  cross 
and  planted  it  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  sun. 

And  studying  the  political  phase  of  Irish  history,  what 
student  is  not  amazed  at  the  almost  super-human  struggle  for 
liberty  which  her  people  waged  for  centuries  against  the 
most  ferocious  tyranny  and  oppression?  History  tells  us, 
that  for  more  than  seven  hundred  years  the  swords  of  Ire- 
land's sons  were  never  sheathed! 

In  that  great  struggle  for  national  existence  what  a  glor- 
ious history  Ireland  presents,  what  examples  of  noble  brav- 
ery and  self-sacrifice,  what  fidelity  to  God  and  Country,  what 
loyalty  to  honor  and  manly  principle,  what  patient  resigna- 
tion in  hunger  and  privations  and  above  all,  what  purity  and 
virtue  on  the  part  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Ireland !  The 
names  of  O'Neill  and  O'Donnell,  of  Sarsfield  and  Wolfe  Tone, 
of  Grattan  and  O'Connell,  of  Fitzgerald,  Emmet,  and  Parnell, 
with  a  host  of  others  who  in  their  own  sphere  were  equally 
famous,  present  a  galaxy  of  warriors  and  statesmen  un- 
equalled, much  less  surpassed  by  any  other  nation.  True, 
they  have  not  been  always  successful  even  though  many  of 
them  sacrificed  their  lives  upon  Freedom's  altar  and  for  that 
reason,  and  sometimes  also  because  they  were  Irishmen,  the 
world  occasionally  minimizes  their  praises.  To  use  a  famil- 
iar phrase— ''Nothing  succeeds  like  success."  Had  Washing- 
ton failed  in  his  struggle  for  freedom  he  might  have  been 
looked  upon  as  a  rash  revolutionist  aspiring  for  personal 
honor,  but  because  he  succeeded  the  world  accords  to  him  the 
glory  he  so  justly  deserves ;  and  if  the  different  revolutionary 
leaders  in  Ireland  succeeded,  no  doubt  they  also  would  be 
looked  upon  as  Washingtons,  Jeffersons  and  Franklins.  But 
whether  they  succeeded  or  not  they  will  for  ever  live  en- 
shrined in  the  hearts  of  their  countrymen,  and  they  have  given 


18  Introduction 

not  only  to  Ireland  but  to  the  wliole  world  the  most  brilliant 
examples  of  matchless  eloquence,  indomitable  bravery  and 
uncompromising  patriotism. 

Their  memories  will  forever  keep  alive  the  flame  of  liberty 
in  the  hearts  of  Irishmen  until  England  is  forced  to  pay  hom- 
age at  their  shrines. 

What  impresses  the  student  of  Irish  history  perhaps  more 
than  anything  else,  is  England's  policy  of  persistent  tyranny 
and  persecution  of  Ireland  from  the  days  of  Henry  II  down 
to  the  present  day.  And  even  when  England  was  forced  to 
grant  any  concessions  to  Ireland  she  always  did  so  in  such  a 
mean  and  contemptible  manner  as  to  spoil  the  good  effects  it 
might  have  produced.  This  evidently  arises  either  from  ig- 
norance or  misconception  of  Irish  character,  or  else  from  a 
determination  to  keep  the  people  of  Ireland  in  poverty,  ignor- 
ance and  dis-union,  in  order  the  better  and  easier  to  keep  them 
under  her  yoke.  This  has  been  the  blindest  policy  England 
ever  pursued.  She  ought  to  have  discovered  long  ago  that 
she  can  never  rule  Ireland  by  tyranny,  and  that  if  she  had 
treated  the  people  of  Ireland  with  even  partial  justice  they 
would  have  been  not  onl}"  her  best  friends  but  also  her  staunch- 
est  allies  and  defenders.  Henry  Grattan  in  his  famous  speech 
in  favor  of  a  native  Parliament  for  Ireland  in  1782  said:  ''Let 
other  nations  basely  suppose  that  people  were  made  for  gov- 
ernments. Ireland  had  declared  that  govermnents  were  made 
for  the  people,  and  even  crowns,  those  great  luminaries,  whose 
brightness  they  all  reflect,  can  receive  their  cheering  fire  only 
from  the  pure  flame  of  a  free  constitution.  England  has  the 
plea  of  necessity  for  acknowledging  the  independence  of 
America.  For  admitting  Irish  independence  she  has  the  plea 
of  justice.  America  has  shed  much  English  blood  and  Amer- 
ica is  to  be  set  free.  Ireland  sheds  her  own  blood  for  England 
and  is  Ireland  to  remain  in  fetters  1  Is  Ireland  to  be  the  only 
nation  whose  liberty  England  will  not  acknowledge  and  whose 
affections  she  cannot  subdue?  We  have  received  the  Civic 
crown  from  our  people,  and  shall  we,  like  slaves,  lay  it  down 
at  the  feet  of  British  supremacy?" 

The  present  volume,  entitled  ''Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns 
and  Roses,"  supplies  a  long-felt  want  in  the  study  of  Irish 
literature.  In  many  works  on  the  same  subject,  the  reader  is 
liable  to  get  lost  in  the  maze  of  a  remote  antiquity,  and  in  a 
vast  confusion  of  names  and  dates,  but  all  these  disagreeable 
features  have  been  almost  entirely  eliminated  from  the  pres- 


iNTnODUCTTOM 


19 


ent  work.  It  docs  not  become  tiresome  or  monotonous,  and 
the  reader  does  not  feel  like  putting  it  aside,  for  it  sustains 
an  intense  interest  from  beginning  to  end.  It  is  as  the  author 
has  well  said  in  his  title-page,  ''The  Best  of  Irish  Histoiy  by 
the  best  of  Irehmd's  writers,  and  reads  as  entertainingly  as  a 
novel." 

The  brilliant  array  of  writers  and  orators  in  connection 
with  the  present  work  ought  to  be  its  highest  recommendation, 
for  they  are  men  of  profound  learning,  and  international 
fame.  Their  very  names  are  enough  to  adorn  the  pages  of 
any  book,  and  there  is  no  Irish  or  Irish -American  family 
which  should  not  possess,  and  above  all,  study  a  work  of  this 
kind. 

Francis  L.  Reynolds,  P.  P., 

Holy  Angel's  Church. 

Aurora,  111.,  May  15,  1904. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


SECTION  I. 


ANCIENT  IRELAND 


BY 


MOST  REV.  JOHN  HEALY,  D.  D.,  Archbishop  of  Tuam 

A.  M.  SULLIVAN,  Author  of  the  "Story  of  Ireland,"  "New  Ireland,"  Etc. 

VERY  REV.  SYLVESTER  MALONE,  M.  R.  I.  A. 

THOMAS  O'NEIL  RUSSELL,  Author  of  several  Gaelic  works 

CONTAINING 

FULL  ACCOUNT  OF  OUR  MILESIAN  ANCESTORS— LEARNING 
IN  IRELAND  BE1-X)RE  ST.  PATRICK— COMING  OF 
ST.  PATRICK— THE  LEINSTER  TRIBUTE- 
DEFEAT    OF    THE    DANES  — ST. 
PATRICK'S  BURIAL  PLACE 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER. 

Learning  in  Ireland  Before  St.  Patrick, 
by  most  rev.  john  healy,  d.  d.,  archbishop  of  tuam. 

Many  writers  have  asserted  that  there  \Nas  not  only  no 
literary  culture  of  any  kind  in  Ireland  before  the  time  of  8t. 
Patrick,  but  that  even  the  use  of  written  characters  was  quite 
unknown  in  pre-Christian  Ireland.  We  have  no  intention  of 
discussing  this  wide  question  in  all  its  various  aspects.  We 
think,  however,  without  becoming  too  learned,  it  can  be  clearly 
shown,  by  examining  the  history  of  even  one  single  monarch, 
that  considerable  progress  had  been  made  in  pagan  Ireland 
both  in  the  arts  of  war  and  peace  at  least  two  centuries  before 
the  advent  of  St.  Patrick  to  our  shores. 

The  reign  of  Cormac  Mac  Art  furnishes,  perhaps,  the  most 
interesting  chapter  in  the  history  of  pre-Christian  Ireland. 
He  was,  we  think,  the  greatest  king  that  ever  reigned  in  ancient 
Erin.  He  was,  as  our  poets  tell  us,  a  sage,  a  judge,  and  a 
scholar,  as  well  as  a  great  king  and  a  skilful  warrior.  His 
reign  furnished,  indeed,  many  rich  themes  for  the  romantic 
poets  and  story-tellers  of  subsequent  ages,  in  which  they 
greatly  indulged  their  perfervid  Celtic  indignation.  But  the 
leading  facts  of  his  reign  are  all  within  the  limits  of  authentic 
history,  and  are  provable  by  most  satisfactoiy  evidence 

Cormac  was  the  son  of  Art,  the  Solitary,  or  the  Melan- 
choly, as  he  is  sometimes  called,  and  was  grandson  of  the  cele- 
brated Conn  the  Hundred-Fighter.  Hence  he  is  sometimes 
called  Cormac  O'Cuinn,  as  well  as  Cormac  Mac  Art.  His 
father  was  slain  about  the  year  A.  D.  195,  in  the  great  battle 
of  Magh  Mucruimhe  where,  as  at  the  battle  of  Aughrim  in 
the  same  county,  a  kingdom  was  lost  and  won.  Magh  Muc- 
ruimhe was  the  ancient  name  of  the  great  limestone  plain  ex- 
tending from  Atheniy  towards  Oranmore ;  and  the  spot  where 
King  Art  was  killed  has  been  called  Tulach  Art  even  down  to 
our  own  times.  It  was  between  Oranmore  and  Kilcornan,  and 
close  to  the  townland  of  Moyvaela.  The  victor  in  this  great 
battle  was  Lughaidh,  surnamed  Mac  Con,  who  had  been  for 
many  years  a  refugee  in  Britain,  and  now  returned  with  a 
king  of  that  country  and  a  host  of  foreigners  to  wi-est  the 
kingdom  from  Art,  who  was  his  maternal  uncle.    The  flower 

21 


22  Introductory  Chapter 

of  the  chivalry  of  Munster  iDerished  also  on  that  fatal  field; 
for  the  seven  sons  of  Oilioll  Olum  who  had  come  to  assist 
King  Art,  their  mother's  brother,  were  slain  to  a  man  on  the 
field  or  in  the  rout  that  followed. 

Fortunately  for  young  Cormac,  the  king's  son,  he  was  at 
that  time  at  fosterage  in  Connaught,  probably  with  Nia  Mor, 
who  was  his  cousin,  and  one  of  the  sub-kings  of  the  province  at 
that  time.  So  Mac  Con,  the  usurper,  found  no  obstacle  to 
prevent  him  assuming  the  sovereignty  of  Tara;  and  we  are 
told  that  he  reigned  some  thirty  years,  from  A,  D.  196  to  A.  D. 
226.   , 

Meantime  young  Cormac  was  carefully  trained  in  all  mar- 
tial exercises,  as  well  as  in  all  the  learning  befitting  a  king, 
until  he  came  to  man's  estate.  Then  he  came  to  Tara  in  dis- 
guise, and  according  to  one  account,  was  employed  in  herding 
the  sheep  of  a  poor  widow,  who  lived  close  to  Tara,  when 
some  of  the  sheep  were  seized  for  trespassing  on  the  queen's 
private  green  or  lawn.  When  this  case  of  trespass  was 
brought  before  the  king  in  his  court  on  the  western  slope  of 
the  Hill  of  Tara,  he  adjudged  that  the  sheep  should  be  for- 
feited for  the  trespass.  ''No,"  said  Cormac,  who  was  pres- 
ent, *  *  the  sheep  have  only  eaten  of  the  fleece  of  the  land,  and 
in  justice  their  own  fleece  only  should  be  forfeited  for  that 
trespass."  The  bystanders  murmured  their  approval,  and 
even  Mac  Con  himself  cried  out:  ''It  is  the  judgment  of  a 
king,"  for  kings  were  supposed  to  possess  a  kind  of  inspira- 
tion in  giving  their  decisions.  But  immediately  recognizing 
Cormac,  whom  he  knew  to  be  in  the  country,  he  tried  to  seize 
him  on  the  spot.  But  Cormac  leaped  the  mound  of  the  Claen- 
fert,  and  not  only  succeeded  in  effecting  his  escape,  but  also 
in  raising  such  a  body  of  his  and  his  father's  friends,  that  he 
was  able  to  drive  the  usurper  from  Tara.  Mac  Con  fled  to  his 
own  relatives  in  the  South  of  Ireland,  where  he  was  shortly 
afterward  killed,  at  a  place  called  Gort-an-Oir,  near  Cahir, 
in  the  County  Tipperary. 

So  Cormac,  disciplined  in  adversity,  came  to  the  throne  in 
the  year  227  A.  D.,  according  to  the  Four  Masters.  During 
the  earlier  years  of  his  reign  he  was  engaged  in  continual 
wars  with  the  provincial  kings,  who  had  yet  to  learn  that  Cor- 
mac was  their  master  in  fact  as  well  as  in  right.  We  are 
told  that  he  fought  no  less  than  fifty  battles  against  the  pro- 
vincial kings  to  vindicate  his  own  position  as  High  King  of 
Erin.    The  accurate  Tierhernach  furnishes  us  with  brief  no- 


Intkoductouy  Chapter  23 

tices  of  these  various  ])attles  against  these  refractory  sub- 
kings.  In  one  year  he  fought  three  battles  against  the  Ulton- 
ians.  In  another  he  fought  four  times  against  the  Momon- 
ians.  The  Leinster  King  Dunlaing,  taking  advantage  of  Cor- 
mac's  absence  from  Tara,  attacked  the  royal  ratli  itself,  and 
wantonly  slaughtered  thirty  noble  maidens  with  their  atten- 
dants—thirty for  each— who  lived  in  a  separate  building  on 
the  north-western  slope  of  Tara.  Cormac  promptly  avenged 
this  awful  massacre  by  invading  Leinster,  and  putting  to 
death  twelve  sub-kings  of  that  province,  and  besides  he  in- 
creased and  enforced  the  payment  of  the  ancient  Borrumeau 
or  cow-tribute  imposed  by  his  predecessors  on  that  province. 
The  Ultonians,  however,  were  his  most  inveterate  foes;  and 
twice,  it  seems,  they  succeeded  in  deposing  him,  that  is,  in 
driving  him  for  some  months  from  Tara.  At  length,  however, 
the  king  gained  a  complete  victory  over  his  northern  rivals, 
with  the  aid  of  Tadhg,  a  grandson  of  Oilioll  Olum,  and  his 
Munster  auxiliaries.  Cormac  rewarded  the  Munster  hero  by 
giving  him,  as  he  had  promised,  as  much  of  the  territory  of 
Meath  as  Tadhg  could  drive  round  in  his  chariot  from  the 
close  of  the  battle  till  sunset.  The  veteran  hero,  spent  with 
loss  of  blood  and  battle  toil,  still  contrived  to  drive  his  chariot 
I'ound  a  district  extending  from  Duleek  to  the  Liffey,  which 
was  afterwards  called  Ciinachta— the  land  of  Cian's  descend- 
ants. Tadhg 's  father  was  a  Cian,  son  of  Oilioll  Olum,  hence 
the  name. 

Cormac,  now  undisputed  master  of  his  kingdom,  took 
measures  to  preserve  the  public  peace  and  secure  the  prosper- 
ity of  his  dominions.  He  was  the  first,  and  we  may  also  say, 
the  last  king  of  Erin,  who  maintained  a  standing  army  to 
check  the  arrogance  of  his  turbulent  sub-kings.  This  Fenian 
militia  was,  it  is  said,  modeled  after  the  Eoman  legions  which 
CoiTnac  might  have  seen  or  heard  of  at  the  time  in  Britain. 
They  were  quartered  on  the  people  in  winter ;  but  in  summer 
they  lived  on  the  produce  of  the  chase,  and  gave  all  their  leis- 
ure to  martial  exercises.  By  this  means  they  became  most 
accomplished  in  all  feats  of  arms,  and  the  fame  of  these  Fen- 
ian heroes  has  come  down  to  our  own  time  in  the  li^dng  tradi- 
tions of  the  people.  The  celebrated  Finn  Mac  Cumhail  was 
their  general— a  poet,  too,  it  was  said,  he  was,  and  a  scholar, 
as  well  as  a  renowned  warrior.  Ossian,  the  hero-poet,  was  his 
son,  and  the  brave,  gentle  Oscar,  who  fell  in  the  fatal  field  of 
(ravra,  was  his  grandson.    We  are  told,  too,  that  Cormac  kept 


24  Introductory  Chapter 

a  fleet  on  the  sea  for  three  years,  and  doubtless  swept  away 
the  pirate  ships  of  Britain  and  the  islands  that  used  to  make 
descents  from  time  to  time  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Ireland. 

But  it  is  with  the  literary  history  of  King  Cormac's  reign 
we  are  most  concerned,  and  to  this  we  invite  the  special  at- 
tention of  the  reader.  His  first  work  was  to  re-establish  the 
ancient  Feis  of  Tara. 

Tara  even  then  had  been  the  residence  of  the  High  Kings 
of  Erin  from  immemorial  ages.  Slainge,  the  first  king  of 
the  Firboigs,  was  its  reputed  founder,  and  all  the  kings  of 
that  colony,  as  well  as  of  the  Tuatha  de  Danaan  and  the 
Milesian  race,  had  generally  dwelt  on  the  same  royal  hill. 
OUamh  Fodhia,  one  of  the  most  renowned  kings  in  the  bar- 
dic history,  "reigned  forty  years  and  died  in  his  own  house 
at  Tara."  It  is  said  that  this  king  was  the  first  who  con- 
vened the  great  Feis  of  Tara  to  legislate  in  solemn  assembly 
for  all  the  tribes  of  Erin.  0 'Flaherty  adds  that  the  same 
ancient  monarch  founded  a  "Mur  Ollamhan"  or  college  of 
learned  doctors  at  Tara;  but  Petrie  could  find  no  authority 
for  this  statement  except  the  term  ''Mur  Ollamhan,"  which 
might,  however,  simply  mean  the  mur,  or  fortified  house  of 
Ollamh  Fodhia  himself. 

During  the  shadow}^  period  that  follows  down  to  the  Chris- 
tian era,  we  hear  little  of  Tara,  even  in  the  bardic  history. 
An  undoubtedly  historical  king,  Tuathal  Teachtmar,  about 
the  year  85  of  the  Christian  era,  took  a  portion  of  each  of  the 
four  provinces  to  make  a  mensal  demesne  for  the  High  King 
of  Tara.  He  convened  the  states  of  the  kingdom,  too,  on  the 
royal  hill  in  solemn  assembly,  and  induced  the  assembled 
kings  and  chiefs  to  swear  on  all  the  elements  that  they  would 
always  yield  obedience  to  the  princes  of  his  race. 

The  Feis  of  Tara,  then,  was  in  existence  before  the  time 
of  Cormac,  but  it  was  seldom  convened  and  had  almost  fallen 
into  disuse.  Cormac  it  was  who  made  arrangements  for  the 
regular  meetings  of  this  great  parliament  of  the  nation,  and 
provided  adequate  accommodation  for  the  assembled  notables. 
Here  we  are  on  firm  historic  ground,  and  can  enter  into  more 
minute  details  with  security. 

The  object  of  this  Feis  of  Tara  was  mainly  three-fold. 
First,  to  enact  and  promulgate  what  was  afterwards  called  the 
cain-law,  which  was  obligatory  in  all  the  territories  and  tribes 
of  the  kingdom,  as  distinguished  from  the  urradhas,  or  local 
law.    Secondly,  to  test  and  sanction  the  x\nnals  of  Erin.    For 


Introductory  Chapter  25 

this  purpose  the  local  Seanachies  or  historians  brought  in  a 
record  of  the  notable  events  that  took  place  in  their  own  terri- 
tories. These  were  publicly  read  for  the  assembly,  and  when 
duly  authenticated  were  entered  on  the  great  record  of  the 
King  of  Tara,  called  afterwards  the  ''Saltair  of  Tara." 
Thirdly,  to  record  in  the  same  great  national  record  the  gene- 
alogies of  the  ruling  families,  to  assess  the  taxes,  and  settle 
all  cases  of  disputed  succession  among  the  tribes  of  the  king- 
dom. Too  often  was  this  done  by  the  strong  hand;  but  it 
was  Cormac's  idea  to  fix  the  succession,  as  far  as  possible, 
according  to  definite  principles  amongst  the  ruling  families. 
The  neglect  of  a  strong  central  government  to  enforce  this 
most  wise  provision  was  one  main  cause  of  the  subsequent 
distracted  state  of  the  kingdom. 

This  great  national  assembly,  convened  for  these  pur- 
poses, met  once  every  three  years.  The  session  continued 
for  a  week,  beginning  the  third  day  before,  and  ending  the 
third  day  after  November  Day.  When  so  many  turbulent 
chieftains,  oftentimes  at  feud  amongst  themselves,  met  to- 
gether, it  was  necessary  to  keep  the  peace  of  Tara  by  very 
stringent  regulations,  enforced  under  the  most  rigorous  pen- 
alties. It  is  to  Cormac's  prudent  forethought  we  owe  these 
regulations,  which  were  afterwards  inviolably  observed  as 
the  law  of  Tara.  Every  provincial  king  and  every  sub-king 
had  his  own  fixed  place  alloted  to  him  near  the  High  King 
by  the  Marshals  of  Tara ;  and  every  chief  was  bound  to  take 
his  seat  under  the  place  where  his  shield  was  hung  upon  the 
wall.  Brawling  was  strictly  forbidden,  and  to  wound  another 
was  a  capital  crime. 

In  order  to  provide  suitable  accommodation  for  this  great 
assembly,  Cormac  erected  the  Teach  Miodhchuarta,  which 
was  capable  of  accommodating  1,000  persons,  and  was  at  once 
a  parliament  house,  banquet  hall  and  hotel.  We  have  two 
accounts  of  this  great  building,  as  well  as  of  the  monuments 
at  Tara,  written  about  nine  hundred  years  ago— one  in  poetry, 
the  other  in  prose.  The  statements  made  by  these  ancient 
writers  have  been  verified  in  every  essential  point  by  the 
measurements  of  the  officers  of  the  Ordnance  Survey,  who 
were  enabled  from  these  documents  to  fix  the  position  and 
identity  of  all  these  ancient  monuments  at  Tara. 

"The  Teacli  Miodhchuarta/'  says  the  old  prose  writer  in 
the  Dinnseanclius,  ''is  to  the  north-west  of  the  eastern  mound. 
The  ruins  of  this  house— it  was  then  in  ruins—are  situate 


26  Introductory  Chapter 

thus :  the  lower  part  to  the  north  and  the  higher  part  to  the 
south;  and  walls  are  raised  about  it  to  the  east  and  to  the 
west.  The  northern  side  of  it  is  enclosed  and  small,  the  lie 
of  it  is  north  and  south.  It  is  in  the  form  of  a  long  house, 
with  twelve  doors  upon  it,  or  fourteen,  seven  to  the  west  and 
seven  to  the  east.  This  was  the  great  house  of  a  thousand 
soldiers.''  We  ourselves  have  lunched  on  the  grass-green 
floor  of  this  once  famous  hall,  and  we  can  of  our  own  knowl- 
edge testify  to  the  accuracy  of  this  ancient  writer.  The  open- 
ings for  the  doors  can  still  be  traced  in  the  enclosing  mound, 
and,  curiously  enough,  one  is  so  nearly  obliterated  that  it  is 
difficult  still  to  say  whether  there  were  six  or  seven  openings 
on  each  side.  The  building  was  seven  hundred  and  sixty  feet 
long,  and  originally  nearly  ninety  feet  wide,  according  to 
Petrie's  measurements.  There  was  a  double  row  of  benches 
on  each  side,  running  the  entire  length  of  the  hall.  In  the 
centre  there  was  a  number  of  fires  in  a  line  between  the 
benches,  and  over  the  fires  there  was  a  row  of  spits  depending 
from  the  roof,  at  which  a  large  number  of  joints  might  be 
roasted.  There  is  in  the  Book  of  Leinster  a  ground-plan  of 
the  building,  and  the  rude  figure  of  a  cook  in  the  centre  turning 
the  spit  with  his  mouth  open,  and  a  ladle  in  his  hand  to  baste 
the  joint. 

The  king  of  Erin  took  his  place  at  the  head  of  the  hall  to 
the  south,  surrounded  by  the  provincial  kings.  The  nobles 
and  officers  were  arranged  on  either  side  according  to  their 
dignity,  down  to  the  lowest,  or  northern  end  of  the  hall,  which 
was  crowded  with  butlers,  scullions  and  retainers.  They 
slept  at  night  under  the  couches  or  sometimes  upon  them. 

The  appearance  of  Cormac  at  the  head  of  this  great  hall 
is  thus  described  in  an  extract  copied  into  the  Book  of  Bally- 
mote  from  the  older  and  now  lost  Book  of  Navan : 

**  Beautiful  was  the  appearance  of  Cormac  in  that  assem- 
bly. Flowing  and  slightly  curling  was  his  golden  hair.  A  red 
buckler  with  stars  and  animals  of  gold,  and  fastenings  of  sil- 
ver upon  him.  A  crimson  cloak  in  wide  descending  folds 
around  him,  fastened  at  his  neck  with  precious  stones.  A  neck 
torque  of  gold  around  his  neck.  A  white  shirt  with  a  full  col- 
lar, and  intertwined  with  red  gold  thread,  upon  him.  A  girdle 
of  gold  inlaid  with  precious  stones  was  around  him.  Two 
wonderful  shoes  of  gold,  with  golden  loops,  upon  his  feet.  Two 
spears  with  golden  sockets  in  his  hands,  with  many  rivets  of 


Introductory  Chapter  27 

red  bronze.     And  he  was  liimself  besides  symmetrical  and 
beautiful  of  form,  without  blemish  or  reproach." 

This  might  be  deemed  a  purely  imaginary  description  if 
the  collection  of  antiquities  in  the  Royal  Irish  Academy  did 
not  prove  beyond  doubt  that  similar  golden  ornaments  to  those 
referred  to  in  this  passage  were  of  frequent  use  in  Ireland. 
In  the  year  1810  two  neck  torques  of  purest  gold  similar  to 
those  described  above  were  found  on  the  Hill  of  Tara  itself, 
and  are  now  to  be  seen  in  the  Academy's  collection. 

"Alas,"  says  an  old  writer,  "Tara  to-day  is  desolate,  it 
is  a  green,  grassy  land,  but  it  was  once  a  noble  hill  to  view, 
the  mansion  of  warlike  heroes,  in  the  days  of  Cormac  O'Cuinn 
—when  Cormac  was  in  his  glory." 

Everything  at  Tara,  even  its  present  desolation,  is  full  of 
interest,  and  reminds  us  of  the  days  "when  Cormac  was  in  his 
glory."  His  house  is  there  within  the  circle  of  the  great  Rath 
na  EiogU.  The  mound  where  he  kept  his  hostages  may  still  be 
seen  beside  his  Kath.  The  stream  issuing  from  the  well 
Neamhnach,  on  which  he  built  the  first  mill  in  Ireland  for  his 
handmaiden,  Ciarnaid,  to  spare  her  the  labor  of  grinding  with 
the  quern,  still  flows  down  the  eastern  slope  of  Tara  Hill,  and 
still,  says  Petrie,  turns  a  mill.  Even  the  well  on  the  western 
slope  beside  which  Cormac 's  cuchtair,  or  kitchen,  was  built, 
has  been  discovered.  The  north-western  claenfert,  or  decliv- 
ity, where  he  corrected  the  false  judgment  of  King  Mac  Con 
about  the  trespass  of  the  widow's  sheep,  may  still  be  traced. 
The  Rath  of  his  Mother,  Maeve,  may  be  seen  not  far  from 
Tara,  and  to  the  west  of  the  Teach  Miodhchuarta  may  be 
noticed  Rath  Graine,  the  sunny  palace  of  his  daughter,  the 
faithless  spouse  of  Finn  Mac  Cumhail. 

O^Flaherty  tells  us  on  the  authority  of  an  old  poem  found 
in  the  Book  of  Shane  Mor  O'Dugan,  who  flourished  about 
1390,  that  Cormac  founded  three  schools  at  Tara— one  for 
teaching  the  art  of  war,  the  second  for  the  study  of  history, 
and  the  third  was  a  school  of  jurisprudence.  This  is  ex- 
tremely probable,  especially  as  Cormac  himself  was  an  accom- 
plished scholar  in  all  these  sciences.  This  brings  us  to  the 
literary  works  attributed  to  Cormac  Mac  Art  by  all  our 
ancient  Irish  scholars. 

The  first  of  these  is  a  treatise  still  extant  in  manuscript 
entitled  Teagnsc  na  Riogh  or  Institiitio  Principum,  It  is  as- 
cribed to  King  Cormac  in  the  Book  of  Leinster  written  be- 
fore the  Anglo-Norman  Invasion  of  Ireland.     It  is  in  the 


28  Introductory  Chapter 

form  of  a  dialogue  between  Cormac  and  his  son  and  successor 
Cairbre  Lifeachair;  ''and,"  says  the  quaint  old  MacGeoghe- 
gan,  "this  book  contains  as  goodly  precepts  and  moral  docu- 
ments as  Cato  or  Aristotle  did  ever  write."  The  language 
is  of  the  most  archaic  type,  but  extracts  have  been  translated 
and  published  in  the  Dublin  Penny  Journal. 

A  still  more  celebrated  work,  now  unfortunately  lost,  the 
Saltair  of  Tara,  has  been  universally  attributed  to  Cormac 
by  Irish  scholars.  Perhaps  we  should  rather  say  it  was  com- 
piled under  his  direction.  "It  contained,"  says  an  ancient 
writer  in  the  Book  of  BalljTnote,  "the  synchronisms  and  gene- 
alogies, as  well  as  the  succession  of  the  Irish  kings  and  mon- 
archs,  their  battles,  their  contests,  and  their  antiquities  from 
the  world's  beginning  down  to  the  time  it  was  written.  And 
this  is  the  Saltair  of  Tara,  which  is  the  origin  and  fountain 
of  the  histories  of  Erin  from  that  period  down  to  the  present 
time."  "This,"  adds  the  writer  in  the  Book  of  Ballymote, 
"is  taken  from  the  Book  of  Machongbhail"— that  is,  the  Book 
of  Navan,  a  still  more  ancient  but  now  lost  work.  Not  only« 
does  the  writer  in  the  ancient  Book  of  Navan,  and  the  copy- 
ist in  the  Book  of  Ballymote,  expressly  attribute  this  work 
to  Cormac,  but  a  still  more  ancient  authority,  the  poet  Cuan 
O'Lochain,  who  died  in  1024,  has  this  stanza  in  his  poem  on 
Tara : 

"He  (Cormac)  compiled  the  Saltair  of  Tara, 

In  that  Saltair  is  contained 

The  best  sununary  of  history. 

It  is  the  Saltair  which  assigns 

Seven  chief  kings  to  Erin  of  harbours,  &c.,  &c." 

And  it  is,  indeed,  self-evident  to  the  careful  student  of  our 
annals  that  there  must  have  been  some  one  ancient  "origin 
and  fountain"  from  which  the  subsequent  historians  of  Erin 
have  derived  their  information,  and  existing  monuments  prove 
it  to  be  quite  accurate— concerning  the  reign  of  Cormac  and 
his  more  immediate  predecessors  in  Ireland.  The  man  who 
restored  the  Feis  of  Tara,  and  who,  as  we  shall  presently  see, 
was  also  a  celebrated  judge  and  lawyer,  was  exactly  such  a 
person  of  forethought  and  culture  as  would  gather  together 
the  poets  and  historians  of  his  kingdom  to  execute  under  his 
own  immediate  direction  this  great  work  for  the  benefit  of 
posterity.  Keating  tells  us  that  it  was  called  the  Saltair  of 
Tara  because  the  chief  Ollave  of  Tara  had  it  in  his  official 


Introductory  Chapter  ,29 

custody;  and  as  Corraac  Mac  Cullman's  Chronicle  was  called 
the  Saltair  of  Cashcl,  and  the  Festilogium  of  Aengus  the 
Culdee  Y\-as  called  the  Saltair  na  Rann,  so  this  groat  compila- 
tion was  named  the  Saltair  of  Tara.  This,  as  0 'Curry  re- 
marks, disposes  of  Petrie's  objection  that  its  name  would 
rather  indicate  the  Christian  origin  of  the  book.  The  answer 
is  simple— Cormac  never  called  the  book  by  this  name,  any 
more  than  the  compilers  of  the  great  works  like  the  Book  of 
Ballymote  or  the  Book  of  Leinster  ever  called  those  great 
compilations  by  their  present  names, 

Cormac  was  also  a  distinguished  jurist— of  that  we  have 
conclusive  evidence  in  the  Book  of  Aicill,  which  has  been  i^ub- 
lished  in  the  third  volume  of  the  Brehon  Law  publications. 
The  book  itself  is  most  explicit  as  to  its  authorship,  and  every- 
thing in  the  text  goes  to  confirm  the  statements  in  the  intro- 
duction, part  of  which  is  worth  reproducing  here. 

''The  place  of  this  book  is  Aicill,  close  to  TemJiair  (Tara), 
and  its  time  is  the  time  of  Coirpri  Lifechair,  son  of  Cormac, 
and  its  autlior  is  Cormac,  and  the  cause  of  its  having  been 
composed  Vv^as  the  blinding  of  the  eye  of  Cormac  by  ^ngus 
Gabhuaiedeh,  after  the  abduction  of  the  daughter  of  Sorar, 
son  of  Art  Corb,  by  Cellach,  son  of  Cormac." 

The  author  then  tells  us  how  the  spear  of  ^ngus  grazed 
the  eye  of  Cormac  and  blinded  him. 

''Then  Cormac  was  sent  out  to  be  cured  by  Aicill  (the  Hill 
of  Skreen)  .  .  .  and  the  sovereignty  of  Erin  was  given 
to  Coirpri  Lifechair,  son  of  Cormac,  for  it  was  prohibited  that 
anyone  with  a  blemiish  should  be  king  at  Tara,  and  in  every 
difficult  case  of  judgment  that  came  to  him  lie  (Coirjjri)  used 
to  go  to  ask  his  father  about  it,  and  his  fatlicr  used  to  say  to 
him,  'My  son,  that  thou  mayest  know'  (the  law),  and  'the 
exemptions ' ;  and  these  words  are  at  the  beginning  of  all  his 
explanations.  And  it  was  there,  at  Aicill,  that  this  book  was 
thus  composed,  and  wherever  the  words  'exemptions,*  and 
'my  son  that  thou  mayest  know',  occur  was  Cormac 's  part  of 
the  book,  and  Cennfaeladh's  part  the  rest." 

This  jDroves  beyond  doubt  that  the  greatest  portion  of  this 
Book  of  Aicill  was  written  by  Cormac  at  Skreen,  near  Tara, 
when  disqualified  for  holding  the  sovereignty  on  account  of 
his  wound.  It  was  a  treatise  written  for  the  benefit  of  his  son 
unexpectedly  called  to  fill  the  monarch's  place  at  Tara.  The 
text,  too,  bears  out  this  account.  Cormac  apparently  fur- 
nished the  groundwork  of  the  present  volume  by  writing  for 


;j()  ImTRODUCTORV    CHAPTEft 

his  sou's  use  a  series  of  maxiuis  or  principles  on  the  criminal 
law  of  Erin,  which  were  afterwards  developed  by  Cormac 
himself  and  by  subsequent  commentators.  That  the  archaic 
legal  maxims  so  enunciated  in  the  Book  of  Aicill  were  once 
written  by  Cormac  himself  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt ; 
although  it  is  now  quite  impossible  to  ascertain  how  far  the 
development  of  the  text  was  the  work  of  Cormac  or  of  subse- 
quent legal  authorities,  who  doubtless  added  to  and  modified 
the  commentary  whilst  they  left  Cormac 's  text  itself  un- 
changed. 

This  Book  of  Aicill,  the  authenticity  of  which  cannot,  we 
think,  be  reasonably  questioned,  proves  beyond  all  doubt  that 
in  the  third  century  of  the  Christian  era  there  was  a  consider- 
able amount  of  literary  culture  in  Celtic  Ireland.  These  works 
are  still  extant  in  the  most  archaic  form  of  the  Irish  language ; 
they  have  been  universally  attributed  to  Cormac  Mac  Art  for 
the  last  ten  centuries  by  all  our  Irish  scholars;  the  intrinsic 
evidence  of  their  authorship  and  antiquity  is  equally  striking 
—why  then  should  we  reject  this  mass  of  evidence,  and  accept 
the  crude  theories  of  certain  modern  pretenders  in  the  antiq- 
uities of  Ireland,  who  without  even  knowing  the  language,  un- 
dertake to  tell  us  that  there  was  no  knowledge  of  the  use  of 
writing  in  Ireland  before  St.  Patrick  ? 

And  is  not  such  an  assertion  a  priori  highly  improbable? 
The  Romans  had  conquered  Britain  in  the  time  of  Agricola— 
the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era.  The  Britons  themselves 
had  very  generally  become  Christians  during  the  second  and 
third  centuries,  and  had  to  some  extent  at  least  been  imbued 
with  Roman  civilization.  Frequent  intercourse,  sometimes 
friendly  and  sometimes  hostile,  existed  between  the  Irish  and 
Welsh  tribes  especially.  A  British  king  was  killed  at  the  bat- 
tle of  Magh  Mucruimhe  in  Galway  where  Cormac 's  own  father 
was  slain.  The  allies  of  Mac  Con  on  that  occasion  were  Brit- 
ish. He  himself  had  spent  the  years  of  his  exile  in  Wales. 
Captives  from  Ireland  were  carried  to  Britain,  and  captives 
from  Britain  were  carried  to  Ireland.  Is  it  likely,  then,  that 
when  the  use  of  letters  was  quite  common  in  Britain  for  three 
centuries  no  knowledge  of  their  use  would  have  come  to  Ire- 
land until  the  advent  of  St.  Patrick  in  the  fifth  century  of  the 
Christian  era? 

There  is  an  ancient  and  well-founded  tradition  that  Cor- 
mac Mac  Art  died  a  Christian,  or  as  the  Four  Masters  say, 
**  turned  from  the  religion  of  the  Druids  to  the  worship  of 


Introductory  Chapter  31 

the  true  God. "  It  is  in  itself  highly  probable.  Some  knowl- 
edge of  Christianity  must  have  penetrated  into  Ireland  even 
so  early  as  the  reign  of  Cormac  Mac  Art.  It  is  quite  a  popu- 
lar error  to  suppose  that  there  were  no  Christians  in  Ireland 
before  the  time  of  St.  Patrick.  Palladius  had  been  sent  from 
Rome  before  him  **to  the  Scots,"  that  is  the  Irish,  *'who  be- 
lieved in  Christ."  Besides  that  intimate  connection  between 
Ireland  and  Britain,  of  which  we  have  spoken,  must  have  car- 
ried some  knowledge  of  Christianity,  as  well  as  the  letters, 
from  one  country  to  the  other.  King  Lucius,  the  first  Chris- 
tion  King  of  the  British,  flourished  quite  half  of  a  century 
before  the  time  of  Cormac.  Tertullian  speaks  of  the  isles 
of  the  Britains  as  subject  to  Christ  about  the  time  that  Cor- 
mac's  father,  Art,  was  slain  at  Magh  Mucruimhe.  There  was 
a  regularly  organized  hierarchy  in  England  during  the  third 
century,  and  three  of  their  bishops  were  present  at  the  Coun- 
cil of  Aries  in  314. 

Nothing  is  more  likely  then  that  the  message  of  the  Gos- 
pels was  brought  from  England  to  the  ears  of  King  Cormac, 
and  that  a  prince,  so  learned  and  so  wise,  gave  up  the  old  re- 
ligion of  the  Druids,  and  embraced  the  new  religion  of  peace 
and  love. 

But  it  was  a  dangerous  thing  to  do  even  for  a  king.  The 
Druids  were  very  poj^ular  and  very  influential,  and  more- 
over possessed,  it  was  said,  dreadful  magic  powers.  They 
showed  it  afterwards  in  the  time  of  St.  Patrick,  and  now  they 
show  it  when  they  heard  Cormac  had  given  up  the  old  re- 
ligion of  Erin,  and  become  a  convert  to  the  new  worship  from 
the  East.  The  king's  death  was  caused  by  the  bone  of  a  sal- 
mon sticking  in  his  throat,  and  it  was  universally  believed  that 
this  painful  death  was  brought  about  by  the  magical  power 
of  Maelgenn,  the  chief  of  the  Druids. 

''They  loosed  their  curse  against  the  king, 
They  cursed  him  in  his  flesh  and  bones ; 

And  daily  in  their  mystic  ring 

They  turned  the  maledictive  stones. 

"Till  where  at  meat  the  monarch  sate, 

Amid  the  revel  and  the  wine, 
'He  choked  upon  the  food  he  ate 

At  Cletty,  southward  of  the  Boyne." 


32 


Introductory  Chapter 


So  perished,  A.  D.  267,  the  wisest  and  best  of  the  ancient 
kings  of  Erin.  Cormac,  when  dying,  told  his  people  not  to 
bury  him  in  the  pagan  cemetery  of  Brugh  on  the  Boyne,  but 
at  Rossnaree,  where  he  first  believed,  and  with  his  face  to 
the  rising  sun.  But  when  the  king  was  dead,  his  captains  de- 
clared they  would  bury  their  king  with  his  royal  sires  in 
Brugh : 

**Dead  Cormac  on  his  bier  they  laid; 

He  reigned  a  king  for  forty  years, 
And  shame  it  were,  his  captains  said, 
He  lay  not  with  his  royal  peers. 

**What  though  a  dying  man  should  rave 

Of  changes  o  'er  the  eastern  sea ; 
In  Brugh  of  Boyne  shall  be  his  grave 

And  not  in  noteless  Rossnaree.** 


So  they  prepared  to  cross  the  fords  of  Boyne,  and  bury 
the  king  at  Brugh.  But  royal  Boyne  was  loyal  to  its  dead 
king;  ''the  deep  full-hearted  river  rose'*  to  bar  the  way; 
and  when  the  bearers  attempted  to  cross  the  ford,  the  swell- 
ing flood  swept  them  from  their  feet,  and  caught  up  the  bier, 
and  ''proudly  bore  away  the  king"  on  its  own  heaving  bosom. 
Next  morning  the  corpse  was  found  on  the  bank  of  the  river 
at  Rossnaree,  and  was  duly  interred  within  the  hearing  of  its 
murmuring  waters.  There  great  Cormac  was  left  to  his  rest 
with  his  face  to  the  rising  sun,  awaiting  the  dawning  of  that 
glory  which  was  soon  to  lighten  over  the  hills  and  valleys  of 
his  native  land.  John  Healy,  D.  D., 

Archbishop  of  Tuam, 


FROM  MILESIAN  TO  DANE. 

BY  A.  M.  SULLIVAN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

OUR    MILESIAN    FOREFATHERS  —  THE    THREE    QUEENS    FROM    WHOM 
IRELAND  DERIVED  HER  POETICAL  NAMES. 

The  earliest  settlement  or  colonization  of  Ireland  of  which 
there  is  tolerably  precise  and  satisfactory  information,  was 
that  by  the  sons  of  Miledh  or  Milesius,  from  which  the  Irish 
are  occasionally  styled  Milesians.  There  are  abundant  evi- 
dences that  at  least  two  or  three  ''waves"  of  colonization 
had  long  previously  reached  the  island;  but  it  is  not  very 
clear  whence  they  came.  Those  first  settlers  are  severally 
known  in  history  as  the  Partholanians,  the  Nemedians,  the 
Firbolgs,  and  the  Tuatha  de  Danaans.  These  latter,  who 
immediately  preceded  the  Milesians,  possessed  a  civilization 
and  a  knowledge  of  ''arts  and  sciences,"  which,  limited  as 
we  may  be  sure  it  was,  greatly  amazed  the  earlier  settlers  by 
the  results  it  produced.  To  the  Firbolgs  (the  more  early  set- 
tlers) the  wonderful  things  done  by  the  conquering  new-com- 
ers, and  the  wonderful  knowledge  they  displayed,  could  only 
be  the  results  of  supernatural  power.  Accordingly  they  set 
down  the  Tuatha  de  Danaans  as  "magicians,"  an  idea  which 
the  Milesians,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  also  adopted. 

The  Firbolgs  seem  to  have  been  a  pastoral  race;  the 
Tuatha  de  Danaans  were  more  of  a  manufacturing  and  com- 
mercial people.  The  soldier  Milesian  came,  and  he  ruled 
over  all. 

The  Milesian  colony  reached  Ireland  from  Spain,  but  they 
were  not  Spaniards.  They  were  an  eastern  people  who  had 
tarried  in  that  country  on  their  way  westward,  seeking,  they 
said,  an  island  promised  to  the  posterity  of  their  ancestor, 
Gadelius.  Moved  by  this  mysterious  purpose  to  fulfill  their 
destiny,  they  had  passed  from  land  to  land,  from  the  shores 
of  Asia  across  the  wide  expanse  of  southern  Europe,  bearing 
aloft  through  all  their  wanderings  the  Sacred  Banner,  which 
symbolized  to  them  at  once  their  origin  and  their  mission,  the 

35 


36  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

blessing  and  the  promise  given  to  their  race.  This  celebrated 
standard,  the  ''Sacred  Banner  of  the  Milesians,"  was  a  flag 
on  which  was  represented  a  dead  serpent  and  the  rod  of 
Moses ;  a  device  to  commemorate  forever  amongst  the  poster- 
ity of  Gadelius,  the  miracle  by  which  his  life  had  been  saved. 
The  story  of  this  event,  treasured  with  singular  pertinacity 
by  the  Milesians,  is  told  as  follows  in  their  traditions,  which 
so  far  I  have  been  following: 

While  Gadelius,  being  yet  a  child,  was  sleeping  one  day, 
he  was  bitten  by  a  poisonous  serpent.  His  father— Niul,  a 
younger  son  of  the  king  of  Scythia— carried  the  child  to  the 
camp  of  the  Israelites,  then  close  by,  where  the  distracted 
parent  with  tears  and  prayers  implored  the  aid  of  Moses. 
The  inspired  leader  was  profoundly  touched  by  the  anguish  of 
Niul.  He  laid  the  child  down,  and  prayed  over  him;  then  he 
touched  with  his  rod  the  wound,  and  the  boy  arose  healed. 
Then,  say  the  Milesians,  the  man  of  God  promised  or  prophe- 
sied for  the  posterity  of  the  young  prince,  that  they  should 
inhabit  a  country  in  which  no  venomous  reptile  could  live, 
an  island  which  they  should  seek  and  find  in  the  track  of  the 
setting  sun. 

It  was  not,  however,  until  the  third  generation  subse- 
quently that  the  descendants  and  people  of  Gadelius  are  found 
setting  forth  on  their  prophesied  wanderings ;  and  of  this  mi- 
gration itself— of  the  adventures  and  fortunes  of  the  Gadelian 
colony  in  its  journeyings— the  history  would  make  a  volume. 
At  length  we  find  them  tarrying  in  Spain,  where  they  built  a 
city,  Brigantia,  and  occupied  and  ruled  a  certain  extent  of 
territory.  It  is  said  that  Ith  (pronounced  "Eeh")  uncle  of 
Milesius,  an  adventurous  expl orator,  had  in  his  cruising 
northward  of  the  Brigantian  coast,  sighted  the  Promised  Isle, 
and,  landing  to  explore  it,  was  attacked  by  the  inhabitants 
(Tuatha  de  Danaans)  and  mortally  wounded  ere  he  could 
regain  his  ship.  He  died  at  sea  on  the  way  homeward.  His 
body  was  reverentially  preserved  and  brought  back  to  Spain 
by  his  son,  Lui  (spelled  Lugaid),  who  had  accompanied  him 
and  who  now  summoned  the  entire  Milesian  host  to  the  last 
stage  of  their  destined  wanderings— to  avenge  the  death  of 
Ith,  and  occupy  the  promised  isle.  The  old  patriarch  him- 
self, Miledh,  had  died  before  Lui  arrived;  but  his  sons  all 
responded  quickly  to  the  summons;  and  the  widowed  queen, 
their  mother,  Scota,  placed  herself  at  the  head  of  the  expedi- 
tion, which  soon  sailed  in  thirty  galleys  for  "the  isle  they  had 


Anxiext  Ireland  37 

seen  in  dreams. ' '  The  names  of  the  sons  of  Milesius,  who  thus 
sailed  for  Irehmd,  were,  Heber  the  Fair,  Amergin,  Heber  the 
Brown,  Colpa,  Ir,  and  Heremon,  and  the  date  of  this  event 
is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  about  fourteen  hundred 
years  before  the  birth  of  our  Lord. 

At  the  time  Ireland,  known  as  Innis  Ealga  (the  Noble 
Isle),  was  ruled  over  by  three  brothers,  Tuatha  de  Danaan 
jjrinces,  after  whose  wives  (who  were  three  sisters)  the  island 
was  alternately  called  Eire,  Banba  (or  Banva)  and  Fiola 
(spelled  Fodhla),  by  which  names  Ireland  is  still  frequently 
styled  in  national  poems.  Whatever  difficulties  or  obstacles 
beset  the  Milesians  in  landing  they  at  once  attributed  to  the 
* '  necromancy ' '  of  the  Tuatha  de  Danaans,  and  the  old  tradi- 
tions narrate  amusing  stories  of  the  contest  between  the  re- 
sources of  magic  and  the  power  of  Valour.  AVhen  the  Mile- 
sians could  not  discover  land  where  they  thouglit  to  sight  it, 
they  simply  agreed  that  the  Tuatha  de  Danaans  had  by  their 
black  arts  rendered  it  invisible.  At  length  they  descried  the 
island,  its  tall  blue  hills  touched  by  the  last  beams  of  the  set- 
ting sun,  and  from  the  galleys  there  arose  a  shout  of  joy; 
Innisfail,  the  Isle  of  Destiny,  was  found.  But  lo,  next  morn- 
ing the  land  was  submerged,  until  only  a  low  ridge  appeared 
above  the  ocean.  A  device  of  the  magicians,  say  the  Milesians. 
Nevertheless,  they  reached  the  shore  and  made  good  their 
landing.  The  ' 'magician"  inhabitants,  however,  stated  that 
this  was  not  conquest  by  the  rules  of  war ;  that  they  had  no 
standing  army  to  oppof-e  the  jNIilesians ;  but  if  the  new-comers 
would  again  take  to  their  galleys  they  should,  if  able  once 
rnore  to  effect  a  landing,  be  recognized  as  masters  of  the  isle 
by  the  laws  of  war. 

The  Milesians  did  not  much  like  the  proposition.  They 
feared  much  the  ' '  necromancy ' '  of  the  Tuatha  de  Danaans.  It 
had  cost  them  trouble  enough  already  to  get  their  feet  upon 
the  soil,  and  they  did  not  greatly  relish  the  idea  of  having  to 
begin  it  all  over  again.  They  debated  the  point,  and  it  was 
resolved  to  submit  the  case  to  the  decision  of  Amergin,  who 
was  the  Ollave  (the  Learned  Man,  Lawgiver,  or  Seer)  of  the 
expedition.  Amergin,  strange  to  say,  decided  on  the  merits 
against  his  own  brothers  and  kinsm.en,  and  in  favor  of  the 
Tuatha  de  Danaans.  Accordingly,  with  scrupulous  obedience 
of  his  decision,  the  Milesians  relinquished  all  they  had  so  far 
won.  They  re-embarked  in  their  galleys,  and  as  demanded, 
withdrew  ''nine  waves  off  from  the  shore."    Immediately  a 


38 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  ajmd  Roses 


hurricane,  raised,  say  their  versions,  by  the  spells  of  the 
magicians  on  shore,  burst  over  the  fleet,  dispersing  it  in  all 
directions.  Several  of  the  princes  and  chiefs  and  their  wives 
and  retainers  were  drowned.  The  Milesians  paid  dearly  for 
their  chivalrous  acquiescence  in  the  rather  singular  proposi- 
tion of  the  inhabitants  endorsed  by  the  decision  of  Amergin. 
When  they  did  land  next  time,  it  was  not  in  one  combined 
force,  but  in  detachments  widely  separated ;  some  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Boyne ;  others  on  the  Kerry  coast.  A  short  but  fiercely 
contested  campaign  decided  the  fate  of  the  kingdom.  In  the 
first  great  pitched  battle,  which  was  fought  in  a  glen  a  few 
miles  south  of  Tralee,  the  Milesians  were  victorious.  But 
they  lost  the  aged  Queen-Mother,  Scota,  who  fell  amidst  the 
slain,  and  was  buried  beneath  a  royal  cairn  in  Glen  Scohene, 
close  by.  Indeed  the  Queens  of  ancient  Ireland  figure  very 
prominently  in  our  history,  as  we  shall  learn  as  we  proceed. 
In  the  final  engagement,  which  was  fought  at  Tailtan  in 
Meath,  between  the  sons  of  Milesius  and  the  three  Tuatha  de 
Danaan  kings,  the  latter  were  utterly  and  finally  defeated,  and 
were  themselves  slain.  And  with  their  husbands,  the  three 
brothers,  there  fell  upon  that  dreadful  day,  when  crown  and 
country,  home  and  husband,  all  were  lost  to  them,  the  three 
sisters.  Queens  Eire,  Banva  and  Fiola! 


Composed  £roni  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  II. 

PROOFS   OF   IRELAND  *S   EARLY   CIVILIZATION  — THE  TRIENNEAL   PAR- 
LIAMENT OF  TARA. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  follow  through  their  details  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Milesian  princes  in  the  period  immediately 
subsequent  to  the  landing.  It  will  suffice  to  state  that  in  a 
comparatively  brief  time  they  subdued  the  country,  enter- 
ing, however,  into  regular  pacts,  treaties,  or  alliances,  with  the 
conquered  but  not  powerless  Firbolgs  and  Tuatha  de  Danaans. 
According  to  the  constitution  under  which  Ireland  was  gov- 
erned for  more  than  a  thousand  years,  the  population  of  the 
island  were  distinguished  in  two  classes— the  Free  Clans,  and 
the  Unfree  Clans;  the  former  being  the  descendants  of  the 
Milesian  legions,  the  latter  the  descendants  of  the  subjected 
Tuatha  de  Danaans  and  Firbolgs.  The  latter  were  allowed 
certain  rights  and  privileges,  and  to  a  great  extent  regulated 
their  own  internal  affairs ;  but  they  could  not  vote  in  the  selec- 
tion of  a  sovereign,  nor  exercise  any  other  of  the  attributes  of 
full  citizenship  without  special  leave.  Indeed,  those  subject 
populations  occasioned  the  conquerors  serious  trouble  by 
their  hostility  from  time  to  time  for  centuries  afterwards. 
The  sovereignty  of  the  island  was  jointly  vested  in,  or  as- 
sumed by,  Heremon  and  Heber— the  Romulus  and  Remus 
of  ancient  Ireland.  Like  these  twin  brothers,  who,  seven  hun- 
dred years  later  on,  founded  Rome,  Heber  and  Heremon  quar- 
relled in  the  sovereignty.  In  a  pitched  battle  fought  between 
them,  Heber  was  slaim,  and  Heremon  remained  sole  ruler  of 
the  Island.  For  more  than  a  thousand  years  the  dynasty  thus 
established  reigned  in  Ireland,  the  sceptre  never  passing  out 
of  the  family  of  Milesius  in  the  direct  line  of  descent,  unless 
upon  one  occasion  (to  which  we  shall  more  fully  advert  at 
the  proper  time)  for  the  brief  period  of  less  than  twenty 
years.  The  Milesian  appears  to  have  exhibited  considerable 
energy  in  organizing  the  country  and  establishing  what  we 
call  '* institutions,"  some  of  which  have  been  adopted  or  cop- 
ied, with  improvements  and  adaptations,  by  the  most  civilized 
governments  of  the  present  day;  and  the  island  advanced  in 
renown  for  valor,  for  wealth,  for  manufactures,  and  for  com- 
merce.   By  this,  however,  our  readers  are  not  to  suppose  that 

39 


40  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

anything  like  the  civilization  of  our  times,  or  even  faintly  ap- 
proaching that  to  which  Greece  and  Rome  afterwards  at- 
tained, prevailed  at  this  period  in  Ireland.  Not  so.  But, 
compared  with  the  ci\dlization  of  its  own  period  in  Northern 
and  Western  Europe,  and  recollecting  how  isolated  and  how 
far  removed  Ireland  was  from  the  great  center  and  source  of 
colonization  and  civilization  in  the  East,  the  civilization  of 
pagan  Ireland  must  be  admitted  to  have  been  proudly  eminent. 
In  the  works  remaining  to  us  of  the  earliest  writers  of  ancient 
■Rome,  we  find  references  to  Ireland  that  test  the  high  position 
it  then  held  in  the  estimation  of  the  most  civilized  and  learned 
nations  of  antiquity.  From  our  own  historians  we  know  that 
more  than  fifteen  hundred  years  before  the  birth  of  our  Lord, 
gold  mining  and  smelting,  and  artistic  workings  in  the  prec- 
ious metals,  were  carried  on  to  a  great  extent  in  Ireland. 
Numerous  facts  might  be  adduced  to  prove  that  a  high  order 
of  political,  social,  industrial  and  intellectual  intelligence  pre- 
vailed in  the  country.  Even  in  an  age  which  was  rudely  bar- 
baric elsewhere  al!  over  the  world,  the  superiority  of  intellect 
or  force  of  the  scholar  over  the  soldier,  was  not  only  recog- 
nized, but  decreed  by  legislation  in  Ireland !  We  find  in  the 
Irish  chronicles  that  in  the  reign  of  Eochy  the  First  (more 
than  a  thousand  years  before  Christ)  society  was  classified 
into  seven  grades,  each  marked  by  the  number  of  colors  in 
its  dress,  and  that  in  this  classification  men  of  learning,  i.  e., 
eminent  scholars,  or  savants  as  they  would  now  be  called, 
were  by  lav/  ranked  next  to  royalty.  But  the  most  signal 
proof  of  all,  attesting  the  existence  in  Ireland  at  that  period 
of  a  civilization  marvellous  for  its  time,  was  the  celebrated 
institution  of  the  Feis  Tara,  or  triennial  parliament  of  Tara, 
one  of  the  first  formal  parliaments  or  legislative  assemblies 
of  which  we  have  record.  This  great  national  legislative  as- 
sembly was  instituted  by  an  Irish  monarch,  whose  name  sur- 
vives as  a  synonym  of  wisdom  and  justice,  Ollav  Fiola,  who 
reigned  as  Ard  Ri  of  Erinn  about  one  thounand  years  before 
the  birth  of  Christ.  To  this  assembly  were  regularly  sum- 
moned : 

Firstly— All  the  subordinate  royal  princes  or  chieftains; 

Secondly— Ollaves  and  bards,  judges,  scholars  and  his- 
torians; and, 

Thirdly— Military  commanders. 

We  have  in  the  old  records  the  most  precise  accounts  of 
the  formalities  observed  at  the  opening  and  during  the  sitting 


Ancient  Ireland  41 

of  the  assembly,  from  which  we  learn  that  its  proceedings 
were  regulated  with  admirable  order  and  conducted  with  the 
greatest  solemnity.     Nor  was  the  institution  of  '*  Triennial 
parliaments"  the  only  instance  in  which  this  illustrious  Irish 
monarch  over  two  thousand  eight  hundred  years  ago,  antici- 
pated to  a  certain  extent  the  forms  of  constitutional  govern- 
ment of  which  the  nineteenth  century  is  so  proud.    In  the  civil 
administration  of  the  kingdom  the  same  enlightened  wisdom 
was  displayed.    He  organized  the  country  into  regular  pre- 
fectures.   ^'Over  every  cantred,"  says  the  historian,  ''he  ap- 
pointed a  chieftain,  and  over  every  town  land  a  kind  of  a  pre- 
fect or  secondary  chief,  all  being  the  officials  of  the  king  of 
Ireland."    After  a  reign  of  more  than  forty  years,  this  ''true 
Irish  King"  died  at  an  advanced  age,  having  lived  to  witness 
long  the  prosperity,  happiness  and  peace  which  his  noble  ef- 
forts had  diffused  all  over  the  realm.     His  real  name  was 
Eochy  the  Fourth,  but  he  is  more  familiarly  known  in  history 
by  the  title  of  "Ollav  Fiola,"  that  is,  the  "Ollav,"  or  law- 
giver, pre-eminently  of  Ireland. 

Though  the  comparative  civilization  of  Ireland  at  this  re- 
mote time  was  so  high,  the  annals  of  the  period  disclosed  the 
usual  recurrence  of  wars  for  the  throne  between  rival  mem- 
bers of  the  same  dynasty,  which  early  and  mediaeval  history 
in  general  exhibits.    Reading  over  the  history  of  ancient  Ire- 
land, as  of  ancient  Greece,  Rome,  Assyria,  Gaul,  Britain  or 
Spain,  one  is  struck  by  the  number  of  sovereigns  who  fell  by 
violent  deaths,  nnd  the  fewness  of  those  who  ended  their 
reigns  otherwise.     But  those  were  the  days  when  between 
Kings  and  princes,  chiefs  and  warriors,  the  sword  was  the 
ready  arbiter  that  decided  all  causes,  executed  all  judgments, 
avenged  all  wrongs,  and  accomplished  all  ambitions.    More- 
over, it  is  essential  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  kings  of  those 
times  commanded  and  led  their  own  armies  not  in  theory 
but  in  reality  and  fact;  and  that  personal  participation  in 
the  battle  and  prowess  in  the  field  was  expected  and  necessary 
on  the  part  of  the  royal  commander.     Under  such  circum- 
stances, one  can  easily  perceive  how  it  came  to  pass,  naturally 
and  inevitably,  that  the  battle-field  became  ordinarily  the 
death  bed  of  the  king.    In  those  early  times  the  kings  who  did 
not  fall  by  the  sword,  in  fair  battle  or  unfair  assault,  were  the 
exceptions  everywhere.    Yet  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  we 
find  the  average  duration  of  the  reigns  of  Irish  monarchs,  for 
fifteen  hundred  or  two  thousand  years  after  the  Milesian 


42  Ireland's  Ckown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

dynasty  ascended  the  throne,  was  as  long  as  that  of  most 
European  reigns  in  the  seventeenth,  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
centuries.  Several  of  the  Milesian  sovereigns  enjoyed  reigns 
extending  to  over  thirty  years ;  some  to  fifty  years.  Many  of 
them  were  highly  accomplished  and  learned  men,  liberal  pa- 
trons of  arts,  science  and  commerce;  and  as  one  of  them, 
fourteen  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era,  instituted 
regularly  convened  parliaments,  so  we  find  others  of  them  in- 
stituting orders  of  knighthood  and  Companionships  of  Chiv- 
alry long  before  we  hear  of  their  establishment  elsewhere. 

The  Irish  kings  of  this  period,  as  well  as  during  the  first 
ten  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  in  frequent  instances  inter- 
married with  the  royal  families  of  other  countries— Spain, 
Gaul,  Britain  and  Alba ;  and  the  commerce  and  manufactures 
of  Ireland  were,  as  the  early  Latin  writers  acquaint  us,  famed 
in  all  the  marts  and  ports  of  Europe. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  FREE  AND  THE  UNFREE  CLANS — THE  ROMANS  AFRAID  TO  LAND 

IN  IRELAND. 

During  those  fifteen  hundred  years  preceding  the  Chris- 
tian era,  the  other  great  nations  of  Europe,  the  Romans  and 
the  Greeks,  were  passing,  by  violent  changes  and  bloody  con- 
vulsions, through  nearly  every  conceivable  form  of  govern- 
ment—republics,  confederations,  empires,  kingdoms,  limited 
monarchies,  despotisms,  consulates,  etc.  During  the  like 
period  (fifteen  centuries)  the  one  form  of  government,  a  lun- 
ited  monarchy,  and  the  one  dynasty,  the  Milesian,  ruled  in 
Ireland.  The  monarchy  was  elective,  but  elective  out  of  the 
eligible  members  of  the  established  or  legitimate  dynasty. 

Indeed,  the  principle  of  ''legitimacy,"  as  it  is  sometimes 
called  in  our  times— the  hereditary  right  of  a  ruling  family  or 
dynasty— seems  from  the  earliest  ages  to  have  been  devotedly, 
we  might  almost  say  superstitiously,  held  by  the  Irish.  Wars 
for  the  crown,  and  violent  changes  of  rulers,  were  always 
frequent  enough,  but  the  wars  and  the  changes  were  always 
between  members  of  the  ruling  family  or  ''blood  royal";  and 
the  two  or  three  instances  to  the  contrary  that  occur,  are  so 
smgularly  strong  in  their  illustration  of  the  fact  to  which 
we  have  adverted,  that  we  will  cite  one  of  them  here. 

The  Milesians  and  the  earlier  settlers  never  com- 
pletely fused.  Fifteen  hundred  years  after  the  Milesian  land- 
ing, the  Firbolgs,  the  Tuatha  de  Danaans,  and  the  Milesians 
were  substantially  distinct  races  or  classes,  the  first  being 
agriculturalists  or  tillers  of  the  soil,  the  second  manufacturers 
and  merchants,  the  third  soldiers  and  rulers.  The  exactions 
and  oppressions  of  the  ruling  classes  at  one  time  became  so 
grievous  that  in  the  reign  succeeding  that  of  Creivan  the 
Second,  who  was  the  ninety-ninth  Milesian  monarch  of  Ire- 
land, a  wide-spread  conspiracy  was  organized  for  the  over- 
throw and  extirpation  of  the  Milesian  princes  and  aristocracy. 
After  three  years  of  secret  preparation,  everything  being 
ready,  the  royal  and  noble  Milesian  families,  one  and  all,  were 
invited  to  a  *' monster  meeting"  for  games,  exhibitions,  f east- 
ings, etc.,  on  the  plain  of  Knock  Ma,  in  the  county  of  Galway. 
The  great  spectacle  had  lasted  nine  days,  when  suddenly  the 

43 


44  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  .vnd  Roses 

Milesians  were  set  upon  by  the  Attacotti  (as  the  Latin  chron- 
iclers called  the  conspirators),  and  massacred  to  a  man.  Of 
the  royal  line  there  escaped,  however,  three  princes,  yet  un- 
born. Their  mothers,  wives  of  Irish  princes,  were  the  daugh- 
ters respectively  of  the  kings  of  Scotland,  Saxony  and  Brit- 
tany. They  succeeded  in  escaping  into  Albion,  where  the 
three  young  princes  were  born  and  educated.  The  success- 
ful consjDirators  raised  to  the  throne  Carbry  the  First,  who 
reigned  five  years,  during  which  time,  say  the  chronicles,  the 
country  was  a  prey  to  every  misfortune ;  the  earth  refused  to 
yield,  the  waters  had  no  fish,  the  cattle  gave  no  milk,  the  trees 
bore  no  fruit,  and  ' '  the  oak  had  but  one  acorn. ' '  Carbry  was 
succeeded  by  his  son,  Moran,  whose  name  deservedlj^  lives  in 
Irish  history  as  '* Moran  the  Just."  He  refused  to  wear  the 
crown,  which  belonged,  he  said,  to  the  royal  line  that  had  been 
so  miraculously  preserved;  and  he  urged  that  the  rightful 
princes,  who  by  this  time  had  grown  to  man's  estate,  should  be 
recalled.  Moran 's  powerful  pleading  commended  itself  read- 
ily to  the  popular  conscience,  already  disquieted  by  the  mis- 
fortunes and  evil  omens  which,  as  the  people  read  them,  had 
fallen  upon  the  land  since  the  legitimate  line  had  been  so 
dreadfully  cut  down.  The  young  princes  were  recalled  from 
exile,  and  one  of  them,  Faradah  the  Righteous,  was,  amidst 
great  rejoicing,  elected  king  of  Ireland.  Moran  was  ajDpointed 
chief  judge  of  Erinn,  and  under  his  administration  of  justice 
the  land  long  j^resented  a  scene  of  peace,  happiness  and  con- 
tentment. To  the  gold  chain  of  office  which  Moran  wore  on 
the  judgment  scat,  the  Irish  for  centuries  subsequently  at- 
tached supernatural  powers.  It  was  said  that  it  would  tighten 
around  the  neck  of  the  judge  if  he  was  unjustly  judging  a 
cause. 

The  dawn  of  Christianity  found  the  Romans  masters  of 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  known  Avorld.  Britain,  after  a  short 
struggle,  succumbed,  and  eventually  learned  to  love  the  yoke. 
Gaul,  after  a  gallant  effort,  was  also  overpowered  and  held 
as  a  conquered  province.  But  upon  Irish  soil  the  Roman 
eagles  were  never  planted.  Of  Ireland,  or  lerne,  as  they  called 
it,  of  its  great  wealth  and  amazing  beauty  of  scenery  and  rich- 
ness of  soil,  the  all-conquering  Romans  heard  much.  But  they 
had  heard  also  that  the  fruitful  and  beautiful  island  was  peo- 
pled by  a  soldier  race,  and,  judging  them  by  the  few  who  oc- 
casionally crossed  to  Alba  to  help  their  British  neighbors,  and 
whose  prowess  and  skill  the  imperial  legions  had  betimes  to 


Ancient  Ireland 


45 


prove,  tlie  conquest  of  lerne  was  wisely  judged  by  the  Rom- 
ans to  be  a  work  better  not  attemi:>ted. 

The  early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  may  be  consid- 
ered the  period  pre-eminently  of  Pagan  bardic  or  legendary 
fame  in  Ireland.  In  this,  which  we  call  the  ' '  Ossianic ' '  period, 
lived  Cuhal  or  Cumhal,  father  of  the  celebrated  Fin  Mac  Cum- 
hal,  and  commander  of  the  great  Irish  legion  called  the  Fiana 
Erion,  or  Irish  militia.  The  Ossianic  poems  recount  the  most 
marvelous  stories  of  Fin  and  the  Fiana  Erion  which 
are  compounds  of  undoubted  facts  and  manifest  fictions,  the 
prowess  of  the  heroes  being  in  the  course  of  time  magnified 
into  the  supernatural,  and  the  figures  and  poetic  allegories  of 
the  earlier  bards  gradually  coming  to  be  read  as  realities. 
Some  of  these  poems  are  gross,  extravagant  and  absurd.  Oth- 
ers of  them  are  of  rare  beauty,  and  are,  moreover,  valuable 
for  the  insight  they  give,  though  obliquely,  into  the  manners 
and  customs,  thoughts,  feelings,  guiding  principles,  and  mov- 
ing passions  of  the  ancient  Irish. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

KING  CORMAC  THE  FIRST— NIAL  OF  THE  NINE  HOSTAGES. 

"As  early  as  the  reign  of  Ardi-Ri  Cormac  the  First— the 
first  years  of  the  third  century— the  Christian  faith  had  pene- 
trated into  Ireland.  Probably  in  the  commercial  intercourse 
between  the  Irish  and  continental  ports,  some  Christian  con- 
verts had  been  amongst  the  Irish  navigators  or  merchants. 
Some  historians  think  the  monarch  himself,  Cormac,  towards 
the  end  of  his  life,  adored  the  true  God,  and  attempted  to  put 
down  druidism.  ''His  reign,"  says  Mr.  Haverty,  the  his- 
torian, ''is  generally  looked  upon  as  the  brightest  epoch  in 
the  entire  history  of  pagan  Ireland.  He  established  three  col- 
leges; one  for  War,  one  for  History,  and  one  for  Jurispru- 
dence. He  collected  and  remodeled  the  laws,  and  published 
the  code  which  remained  in  force  until  the  English  invasion  (a 
period  extending  beyond  nine  hundred  years),  and  outside  the 
English  Pale  for  many  centuries  after.  He  assembled  the 
bards  and  chroniclers  at  Tara,  and  directed  them  to  collect 
the  annals  of  Ireland  and  to  write  out  the  records  of  the 
country  from  year  to  year,  making  them  s;^Ticlironize  with  the 
history  of  other  countries,  by  collating  events  with  the  reigns 
of  contemporary  foreign  potentates;  Cormac  himself  having 
been  the  inventor  of  this  chronology.  These  annals  formed 
what  is  called  the  "Psalter  of  Tara,"  which  also  contained 
full  details  of  the  boundaries  of  pro\'inces,  districts,  and  small 
divisions  of  land  throughout  Ireland;  but  unfortunately  this 
great  record  has  been  lost,  no  vestige  of  it  being  now,  it  is 
believed,  in  existence.  The  magnificence  of  Cormac 's  palace 
at  Tara  was  commensurate  with  the  greatness  of  his  power 
and  the  brilliancy  of  his  actions;  and  he  fitted  out  a  fleet 
which  he  sent  to  harass  the  shores  of  Alba,  or  Scotland,  until 
that  country  also  was  compelled  to  acknowledge  him  as  sover- 
eign. He  wrote  a  book  or  tract  called  Teaguscna-Ri,  or  the 
"Institutions  of  a  Prince,"  which  is  still  in  existence,  and 
which  contains  admirable  maxims  on  manners,  morals  and 
government.  This  illustrious  sovereign  died  A.  D.  266,  at 
Cleitach,  on  the  Boyne,  a  salmon  bone,  it  is  said,  having  fas- 
tened in  his  throat  while  dining,  and  defied  all  efforts  of  ex- 
trication. He  was  buried  at  Ross-na-ri,  the  first  of  the  pagan 

47 


48  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

monarchs  who  was  not  interred  at  Brugh,  the  famous  burial 
place  of  the  pre-Christian  kings. 

In  the  two  centuries  succeeding,  there  flourished  amongst 
other  sovereigns  of  Ireland  less  known  to  fame,  the  celebrated 
Niall  of  the  Nine  Hostages,  and  King  Dahi.  During  these 
two  hundred  years  the  flag  of  Ireland  waved  through  conti- 
nental Europe  over  victorious  legions  and  fleets;  the  Irish 
monarchs  leading  powerful  armies  across  the  i^lains  of  Gaul, 
and  up  to  the  very  confines  of  ^'ihe  Csesar's  domains"  in 
Italy.  It  was  the  day  of  Ireland's  military  power  in  Europe; 
a  day  which  subsequently  waned  so  disastrously,  and,  later 
on,  set  in  utter  gloom.  Neighboring  Britain,  whose  yoke  a 
thousand  years  subsequently  Ireland  was  to  wear,  then  lay 
helpless  and  abject  at  the  mercy  of  the  Irish  hosts ;  the  Brit- 
ons, as  history  relates,  absolutely  weeping  and  wailing  at  the 
departure  of  the  enslaving  Eoman  legions,  because  now  there 
would  be  naught  to  stay  the  visits  of  the  Scoti,  or  Irish,  and 
the  Picts.  The  courts  of  the  Irish  princes  and  homes  of  the 
Irish  nobility  were  filled  with  white  slave  attendants,  brought 
'from  abroad,  some  from  Gaul,  but  most  from  Anglia.  It  was 
in  this  way  the  youthful  Patricius,  or  Patrick,  was  brought  a 
slave  into  Ireland  from  Gaul.  As  the  power  of  Imperial  Eome 
began  to  pale,  and  outlying  legions  were  being  every  year 
drawn  in  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  city  itself,  the  Irish  sun- 
burst blazed  over  the  scene,  and  the  retreating  Romans  found 
the  cohorts  of  Erinn  pushing  dauntlessly  and  vengefully  on 
their  track. 

Although  the  Irish  chroniclers  of  the  period  themselves 
say  little  of  the  deeds  of  the  armies  abroad,  the  continental 
records  of  the  time  give  us  pretty  full  insight  into  the  part 
they  played  on  the  European  stage  in  that  day.  Niall  of  the 
Nine  Hostages  met  his  death  in  Gaul,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Loire,  while  leading  his  armies  in  one  of  those  campaigns. 

Of  these  foreign  expeditions  Ireland  was  destined  to  be 
indebted  for  her  own  conquest  by  the  spirit  of  Christianity. 


ST.  PATRICK  GOING  TO  TARA. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ST.  PATRICK  IN  IRELAND. 

As  we  have  already  mentioned,  in  one  of  the  military 
excursions  of  King  Niali  the  First,  into  Gaul,  he  captured  and 
brought  to  Ireland  amongst  other  white  slaves,  Patricius,  a 
Koman-Gallic  youth  of  good  family,  and  his  sisters,  Darerca 
and  Lupita.  The  story  of  St.  Patrick's  bondage  in  Ireland,  of 
his  miraculous  escape,  his  entry  into  holy  orders,  his  vision 
of  Ireland— in  which  he  thought  he  heard  the  cries  of  a  multi- 
tude of  people,  entreating  him  to  come  to  them  in  Erinn— his 
long  studies  under  St.  Germain,  and  eventually  his  determina- 
tion to  undertake  in  an  especial  manner  the  conversion  of  the 
Irish,  will  all  be  found  in  any  Irish  Church  History  or  Life  of 
St.  Patrick.  Having  received  the  sanction  and  benediction  of 
the  holy  pontiff,  Pope  Celestine,  and  having  been  consecrated 
bishop,  St.  Patrick,  accompanied  by  a  few  chosen  priests, 
reached  Ireland  in  432.  Christianity  had  been  preached  in 
Ireland  long  before  St.  Patrick's  time.  In  431  St.  Palladius, 
Archdeacon  of  Rome,  was  sent  by  Pope  Celestine  as  a  bishop 
to  the  Christians  in  Ireland.  These,  however,  were  evidently 
but  few  in  number,  and  worshipped  only  in  fear  or  secrecy. 
The  attempt  to  preach  the  faith  openlj^  to  the  people  was  vio- 
lently suppressed,  and  St.  Palladius  sailed  from  Ireland.  St. 
Patrick  and  his  missioners  landed  on  the  spot  where  now 
stands  the  fashionable  watering  place  called  Bray,  near  Dub- 
lin. The  hostility  of  the  Lagenian  prince  and  people  com- 
pelled him  to  re-embark.  He  sailed  northwards,  touching  at 
Innis-Patrick,  near  Skerries,  county  Dublin,  and  eventually 
landed  at  Magh  Innis,  in  Strangford  Lough. 

Druidism  would  appear  to  have  been  the  form  of  pagan- 
ism then  prevailing  in  Ireland,  though  even  then  some  traces 
remained  of  a  still  more  ancient  idol-worship,  probably  dating 
from  the  time  of  the  Tuatha  de  Danaans,  two  thousand  years 
before.  St.  Patrick,  however,  found  the  Irish  mind  much  bet- 
ter prepared,  by  its  comparative  civilization  and  refinement, 
to  receive  the  truths  of  Christianity,  than  that  of  any  other 
nation  in  Europe  outside  Imperial  Rome.  The  Irish  were 
always— then  as  they  are  now— pre-eminently  a  reverential 
people,  and  thus  were  peculiarly  susceptible  of  religious  truth. 

49 


oO  Ireland's  Ckown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

St.  Patrick's  progress  through  the  island  was  marked  by  suc- 
cess from  the  outset.  Tradition  states  that,  expounding  the 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  he  used  a  little  sprig  of  trefoil, 
or  three-leaved  grass,  whence  the  Shamrock  comes  to  be  the 
National  Emblem,  as  St.  Patrick  is  the  National  Saint,  or 
Patron  of  Ireland. 

Ard-Ri  Laori  was  holding  a  druidical  feast  in  Tara,  at 
which  the  kindling  of  a  great  fire  formed  a  chief  feature  of 
the  proceedings,  and  it  was  a  crime  punishable  with  death 
for  any  one  to  light  a  fire  in  the  surrounding  country  on  the 
evening  of  that  festival,  until  the  sacred  flame  on  Tara  Hill 
blazed  forth.  To  his  amazement,  however,  the  monarch  be- 
held on  the  Hill  of  Slane,  visible  from  Tara,  a  bright  light 
kindling  early  in  the  evening.  This  was  the  Paschal  fire  which 
St.  Patrick  and  his  missioners  had  lighted,  for  it  was  Holy 
Saturday.  The  king  sent  for  the  chief  druid,  and  pointed  out 
to  him  on  the  distant  horizon  the  flickering  beam  that  so 
audaciously  violated  the  sacred  laws.  The  archpriest  gazed 
long  and  wistfully  on  the  spot,  and  eventually  answered,  '  *  0, 
king,  there  is  indeed  a  flame  lighted  on  yonder  hill,  which,  if 
it  be  not  put  out  to-night,  will  never  be  quenched  in  Erinn.*' 
.Much  disquieted  by  this  oracular  answer,  Laori  directed  that 
the  offenders,  whoever  they  might  be,  should  be  instantly 
brought  before  him  for  punishment.  St.  Patrick,  on  being 
arrested,  arrayed  himself  in  his  vestments,  and,  crozier  in 
hand,  marched  boldly  at  the  head  of  his  captors,  reciting  aloud 
as  he  went  along,  a  litany  which  is  still  extant,  in  which  he 
invoked,  ''on  that  momentous  day  for  Erinn,"  the  Holy  Trin- 
ity, the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  ever  Blessed 
Mary  the  Mother  of  God,  and  the  saints  around  the  throne 
of  heaven.  Having  arrived  before  the  king  and  his  assembled 
courtiers  and  druidical  high  priests,  St.  Patrick,  undismayed, 
proclauned  to  them  that  he  had  come  to  quench  the  fires  of 
pagan  sacrifice  in  Ireland,  and  light  the  flame  of  Christian 
faith.  The  king  listened  amazed  and  angered,  yet  no  penalty 
fell  on  Patrick.  On  the  contrary,  he  made  several  converts 
on  the  spot,  and  the  sermon  and  controversy  in  the  king's 
presence  proved  an  auspicious  beginning  for  the  glorious  mis- 
sion upon  which  he  had  just  entered. 

It  would  fill  a  volume  to  chronicle  the  progress  of  the 
Saint  through  the  island.  Before  his  death,  though  only  a  few 
of  the  reigning  princes  had  embraced  the  faith  (for  many 
years  subsequently  pagan  kings  ruled  the  country),  the  good 


Ancient  Ireland  51 

seeds  had  been  sown  far  and  wide,  and  were  thriving  apace, 
and  the  cross  had  been  raised  throughout  Ireland,  ' '  from  the 
centre  to  the  sea."  Ours  was  the  only  country  in  Europe,  it 
is  said,  bloodlessly  converted  to  the  faith.  Strictly  speaking, 
only  one  martyr  suffered  death  for  the  evangelization  of  Ire- 
land, and  death  in  this  instance  had  been  devised  for  the  Saint 
himself.  AVhile  St.  Patrick  was  returning  from  Munster  a 
pagan  chieftain  formed  a  desire  to  murder  him.  The  plan 
came  to  the  knowledge  of  Odran,  the  faithful  charioteer  of 
Patrick,  who,  saying  nought  of  it  to  him,  managed  to  change 
seats  with  the  Saint,  and  thus  received  himself  the  fatal  blow 
intended  for  his  master. 

Another  authentic  anecdote  may  be  mentioned  here.  At 
the  baptism  of  Aengus,  King  of  Mononia  or  Munster,  St.  Pat- 
rick accidentally  pierced  through  the  sandal-covered  foot  of 
the  king  with  his  pastoral  staff,  which  terminated  into  an  iron 
spike,  and  which  it  was  the  Saint's  custom  to  strike  into  the 
ground  by  his  side,  supporting  himself  more  or  less  thereb)^, 
while  preaching  or  baptizing.  The  king  bore  the  wound  with- 
out wincing,  until  the  ceremony  was  over,  when  St.  Patrick, 
with  surprise  and  pain,  beheld  the  groimd  covered  with  blood, 
and  observed  the  cause.  Being  questioned  by  the  Saint  as  to 
why  he  did  not  cry  out,  Aengus  replied  that  he  thought  it  was 
part  of  the  ceremony,  to  represent,  though  faintly,  the  wounds 
our  Lord  had  borne  for  man's  redem])tion. 

In  the  year  of  our  Lord  493,  on  the  17th  of  March— which 
day  is  celebrated  as  his  feast  by  the  Catholic  Church  and  by 
the  Irish  nation  at  home  and  in  exile— St.  Patrick  departed 
this  life  in  his  favorite  retreat  of  Saul,  in  the  county  of  Down, 
where  his  body  was  interred.  ^'His  obsequies,'*  say  the  old 
annalists,  "continued  for  twelve  days,  during  which  the  light 
of  innumerable  tapers  seemed  to  turn  night  into  day;  and 
the  bishops  and  priests  of  Ireland  congregated  on  the  occa- 
sion. ' ' 

Several  of  the  Saint's  compositions,  chiefly  prayers  and 
litanies,  are  extant.  They  breathe  the  most  fervent  devotion 
to  the  Virgin  Mother  of  God,  are  full  of  the  most  powerful 
invocations  of  the  saints,  and  in  all  other  particulars  are  ex- 
actly such  prayers  and  express  such  doctrines  as  are  taught 
in  our  own  day  in  the  unchanged  and  unchangeable  Catholic 
Church. 


CHAPTKK  VI. 

ANCIENT    GEOGRAPHICAL    DIVISIONS    OF    THE     COUNTRY— THE    NA- 
TIONAL MILITIA  — THE  BREUON   LAWS. 

The  gcograj)liical  subdivisions  of  ilio  country  varied  in 
successive  centuries.  The  chief  subdivision,  the  designations 
of  which  are  most  frequently  used  by  the  ancient  chroniclers, 
was  affected  by  a  line  drawn  from  the  hill  or  ridge  on'  the 
south  bank  of  the  Liffey,  on  tlie  eastern  end  of  wliich  the 
Castle  of  Dubliii  is  built,  running  due  west  to  the  peninsuhi 
of  Marey,  at  the  head  of  Galway  Bay.  Tiie  portion  of  Ireland 
south  of  this  line  Avas  called  Leah  Moha  (''Moh  Nua's  half") ; 
the  jjortion  to  the  north  of  it,  Leah  Cuiun  (''Conn's  half"). 
As  these  names  suggest,  this  division  of  the  island  was  first 
made  between  two  princes,  Conn  of  the  Hundred  Battles,  and 
Moh  Nua,  or  Eoghan  Mor,  otherwise  Eugene  the  Great,  the 
former  being  the  head  or  chief  representative  of  the  Milesian 
families  descended  from  Ir,  the  latter  of  those  descended  from 
Heber.  Though  the  primary  object  of  this  partition  was 
achieved  but  for  a  short  time,  the  names  thus  given  to  the  two 
territories  are  found  in  use,  to  designate  the  northern  and 
southern  halves  of  Ireland,  for  a  thousand  years  subsequently. 

Within  these  there  were  smaller  subdivisions.  The  an- 
cient names  of  the  four  provinces  into  which  Ireland  is  divided 
were,  Mononia  (Munster),  Dalaradia,  or  Ulidia  (Ulster),  La- 
genia  (Leinster),  and  Conacia,  or  Conact  (Connaught). 
Again,  Mononia  was  subdivided  into  Thomond  and  Desmond, 
i.  e.,  north  and  south  Munster.  Besides  these  names,  the  ter- 
ritory or  district  possessed  by  every  set  or  clan  had  a  desig- 
nation of  its  own. 

The  chief  palaces  of  the  Irish  kings,  whose  splendors  are 
celebrated  in  Irish  history,  were:  the  palace  of  Emania,  in 
Ulster,  founded  or  built  by  Macha,  queen  of  Cinbaeth  the  First 
(pronounced  Kimbahe),  about  the  year  B.  C.  700;  Tara  in 
Meath;  Cruachan,  in  Conact,  built  by  Queen  Maeve,  the  beau- 
tiful albeit  Amazonian  Queen  of  the  West,  about  the  year 
B.  C.  100 ;  Aileach,  in  Donegal,  built  on  the  site  of  an  ancient 
Sun-temple,  or  Tuatha  de  Danaan  fort-palace. 

Kincora  had  not  at  this  time  an  existence,  nor  had  it  for 
some  centuries  subsequently.     It  was  never  more  than  the 

53 


54  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

local  residence,  a  palatial  castle,  of  Brian  Boruma.  It  stood 
on  the  spot  where  now  stands  the  town  of  Killaloe. 

Emania,  next  to  Tara  the  most  celebrated  of  all  royal  pal- 
aces of  Ancient  Erinn,  stood  on  the  spot  now  marked  by  a 
large  rath  called  the  Nayan  Fort,  two  miles  to  the  west  of 
Armagh.  It  was  the  residence  of  the  Ulster  kings  for  a  period 
of  855  years. 

The  mound  or  Grianan  of  Aileach,  upon  which,  even  for 
hundreds  of  years  after  the  destruction  of  the  place,  the  0'- 
Donnells  were  elected,  installed,  or  '' inaugurated, "  is  still 
an  object  of  wonder  and  curiosity.  It  stands  on  the  crown 
of  a  low  hill  by  the  shores  of  Lough  Swilly,  about  five  miles 
from  Londonderry. 

Royal  Tara  has  been  crowned  with  an  imperishable  fame 
in  song  and  story.  The  entire  crest  and  slopes  of  Tara  Hill 
were  covered  with  buildings  at  one  time;  for  it  was  alone  a 
royal  palace,  the  residence  of  the  Ardi-Ei  (or  High  King)  of 
Erinn,  but,  moreover,  the  legislative  chambers,  the  military 
buildings,  the  law  courts  and  royal  universities  that  stood 
thereupon.  Of  all  these,  naught  now  remains  but  the  moated 
mounds  or  raths  that  mark  where  stood  the  halls  within 
which  bard  and  warrior,  ruler  and  lawgiver,  once  assembled 
in  glorious  pageant. 

Of  the  orders  of  Imightliood,  or  companionship  of  valor 
and  chivalry,  mentioned  in  pagan  Irish  history,  the  two  prin- 
cipal were:  the  Knights  of  the  (Craev  Eua,  or)  Red  Branch 
of  Emania,  and  the  Clanna  Morna,  or  the  Damnonian  Knights 
of  lorras.  The  former  were  a  Dalaradian,  the  latter  a  Cona- 
cian  body;  and,  test  the  records  how  we  may,  it  is  incontro- 
vertible that  no  chivalric  institutions  of  modern  times  eclipsed 
in  knightly  valor  and  romantic  daring  those  warrior  compan- 
ionships of  ancient  Erinn. 

Besides  these  orders  of  knighthood,  several  military  le- 
gions figure  familiarly  and  prominently  in  Irish  history;  but 
the  most  celebrated  of  them  all,  the  Dalcassians— one  of  the 
most  brave  and  *' glory-crowned"  bodies  of  which  there  is 
record  in  ancient  and  modern  times— did  not  figure  in  Irish 
history  until  long  after  the  commencement  of  the  Christian 
era. 

The  Fianna  Eirion,  or  National  Militia  of  Erinn,  we  have 
already  mentioned.  This  celebrated  enrollment  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  claiming  within  its  own  ranks  a  warrior-poet,  Os- 
sian  (son  of  the  commander  Fin),  whose  poems,  taking  for 


Ancient  Ireland  55 

their  theme  iuvariably  the  achievements  and  adventures  of 
the  Fenian  host,  or  of  its  chiefs,  have  given  to  it  a  lasting 
fame.  According  to  Ossian,  there  never  existed  upon  the 
earth  another  such  force  of  heroes  as  the  Fianna  Eirion ;  and 
the  feats  he  attributes  to  them  were  of  course  unparalleled. 
He  would  have  us  believe  there  were  no  taller,  straighter, 
stronger,  braver,  bolder,  men  in  all  Erinn,  than  his  Fenian 
comrades ;  and  with  the  recital  of  their  deeds  he  mixes  up  the 
wildest  romance  and  fable.  What  is  strictly  true  of  them  is, 
that  at  one  period  undoubtedly  they  were  a  splendid  national 
force ;  but  ultimately  they  became  a  danger  rather  than  a  pro- 
tection to  the  kingdom,  and  had  to  be  put  down  by  the  regular 
army  in  the  reign  of  King  Carbri  the  Second,  who  encountered 
and  destroyed  them  finally  on  the  bloody  battle  field  of  Gavra, 
about  the  year  A.  D.  280. 

Ben  Eder,  now  called  the  Hill  of  Howth,  near  Dublin,  was 
the  camp  or  exercise  ground  of  the  Fianna  Eirion  when  called 
out  annually  for  training. 

The  laws  of  pagan  Ireland,  which  were  collected  and  codi- 
fied in  the  reign  of  Cormac  the  First,  and  which  prevailed 
throughout  the  kingdom  as  long  subsequently  as  a  vestige  of 
native  Irish  regnl  authority  remained— a  space  of  nearly  fif- 
teen hundred  years— are,  even  in  this  present  age,  exciting 
considerable  attention  amongst  legislators  and  savants.  A 
royal  commission— the  ''Brehon  Laws  Commission"— ap- 
pointed by  the  British  government  in  the  year  1856  (chiefly 
owing  to  the  energetic  exertions  of  Eev.  Dr.  Graves  and  Rev. 
Dr.  Todd,  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin),  has  been  laboring  at 
their  translation,  parliament  voting  an  annual  sum  to  defray 
the  expenses.  Of  course  only  portions  of  the  original  manu- 
scripts are  now  in  existence,  but  even  these  portions  attest 
the  marvellous  wisdom  and  the  profound  justness  of  the  an- 
cient Milesian  Code,  and  give  us  a  high  opinion  of  Irish  juris- 
prudence two  thousand  years  ago. 

The  Brehon  Laws  Commission  published  their  first  vol- 
inne,  the  ^'Seanchns  Mor,"  in  1865,  and  a  most  interesting 
publication  it  is.  Immediately  on  the  establishment  of  Chris- 
tianity in  Ireland  a  royal  commission  of  that  day  was  appoint- 
ed to  re^dse  the  statute  laws  of  Erinn,  so  that  they  might  be 
purged  of  everything  applicable  only  to  a  pagan  nation  and 
inconsistent  with  the  pure  doctrines  of  Christianity.  On  this 
commission,  we  are  told,  there  were  appointed  by  the  Irish 
monarch  three  chief  Brehon?  or  judges,  three  Christian  bish- 


56  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ops,  and  three  territorial  chiefs  or  viceroys.  The  result  of 
their  labors  was  presented  to  the  Irish  parliament  at  Tara, 
and  being  duly  confirmed,  the  code  thenceforth  became  known 
as  the  Seanchus  Mor. 

From  the  earliest  age  the  Irish  appear  to  have  been  ex- 
tremely fond  of  games,  athletic  sports,  and  displays  of  prow- 
ess or  agility.  Amongst  the  royal  and  noble  families  chess 
was  the  chief  domestic  game.  There  are  indubitable  proofs 
that  it  was  played  amongst  the  princes  of  Erinn  two  thousand 
years  ago;  and  the  oldest  bardic  chants  or  verse-histories 
mention  the  gold  and  jewel  inlaid  chess  boards  of  the  kings. 

Of  the  passionate  attachment  of  the  Irish  to  music,  little 
need  be  said,  as  this  is  one  of  the  national  characteristics 
which  has  been  at  all  times  most  strongly  marked,  and  is  now 
most  widely  appreciated;  the  harp  being  universally  embla- 
zoned as  a  national  emblem  of  Ireland.  Even  in  the  pre- 
Christian  period  we  are  here  reviewing,  music  was  an  **  in- 
stitution" and  a  power  in  Erinn. 


Composed  Irom  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    GLORIOUS    MUSTER   ROLL   OF    IRISH    SAINTS  — COMING    OF    THE 

DANES. 

The  five  hundred  years,  oiie-halt'  of  which  preceded  the 
birth  of  our  Lord,  may  be  considered  the  period  of  Ireland's 
greatest  power  and  military  glory  as  a  nation.  The  five  hun- 
dred years  which  succeeded  St.  Patrick's  mission  may  be^  re- 
garded as  the  period  of  Ireland's  Christian  and  scholastic 
fame.  In  the  former  she  sent  her  warriors,  in  the  latter  her 
missionaries,  all  over  Europe.  Where  her  fierce  hero-kings 
carried  the  sword,  her  saints  now  bore  the  cross  of  faith.  It 
was  in  this  latter  period,  betw^een  the  sixth  and  the  eighth 
centuries  particularly,  that  Ireland  became  known  all  over 
Europe  as  the  ** Island  of  Saints  and  Scholars." 

Churches,  cathedrals,  monasteries,  convents,  universities 
covered  the  island.  From  even  the  most  distant  parts  of  Eu- 
rope, kings  and  their  subjects  came  to  study  in  the  Irish 
schools.  King  Alfred  the  Great  of  England  was  educated  in 
one  of  the  Irish  universities.  A  glorious  roll  of  Irish  saints 
and  scholars  belong  to  this  period :  St.  Columba  or  Columcille, 
St.  Columbanus,  St.  Gall,  who  evangelized  Helvetia,  St.  Fri- 
gidian,  who  was  bishop  of  Lucca  in  Italy,  St.  Lucinius,  who 
was  martyred  in  Flanders,  St.  Argobast,  who  became  bishop 
of  Strasburg,  St.  Killian,  the  apostle  of  Franconia,  and  quite 
a  host  of  illustrious  Irish  missionaries,  who  carried  the  bless- 
ings of  faith  and  education  all  over  Europe.  The  record  of 
their  myriad  adventurous  enterprises,  their  glorious  labors, 
their  evangelising  conquests,  cannot  be  traced  within  the 
scope  of  this  book. 

The  first  dark  cloud  came  from  Scandinavia.  Towards  the 
close  of  the  eighth  century  the  Danes  made  their  appearance 
in  Ireland.  They  came  at  first  as  transitory  coast  marauders, 
landing  and  sacking  a  neighboring  town,  church  or  monastery. 
For  this  species  of  warfare  the  Irish  seem  to  have  been  as 
little  prepared  as  any  of  the  European  countries  subjected  to 
the  like  courage ;  that  is  to  say,  none  of  them  but  the  Danes 
possessed  at  this  period  of  history  a  powerful  fleet.  So  when 
pirates  had  wreaked  their  will  upon  the  city  or  monastery,  in 
order  to  plunder  which  they  had  landed,  they  simply  re-im- 

57 


58  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

barked  and  sailed  away  comparatively  safe  from  molestation. 

At  length  it  seems  to  have  occurred  to  the  professional  pi- 
rates that  in  place  of  making  periodical  dashes  on  the  Irish 
coast,  they  might  secure  a  permanent  footing  thereupon,  and 
so  prepare  the  way  for  eventually  subjugating  the  entire  king- 
dom. Accordingly  they  came  in  force  and  possessed  them- 
selves of  several  spots  favorably  placed  for  such  purpose  as 
theirs— sites  for  fortified  maritime  cities  on  estuaries  afford- 
ing good  shelter  for  their  fleets,  viz.,  Dublin,  Drogheda,  Water- 
ford,  Limerick,  Wexford,  etc. 

In  the  fourth  year  of  Nial  the  Third  (about  the  year  A.  D. 
840),  there  arrived  a  monster  fleet  of  these  fierce  and  ruthless 
savages,  under  the  command  of  Turgesius.  They  poured  into 
the  country  and  carried  all  before  them.  For  nearly  seven 
years  Turgesius  exercised  over  a  considerable  district  kingly 
authority,  and  the  Irish  groaned  under  the  horrors  of  op- 
pression the  most  heartless  and  brutal.  Turgesius  converted 
the  cathedral  at  Clonmacnoise  into  a  palace  for  his  own  use, 
and  from  the  high  altar,  used  as  a  throne,  the  idolater  gave 
forth  his  tyrannical  commands.  Meantime  the  Christian  faith 
was  proscribed,  the  Christian  shrines  were  plundered,  the 
gold  and  jewels  were  kept  by  the  spoilers,  but  the  holy  relics 
were  sacrilegiously  given  to  destruction.  The  schools  were 
dispersed,  the  books  and  chronicles  burned,  and  finally  the 
''successor  of  Patrick,"  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  was 
seized,  the  cathedral  sacked,  imd  the  holy  prelate  brought  a 
captive  into  the  Danish  stronghold. 

But  a  day  of  retribution  was  at  hand.  The  divided  and  dis- 
organized tribes  were  being  bitterly  taught  the  necessity  of 
union.  These  latest  outrages  were  too  much  for  Christian 
Irish  flesh  and  blood  to  bear.  Concerting  their  measures,  the 
people  simultaneously  rose  on  the  oppressors.  Turgesius  was 
seized  and  put  to  death  by  Malachy,  prince  of  Westmeath, 
while  the  Irish  Ard-Ri,  Nial  the  Third,  at  length  able  to  rally 
a  powerful  army  against  the  invaders,  swooped  down  upon 
them  from  the  north,  and  drove  them  panic-stricken  to  their 
maritime  fortresses,  their  track  marked  with  slaughter.  Nial 
seems  to  have  been  a  really  noble  character,  and  the  circum- 
stances under  which  he  met  his  death,  sudden  and  calamitous, 
in  the  very  midst  of  his  victorious  career,  afford  ample  illus- 
tration of  the  fact.  His  army  had  halted  on  the  banks  of  the 
Callan  river,  at  the  moment  swollen  by  heavy  rains.  One  of 
the  roval  domestics  or  attpndants,  a  common  Giolla.  in  en- 


Ancient  Ireland  59 

deavoring  to  ford  the  river  for  some  purpose,  was  swept  from 
his  feet  and  carried  off  by  the  flood.  The  monarch,  who  hap- 
pened to  be  looking  on,  cried  aloud  to  his  guards  to  succor  the 
drowning  man,  but  quicker  than  any  other,  he  himself  plunged 
into  the  torrent.  He  never  rose  again.  The  brave  Nial,  who 
had  a  hundred  times  faced  death  in  the  midst  of  reddened 
spears,  perished  in  his  effort  to  save  the  life  of  one  of  the 
humblest  of  his  followers. 

The  power  of  the  Danes  was  broken,  but  they  still  clung 
to  the  seaports,  where  either  they  were  able  to  defy  efforts  at 
expulsion,  or  else  obtained  permission  to  remain  by  paying 
heavy  tribute  to  the  Irish  sovereign.  It  is  clear  enough  that 
the  presence  of  the  Danes  came,  in  course  of  time,  to  be  re- 
garded as  useful  and  profitable  by  the  Irish,  so  long  as  they 
did  not  refuse  tribute  to  the  native  power.  The  history  of  the 
succeeding  centuries  accordingly  -the  period  of  the  Danish 
struggle— exhibits  a  singular  spectacle.  The  Danes  made 
themselves  fully  at  home  in  the  great  maritime  cities,  which 
they  may  be  said  to  have  founded,  and  which  their  commerce 
certainly  raised  to  importance.  The  Irish  princes  made  al- 
liances betimes  with  them,  and  Danes  frequently  fought  on 
opposite  sides  in  the  internecine  conflicts  of  the  Irish  princes. 
Occasionally  seizing  a  favorable  opportunity— (when  the 
Irish  were  particularly  weakened  by  internal  feud,  and  when 
a  powerful  reinforcement  for  themselves  arrived  from  Scan- 
dinavia) —they  would  make  a  fierce  endeavor  to  extend  their 
dominion  on  Irish  soil.  These  efforts  were  mostly  successful 
for  a  time,  owing  to  the  absence  of  a  strong  centralized  au- 
thority amongst  the  Irish;  but  eventually  the  Irish,  by  put- 
ting forth  their  native  valor,  and  even  partially  combining  for 
the  time,  were  always  able  to  crush  them. 

Yet  it  is  evident  that  during  the  three  hundred  years  over 
which  the  Danish  struggle  spreads,  the  Irish  nation  was  un- 
dergoing disintegration  and  demoralization.  Towards  the 
middle  of  the  period,  the  Danes  became  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity; but  their  coarse  and  fierce  barbarism  remained  long 
after,  and  it  is  evident  that  contact  with  such  elements,  and 
increasing  political  disruption  among  themselves,  had  a  fatal 
effect  on  the  Irish.  They  absolutely  retrograded  in  learning 
and  civilization  during  this  time,  and  contracted  some  of  the 
worst  vices  that  could  pave  the  way  for  the  fate  that  a  few 
centuries  more  were  to  bring  upon  them. 

National  pride  may  vainly  seek  to  ignore  or  hide  the  great 


60  Ireland's  Chown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

truth  here  displayed.  During  the  three  hundred  years  which 
preceded  the  Anglo-Norman  invasion,  the  Irish  princes  ap- 
peared to  be  given  over  to  a  madness  for  destruction.  At  a 
time  when  consolidation  of  national  authority  was  becoming 
the  rule  all  over  Europe,  and  was  becoming  so  necessary  for 
them,  they  were  going  into  the  other  extreme.  As  the  general 
rule,  each  one  sought  only  his  personal  or  family  ambition  or 
aggrandisement,  and  strove  for  it  lawlessly  and  violently. 
Frequently  when  the  Ardi-Ei  of  Erinn  was  nobly  grappling 
with  the  Danish  foe,  and  was  on  the  point  of  finally  expelling 
the  foreigner,  a  subordinate  prince  would  seize  what  seemed 
to  him  the  golden  opijortunity  for  throwing  off  the  authority 
of  the  chief  king,  or  for  treacherously  endeavoring  to  grasp 
it  himself.  During  the  whole  time— three  centuries— there 
was  scarcely  a  single  reign  in  which  the  Ardi-Ri  did  not  find 
occupation  for  his  arms  as  constantly  in  compelling  the  sub- 
mission of  the  subordinate  princes,  as  in  combating  the  Danish 
foe. 

Religion  itself  suffered  in  this  national  declension.  In 
these  centuries  we  find  professedly  Christian  Irish  kings  them- 
selves as  ruthless  destroyers  of  churches  and  schools  as  the 
pagan  Danes  of  a  few  years  previous.  The  titles  of  the  Irish 
episcopacy  were  sometimes  seized  by  lay  princes  for  the  sake 
of  the  revenues  attached  to  them;  the  spiritual  functions  of 
the  officers,  however,  being  performed  by  ecclesiastics  mean- 
while. In  fine,  the  Irish  national  character  in  those  centuries 
is  to  be  censured,  not  admired.  It  would  seem  as  if  by  adding 
sacrilege  and  war  upon  religion  and  on  learning  to  political 
suicide  and  a  fatal  frenzy  of  factiousness,  the  Irish  princes  of 
that  period  were  doing  their  best  and  their  worst  to  shame  the 
glories  of  their  nation  in  the  preceding  thousand  years,  and 
to  draw  down  upon  the  country  the  terrible  chastisement  that 
eventually  befell  it,  a  chastisement  that  never  could  have  be- 
fallen it,  but  for  the  state  of  things  we  are  here  pointing  out. 

Yet  was  this  gloomy  period  lit  up  by  some  brilliant  flashes 
of  glory,  the  brightest,  if  not  the  last,  being  that  which  sur- 
rounds the  name  of  Clontarf ,  where  the  power  of  the  Danes  in 
Ireland  was  crushed  totally  and  forever. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

REIGN   OF   THE   CELEBRATED   KING,   BRIAN   BORU. 

Few  historical  names  are  more  widely  known  amongst 
Irishmen  than  that  of  Brian  the  First— ''Brian  of  the 
Tribute"— and  the  story  of  his  life  is  a  necessary  and  an 
interesting  introduction  to  an  account  of  the  battle  of  Clon- 
tarf. 

About  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century  the  crown  of 
Munster  was  worn  by  Mahon,  son  of  Ceineidi  (pr.  Kennedy), 
a  prince  of  the  Dalcassian  family.  Mahon  had  a  young 
brother,  Brian,  and  by  all  testimony  the  affection  which 
existed  between  the  brothers  was  something  touching.  Mahon, 
who  was  a  noble  character— ''as  a  prince  and  captain  in  every 
way  worthy  of  his  inheritance"— was  accompanied  in  all  expe- 
ditions, and  from  an  early  age  by  Brian,  to  whom  he  acted 
not  only  as  a  brother  and  prince,  but  as  military  preceptor. 
After  a  brilliant  career,  Mahon  fell  by  a  deed  of  deadly  treach- 
ery. A  rival  prince  of  South  Munster— "Molloy,  son  of 
Bran,  Lord  of  Desmond"— whom  he  had  vanquished,  pro- 
posed to  meet  him  in  friendly  conference  at  the  house  of  Don- 
ovan, a  Eugenian  chief.  The  safety  of  each  person  was  guar- 
anteed by  the  Bishop  of  Cork,  who  acted  as  mediator  between 
them.  Mahon,  chivalrous  and  unsuspecting,  went  unattended 
and  unarmed  to  the  conference.  He  was  seized  by  an  armed 
band  of  Donovan's  men,  who  handed  him  over  to  a  party  of 
Molloy's  retainers,  by  whom  he  was  put  to  death.  He  had 
with  him,  as  the  sacred  and  (as  it  ought  to  have  been)  in- 
violable "safe-conduct"  on  the  faith  of  which  he  had  trusted 
himself  into  the  power  of  his  foes,  a  copy  of  the  Gospels  writ- 
ten by  the  hand  of  St.  Barre.  As  the  assassins  drew  their 
swords  upon  him,  Mahon  snatched  up  the  sacred  scroll,  and 
held  it  on  his  breast,  as  if  he  could  not  credit  that  a  mur- 
derous hand  would  dare  to  wound  him  through  such  a  shield. 
But  the  murderers  plunged  their  swords  into  his  breast,  pierc- 
ing right  through  the  vellmn,  which  became  all  stained  and 
matted  with  blood.  Two  priests  had,  horror-stricken,  wit- 
nessed the  outrage.  They  caught  up  the  blood-stained  Gospels 
and  fled  to  the  bishop,  spreading  through  the  country  as  they 
went  the  dreadful  news  which  they  bore.    The  venerable  suc- 

61 


62  Ireland's  C-rown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

cesser  of  St.  Fin  Bar,  we  arc  told,  wept  bitterly  and  uttered 
a  prophecy  concerning  the  fate  of  the  murderers,  which  was 
soon  and  remarkably  fulfilled. 

''When  the  news  of  his  noble-hearted  brother's  death  was 
brought  to  Brian  at  Kineora,  he  was  seized  with  the  most 
violent  grief.  His  favorite  harp  was  taken  down,  and  he  sang 
the  death-song  of  Mahon,  recounting  all  the  glorious  actions 
of  his  life.  His  anger  flashed  out  through  his  tears  as  he 
wildly  chanted— 

"My  heart  shall  burst  within  my  breast. 
Unless  I  avenge  this  great  king, 
They  shall  forfeit  life  for  this  foul  deed. 
Or  I  must  perish  by  a  violent  death." 

"But  the  climax  of  his  grief  was,  that  Mahon  had  not  fallen 
behind  the  shelter  of  his  shield,  rather  than  trust  the  treach- 
erous word  of  Donovan."  A  "Bard  of  Thomond,"  in  our 
own  day— one  not  unworthy  of  his  proud  pseudonym— Mr.  M. 
Hogan  of  Limerick,  has  supplied  the  following  very  beautiful 
version  of  "Brian's  Lament  for  King  Mahon":— 

Lament,  0  Dalcassians,  the  Eagle  of  Cashel  is  dead. 
The  grandeur,  the  glory,  and  joy  of  her  palace  is  fled ; 
Your  strength  in  the  battle— your  bulwark  of  valor  is  low, 
But  the  fire  of  your  vengeance  will  fall  on  the  murderous  foe ; 

His  country  was  mighty— his  people  were  blest  in  his  reign. 
But  the  ray  of  his  glory  shall  never  shine  on  them  again ; 
Like  the  beauty  of  summer  his  presence  gave  joy  to  our  souls, 
When  Bards  sung  his  deeds  at  the  banquet  of  bright  golden 
bowls. 


Ye  maids  of  Temora,  whose  rich  garments  sweep  the  green 

plain ; 
Ye  chiefs  of  the  Sunburst,  the  terror  and  scourge  of  the  Dane ; 
Ye  gray-haired  Ard-Fileas,  whose  songs  fire  the  blood  of  the 

brave ; 
Oh :  weep,  for  your  Sun-Star  is  quenched  in  the  night  of  the 

grave. 


AxciLNT  Ikeland  63 

He  clad  you  witli   honors— he  filled  youi-  hij^h  hearts  with 

delight, 
In  the  midst  of  your  councils  he  beamed  in  his  wisdom  and 

might ; 
Gold,  silver,  and  jewels  were  only  as  dust  in  his  hand, 
But  his  swoi'd  like  a  lightuiug-fiash  blasted  the  foe  of  his  land. 

Oh:  Mahon,  my  brother;  we've  conquered  and  marched  side 

by  side, 
And  thou  wert  to  the  love  of  my  soul  like  a  beautiful  bride ; 
In  the  battle,  the  banquet,  the  council,  the  chase  and  the  throne, 
Our  beings  were  blended— our  spirits  were  filled  with  one  tone. 

Oh :  Mahon,  my  brother ;  thou  'st  died  like  the  hind  of  the  wood. 
The  hands  of  assassins  were  red  with  thy  pure,  noble  blood; 
And  I  was  not  near,  my  beloved,  when  thou  wert  o'erpower'd. 
To  steep  in  their  hearts'  blood  the  steel  of  my  blue-beaming 
sword. 

1  stood  by  the  dark,  misty  river  at  eve  dim  and  gray. 
And  I  heard  the  death-cry  of  the  spirit  of  gloomy  Craghlea; 
She  repeated  thy  name  in  her  caoine  of  desolate  woe, 
Then  I  knew  that  the  Beauty  and  Joy  of  Clan  Tail  was  laid 
low. 

All  day  and  all  night  one  dark  vigil  of  sorrow  I  keep, 

My  spirit  is  bleeding  with  wounds  that  are  many  and  deep ; 

My  banquet  is  anguish,  tears,  groaning,  and  wringing  of 

hands. 
In  madness  lamenting  my  Prince  of  the  gold-hilted  brands. 

0  God:  give  me  patience  to  bear  the  affliction  I  feel, 

But  for  every  hot  tear  a  red  blood-drop  shall  blush  on  my 

steel ; 
For  every  deep  pang  which  my  grief-stricken  spirit  has  known, 
A  thousand  death-wounds  in  the  day  of  revenge  shall  atone. 

And  he  smote  the  murderers  of  his  brother  with  a  swift  and 
terrible  vengeance.  Mustering  his  Dalcassian  legions,  which 
so  often  with  Mahon  he  had  led  to  victory,  he  set  forth  upon 
the  task  of  retribution.  His  first  effort,  the  old  records  tell 
us,  was  directed  against  the  Danes  of  Limerick,  who  were 
Donovan's  allies,  and  he  slew  Ivor,  their  king,  and  his  two 


64  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Koses 

sons.  Foreseeing  their  fate,  tbey  liad  fled  before  him,  and 
}iad  taken  refuge  in  "Bcattery's  Holy  Isle."  But  Brian  slew 
them  even  "between  the  horns  of  the  altar."  Next  came  the 
turn  of  Donovan,  who  had  meantime  hastily  gathered  to  his 
aid  the  Danes  of  South  Munster.  But  ''Brian,"  say  the 
Annaals  of  Innis  fallen,  ''gave  them  battle,  and  Auliife  and 
his  Danes,  and  Donovan  and  his  allies  were  all  cut  off."  Of 
all  guilty  in  the  murder  of  the  brother  whom  he  so  loved,  there 
now  remained  but  one— the  principal— Molloy,  son  of  Bran. 
After  the  fashion  in  those  times,  Brian  sent  Molloy  a  formal 
summons  or  citation  to  meet  him  in  battle  until  the  terrible 
issue  between  them  should  be  settled.  To  this  Molloy  re- 
sponded by  confederating  all  the  Irish  and  the  Danes  of 
South  Munster  whom  he  could  rally,  for  yet  another  encounter 
with  the  avenging  Dalcassian.  But  the  curse  of  the  Comharba 
of  St.  Barre  was  upon  the  murderers  of  Mahon,  and  the  might 
of  a  passionate  vengeance  was  in  Brian's  arm.  Again  he  was 
victorious.  The  confederated  Danes  and  Irish  were  over- 
thrown with  great  slaughter;  Brian's  son,  Morrogh,  then  a 
mere  lad,  "killing  the  murderer  of  his  uncle  Mahon  with  his 
own  hand."  "Molloy  was  buried  on  the  north  side  of  the 
mountain  where  Mahon  had  been  murdered  and  interred:  on 
Mahon  the  sun  shone  full  and  fair;  but  on  the  grave  of  his 
assassin  the  black  shadow  of  the  northern  sky  rested  always. 
Such  was  the  tradition  which  all  Munster  piously  believed. 
After  his  victory  Brian  was  universally  acknowledged  king 
of  Munster,  and  until  Ard-Ei  Malachy  won  the  battle  of  Tara, 
was  justly  considered  the  first  Irish  captain  of  his  age." 

This  was  the  opening  chapter  of  Brian 's  career.  Thence- 
forth his  military  reputation  and  his  political  influence  are 
found  extending  far  beyond  the  confines  of  Munster. 

The  supreme  crown  of  Ireland  at  this  time  was  worn  by  a 
brave  and  enlightened  sovereign,  Malachy  the  Second,  or 
Malachy  Mor.  He  exhibited  rare  qualities  of  statesmanship, 
patriotism,  and  valor  in  his  vigorous  efforts  against  the  Danes. 
On  the  occasion  of  one  of  his  most  signal  victories  over  them, 
he  himself  engaged  in  combat  two  Danish  princes,  overcame 
and  slew  both  of  them,  taking  from  off  the  neck  of  one  a 
massive  collar  of  gold,  and  from  the  grasp  of  the  other  a 
jewel-hilted  sword,  which  he  himself  thenceforward  wore  as 
troi^hies.  To  this  monarch,  and  to  the  incident  here  men- 
tioned, Moore  alludes  in  his  well-known  lines:— 


Ancient  Ireland  65 

Let  Erin  remember  the  days  of  old, 
Ere  her  faithless  sons  betrayed  her, 

Wlien  Malachy  wore  the  collar  of  gold 
Which  he  won  from  the  proud  invader. 

Whether  it  was  that  Ard-Ri  Malachy  began  to  fear  the  in- 
creasing and  almost  overshadowing  power  and  influence  of 
his  southern  tributary,  or  that  Brian  had  in  his  pride  of 
strength  refused  to  own  his  tributary  position,  it  seems  im- 
possible to  tell ;  but  unfortunately  for  Ireland  the  brave  and 
wise  Ard-Ri  Malachy,  and  the  not  less  brave  and  wise  tribu- 
tary Brian,  became  embroiled  in  a  bitter  war,  the  remote  but 
indubitable  consequences  of  which  most  powerfully  and  calam- 
itously affected  the  future  destinies  of  Ireland.  For  nearly 
twenty  years  the  struggle  between  them  continued.  Any 
adversary  less  able  than  Malachy  would  have  been  quiddy 
compelled  to  succumb  to  ability  such  as  Brian's;  and  it  may 
on  the  other  hand  be  said  that  it  was  only  a  man  of  Brian's 
marvellous  powers  whom  Malachy  could  not  effectively  crush 
in  as  many  months.  Two  such  men  united  could  accomplish 
anything  with  Ireland;  and  when  they  eventually  did  unite, 
they  absolutely  swept  the  Danes  into  their  walled  and  fortified 
cities,  from  whence  they  had  begun  once  more  to  overrun  the 
country  during  the  distractions  of  the  struggle  between 
Malachy  and  Brian.  During  the  short  peace  or  truce  between 
himself  and  the  Ard-Ri,  Brian— who  was  a  sagacious  diplo- 
matist as  well  as  great  general— seems  to  have  attached  to 
his  interest  nearly  all  the  tributary  kings,  and  subsequentlj^ 
even  the  Danish  princes;  so  that  it  was  easy  to  see  that 
already  his  eye  began  to  glance  at  the  suioreme  crown. 
Malachy  saw  it  all,  and  when  the  decisive  moment  at  last 
arrived,  and  Brian,  pla>^ng  Caesar,  ''crossed  ihe  Rubicon," 
the  now  only  titular  Ard-Ri  made  a  gallant  but  brief  defence 
against  the  ambitious  usurper— for  such  Brian  was  on  the 
occasion.  After  this  short  effort  Malachy  \aelded  with  dig- 
nity and  calmness  to  the  ine\ntable,  and  gave  up  the  monarchy 
of  Erinn  to  Brian.  The  abdicated  sovereign  thenceforward 
served  under  his  victorious  rival  as  a  subordinate,  with  a 
readiness  and  fidelity  which  showed  him  to  be  Brian's  superior 
at  least  in  unselfish  patriotism  and  in  readiness  to  sacrifice 
personal  pride  and  personal  rights  to  the  public  interests  of 
his  country. 

Brian,  now  no  longer  king  of  Munster,  but  Ard-Ri  of 


(io  Thki-axd's  Cno\vx  of  Tiiotixf^  and  Ro^r?; 

ErJniv  found  Ins  ambition  fully  crovrnod.  Tlio  power  and 
authority  to  wliieli  lie  had  thus  attained,  he  wielded  with  a 
wisdom,  a  sagacity,  a  firmness,  and  a  success  that  made  his 
reign  as  Ard-Ri,  while  it  lasted,  one  of  almost  unsurpassed 
glory,  prosperity,  and  happiness  for  Ireland.  Yet  the  student 
of  Irish  history  finds  no  fact  more  indelibly  marked  on  his 
mind  by  the  thoughtful  study  of  the  great  page  before  him, 
than  this,  namely,  that,  glorious  as  was  Brian's  reign— brave, 
generous,  noble,  pious,  learned,  accomplished,  politic,  and 
wise,  as  is  confessed  on  all  hands  to  have  been— his  seizure 
of  the  supreme  national  crown  was  a  calamity  for  Ireland. 
Or,  rather,  jDerhaps,  it  would  be  more  correct  and  more  just 
to  say,  that  having  reference  not  singly  to  his  ambitious  seiz- 
ure of  the  national  crown,  but  also  to  the  loss  in  one  day  of 
his  own  life  and  the  lives  of  his  next  heirs  (both  son  and 
grandson),  the  event  resulted  calamitously  for  Ireland.  For 
''it  threw  open  the  sovereignty  to  every  great  family  as  a 
prize  to  be  won  by  policy  or  force,  and  no  longer  an  inheri- 
tance to  be  determined  by  law  and  usage.  The  consequences 
were  what  might  have  been  expected.  After  his  death  the 
O'Connors  of  the  West  competed  with  both  O'Neills  and 
O'Briens  for  supremacy,  and  a  chronic  civil  war  prepared 
the  way  for  Strongbow  and  the  Normans. 

**The  term,  'kings  and  opposition'  is  applied  to  nearly  all 
who  reigned  between  King  Brian's  time  and  that  of  Roderic 
O'Connor"  (the  Norman  invasion),  "meaning  thereby  kings 
who  were  unable  to  secure  general  obedience  to  their  admin- 
istration of  affairs." 

Brian,  however,  in  all  probability,  as  the  historian  we 
have  quoted  pleads  in  his  behalf,  might  have  been  moved  by 
the  great  and  statesmanlike  scheme  of  consolidating  and 
fusing  Ireland  into  one  kingdom;  gradually  repressing  indi- 
viduality in  the  subordinate  principalities,  and  laying  the 
firm  foundation  of  an  enduring  and  compact  monarchical 
state,  of  which  his  own  posterity  would  be  the  sovereigns. 
''For  Morrogh,  his  first-born,  and  for  Morrogh's  descendants 
he  hoped  to  found  an  hereditary  kingship  after  the  type  uni- 
versally copied  throughout  Christendom.  He  was  not  igno- 
rant of  what  Alfred  had  done  for  England,  Harold  for  Nor- 
way, Charlemagne  for  France,  and  Otho  for  Germany."  If 
any  such  design  really  inspired  Brian's  course,  it  was  a 
grandly  useful  one,  comprehensive,  and  truly  national.  Its 
realization  was  just  what  Ireland  wanted  at  that  period  of  her 


Ancient  Ireland  07 

history.  But  its  existence  in  Brian's  mind  is  a  most  fanciful 
tlieory.  He  was  himself,  while  a  tributary  king,  no  wondrous 
friend  or  helper  of  centralised  authority.  He  pushed  from 
the  throne  a  wise  and  worthy  monarch.  He  grasjDed  at  the 
sceptre,  not  in  a  reign  of  anarchy,  but  in  a  period  of  com- 
parative order,  authority,  and  tranquillity. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  certain  it  is  that  Brian  was  ''every 
inch  a  king."  Neither  on  the  Irish  throne,  nor  on  that  of 
any  other  kingdom,  did  sovereign  ever  sit  more  splendidly 
qualified  to  rule;  and  Ireland  had  not  for  some  centuries 
known  such  a  glorious  and  prosperous,  peaceful  and  happy 
time  as  the  five  years  preceding  Brian's  death.  He  caused 
his  authority  to  be  not  only  unquestioned,  but  obeyed  and 
resj^ected  in  every  corner  of  the  land.  So  justly  were  the 
laws  administered  in  his  name,  and  so  loyally  obeyed  through- 
out the  kingdom,  that  the  bards  relate  a  rather  fanciful  story 
of  a  young  and  exquisitely  beautiful  lady,  making,  without  the 
slightest  apprehension  of  violence  or  insult,  and  in  perfect 
safety,  a  tour  of  the  island  on  foot,  alone  and  unprotected, 
though  bearing  about  her  the  most  costly  jewels  and  orna- 
ments of  gold.  A  national  minstrel  of  our  own  times  has 
celebrated  this  illustration  of  the  tranquillity  of  Brian's  reign 
in  the  well-known  poem,  ''Rich  and  rare  were  the  gems  she 
wore. ' ' 


Sculpture  on  Window.  Cathedral  Church.  Glendaloiigh:  Beranger,  1779. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DARK    TIMES    IN    IRELAND. 

About  this  time  the  Danish  power  all  over  Europe  had 
made  considerable  advances.  In  France  it  had  fastened  it- 
self upon  Normandy,  and  in  England  it  had  once  more  become 
victorious,  the  Danish  prince,  Sweyne,  having  been  proclaimed 
king  of  England  in  1013,  though  it  was  not  until  the  time  of 
his  successor,  Canute,  that  the  Danish  line  were  undisputed 
monarchs  of  England.  All  these  triumphs  made  them  turn 
their  attention  the  more  earnestly  to  Ireland,  which  they  so 
often  and  so  desperately,  yet  so  vainly,  sought  to  win.  At 
length  the  Danes  of  this  country— holding  several  of  the  large 
sea-port  cities,  but  yielding  tribute  to  the  Irish  monarch- 
seem  to  have  been  roused  to  the  design  of  rallying  all  the 
might  of  the  Scanian  race  for  one  gigantic  and  supreme  effort 
to  conquer  the  kingdom;  for  it  was  a  reflection  hard  for 
Northmen  to  endure,  that  they  who  had  conquered  England 
almost  as  often  as  they  tried,  who  had  now  placed  a  Danish 
sovereign  on  the  English  throne,  and  had  established  a 
Danish  dukedom  of  Normandy  in  France,  had  never  yet  been 
able  to  bring  this  dearly-coveted  western  isle  into  subjection, 
and  had  never  yet  given  a  monarch  to  its  line  of  kings.  Coin- 
cident! y  with  the  victories  of  Swe\Tie  in  England,  several 
Danish  expeditions  appeared  upon  the  Irish  coast:  now  at 
Cork  in  the  south,  now  at  Lough  Foyle  in  the  north ;  but  these 
were  promptly  met  and  repelled  by  the  vigor  of  the  Ard-Ri, 
or  of  the  local  princes.  These  forays,  however,  though  serious 
and  dangerous  enough,  were  but  the  prelude  to  the  forth- 
coming grand  assault,  or  as  it  has  been  aptly  styled,  '^the 
last  field-day  of  Christianity  and  Paganism  on  Irish  soil.'* 

''A  taunt  thrown  out  over  a  game  of  chess  at  Kincora 
is  said  to  have  hastened  this  memorable  day.  Maelmurra, 
prince  of  Leinster,  pla>-ing  or  advising  on  the  game,  made  or 
recommended  a  false  move,  upon  which  Morrogh,  son  of 
Brian,  observed,  it  was  no  wonder  the  Danes  (to  whom  he 
owed  his  elevation)  were  beaten  at  Glenmana,  if  he  gave 
them  advice  like  that.  Maelmurra,  highly  incensed  by  the 
allusion— all  the  more  severe  for  its  bitter  truth— arose, 
ordered  his  horse,  and  rode  away  in  haste.    Brian,  when  he 

69 


70  Ireland's  CiiOWN  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

heard  it,  despatched  a  messenger  after  the  indignant  guest, 
begging  him  to  return ;  but  Maelmurra  was  not  to  be  pacified, 
and  refused.  We  next  hear  of  him  as  concerting  with  certain 
Danish  agents,  always  open  to  such  negotiations,  those  meas- 
ures which  led  to  the  great  invasion  of  the  year  1014,  in  which 
the  whole  Scanian  race,  from  Angiesea  and  Man,  north  to 
Norway,  bore  an  active  share. 

These  agents  passing  over  to  England  and  Man,  among 
the  Scottish  isles,  and  even  to  the  Baltic,  followed  up  the  de- 
sign of  an  invasion  on  the  gigantic  scale.  Suibne,  earl  of 
Man,  entered  warmly  into  this  conspiracy,  and  sent  the  '  war- 
arrow'  through  all  those  'out-islands'  which  obeyed  him 
as  lord.  A  yet  more  formidable  potentate,  Sigurd,  of  the 
Orkneys,  next  joined  the  league.  He  was  the  fourteenth  earl 
of  Orkney,  of  Norse  origin,  and  his  power  was,  at  this  period, 
a  balance  to  that  of  his  nearest  neighbor,  the  king  of  Scots. 
He  had  ruled  since  the  year  966,  not  only  over  the  Orkneys, 
Shetland,  and  Northern  Hebrides,  but  the  coasts  of  Caithness 
and  Sutherland,  and  even  Ross  and  Moray  rendered  him 
homage  and  tribute.  Eight  years  before  the  battle  of  Clontarf, 
Malcolm  the  Second  of  Scotland  had  been  fain  to  purchase 
his  alliance  by  giving  him  his  daughter  in  marriage,  and  the 
kings  of  Denmark  and  Norway  treated  with  him  on  equal 
terms. 

The  hundred  inhabited  isles,  which  lie  between  Yell  and 
Man— isles  which  after  their  conversion  contained  'three 
hundred  churches  and  chapels'— sent  in  their  contingents,  to 
swell  the  following  of  the  renowned  earl  Sigurd.  As  his  fleet 
bore  southward  from  Kirkwall  it  swept  the  subject  coast  of 
Scotland,  and  gathered  from  every  lough  its  galleys  and  its 
fighting  men.  The  rendezvous  was  the  Isle  of  Man,  where 
Suibne  had  placed  his  own  forces,  under  the  command  of 
Brodar,  or  Broderick,  a  famous  leader  against  the  Britons  of 
Wales  and  Cornwall.  In  conjunction  with  Sigurd,  the  Manx- 
men sailed  over  to  Ireland,  where  they  were  joined,  in  the 
Liffey,  by  Earl  Canuteson,  prince  of  Denmark,  at  the  head  of 
fourteen  hundred  champions  clad  in  armor.  Sitric  of  Dublin 
stood,  or  affected  to  stand,  neutral  in  these  preparations,  but 
Maelmurra  of  Leinster  had  mustered  all  the  forces  he  could 
command  for  such  an  expedition."     (McGee.) 

Here  was  a  mighty  thunderstorm  gathering  over  and 
around  Ireland.  Never  before  was  an  effort  of  such  magni- 
tude made  for  the  conqno yt  of  the  island.  Never  before  had 
the  Danish  power  so  palpably  put  forth  its  utmost  strength, 


AiXC'lENT   lllELAXD  71 

and  never  Litlierto  had  it  put  forth  such  strength  in  vain. 
This  was  the  supreme  moment  for  Ireland  to  show  what  she 
could  do  when  united  in  self-defense  against  a  foreign  in- 
vader.    Here  were  the  unconquered  Northmen,  the  scourge 
and  terror  of  Europe,  the  conquerors  of  Britain,  Normandy, 
Anglesea,  Orkney,  and  Man,  now  concentrating  the  might  of 
their  whole  race,  from  fiord  to  haven,  from  the  Orkneys  to 
the  Sicily  Isles,  to  burst  in  an  overwhelming  billow  upon 
Ireland.     If  before  a  far  less  formidable  assault  England 
went  down,  dare  Ireland  hope  now  to  meet  and  withstand  this 
tremendous  shock?    In  truth,  it  seemed  a  hard  chance.     It 
was  a  trial-hour  for  the  men  of  Erinn.    And  gloriously  did 
they  meet  it:    Never  for  an  instant  were  they  daunted  by 
the  tidings  of  the  extensive  and  mighty  preparations  going 
forward ;  for  the  news  filled  Europe,  and  a  hundred  harbors 
in  Norway,  Denmark,  France,  England,  and  the  Channel  Isles 
resounded  day  and  night  with  the  bustle  preparatory  to  the 
coming  of  war.    Brian  was  fully  equal  to  the  emergency.    He 
resolved  to  meet  force  by  force,  combination  by  combination, 
preparation  by  preparation ;  to  defy  the  foe  and  let  them  see 
''what  Irishmen  could  do."    His  efforts  were  nobly  seconded 
by  the  zeal  of  all  the  tributary  princes  (with  barely  a  few 
exceptions),  but  most  nobly  of  all  by  the  deposed  Malachy, 
whose  conduct  upon  this  occasion  alone  would  entitle  him  to 
a  proud  place  in  the  annals  of  Ireland.    In  one  of  the  pre- 
liminary expeditions  of  the  Danes  a  few  years  previously,  he 
detected  more  quickly  than  Brian  the  seriousness  of  the  work 
going  forward ;  he  sent  word  immediately  to  Kincora  that  the 
Danes,  who  had  landed  near  Dublin,  were  marching  inward, 
and  entreated  Brian  to  hasten  to  check  them  promptly.    The 
Ard-Ri,  however,  was  at  that  time  absolutely  incredulous  that 
anything  more  serious  than  a  paltry  foray  was  designed,  and 
he  refused,  it  is  said,  to  lend  any  assistance  to  the  local  prince. 
But  Malachy  had  a  truer  conception  of  the  gravity  of  the  case. 
He  himself  marched  to  meet  the  invaders,  and  in  a  battle 
which  ensued,  routed  them,  losing,  however,  in  the  hour  of 
victory  his  son  Flann.    This  engagement  awakened  Brian  to 
a  sense  of  the  danger  at  hand.     He  quickly  despatched  an 
auxiliary  force,  under  his  son  Morrogh,  to  Malachy 's  aid; 
but  the  Danes,  driven  within  their  walled  city  of  Dublin  by 
Malachy,  did  not  venture  out;  and  so  the  Dalcassian  force 
returned  southwards,  devastating  the  territory  of  the  traitor 
Maelmorha,  of  Leinster,  whose  perfidy  was  now  openly  pro- 
claimed. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  DANES  CKUSHED— IRELAND  VICTORIOUS  AT  CLONTARF. 

Brian  soon  became  fully  aware  of  the  scheme  at  which  the 
Danes  all  over  Europe  were  laboring,  and  of  the  terrible 
trial  approaching  for  Ireland.  Through  all  the  autumn  of 
that  year,  1013,  and  the  spring  months  of  the  year  following, 
the  two  powers,  Danish  and  Irish,  were  working  hard  at 
preparations  for  the  great  event,  each  straining  every  energy 
and  summoning  every  resource  for  the  crisis.  Towards  the 
end  of  March,  Brian's  arrangements  being  completed,  he 
gave  the  order  for  a  simultaneous  march  to  Kilmainham, 
usually  the  camping  ground  at  that  time  of  the  national  forces. 
By  the  second  week  in  April  there  had  rallied  to  the  national 
standard  a  force  which,  if  numerically  unequal  to  that 
assembled  by  the  invaders,  was,  as  the  result  showed,  able  to 
compensate  by  superior  valor  for  whatever  it  lacked  in  num- 
bers. The  lords  of  all  the  southern  half  of  the  kingdom— 
the  lords  of  Decies,  Inchiquin,  Permoy,  Corca-Baiskin,  Kinal- 
meaky,  and  Kerry— and  the  lords  of  Hy-Mani  and  Hi-Fiachra 
in  Connacht,  we  are  told,  hastened  to  Brian's  standard. 
O'More  and  0 'Nolan  of  Leinster,  and  Donald,  Steward  of 
Marr,  in  Scotland,  continues  the  historian,  ''were  the  other 
chieftains  who  joined  him  before  Clontarf,  besides  those  of 
his  own  kindred, ' '  or  the  forces  proper  of  Thomond.  Just  one 
faint  shadow  catches  the  eye  as  we  survey  the  picture  pre- 
sented by  Ireland  in  the  hour  of  this  great  national  rally. 
The  northern  chieftains,  the  lords  of  Ulster,  alone  held  back. 
Sullen  and  silent  they  stirred  not.  '■'  They  had  submitted  to 
Brian,  but  they  never  cordially  supported  him.** 

The  great  Danish  flotilla,  under  Brodar,  the  admiral-in- 
chief,  entered  Dublin  Bay  on  Palm  Sunday,  the  18th  of  April, 
1014.  The  galleys  anchored,  some  at  Sutton,  near  Howth, 
others  were  moored  in  the  mouth  of  the  river  Lilfey,  and  the 
rest  were  beached  or  anchored  in  a  vast  line  stretching  along 
the  Clontarf  shore,  which  sweeps  between  the  two  points  indi- 
cated. Brian  irmnediately  swung  his  army  round  upon  Glas- 
nevin,  crossed  the  Tolka  at  the  point  where  the  Botanical 
Gardens  now  stand,  and  faced  his  line  of  battle  southward 
towards  where  the  enemy  were  planted,  or  encamped  upon  the 

73 


74  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

shore.  Meantime,  becoming  aware  that  Maehnorha,  prince 
of  Leinster,  was  so  eager  to  help  the  invader  that  he  had 
entered  the  Danish  camp  with  every  man  of  his  following, 
Brian  secretly  despatched  a  body  of  Dalcassians,  under  his 
son  Donagh,  to  dash  into  the  traitors'  territory  and  waste  it 
with  fire  and  sword.  The  secret  march  southward  of  the 
Dalcassians  was  communicated  to  Maelmorha  by  a  spy  in 
Brian's  camp,  and,  inasmuch  as  the  Dalcassians  were  famed 
as  the  ''invincible  legion"  of  the  Irish  army,  the  traitor  urged 
vehemently  upon  his  Danish  allies  that  this  was  the  moment 
to  give  battle— while  Brian's  best  troops  were  away.  Accord- 
ingly, on  Holy  Thursday,  the  Danes  announced  their  resolu- 
tion to  give  battle  next  day.  Brian  had  the  utmost  reluctance 
to  fight  upon  that  day,  which  would  be  Good  Friday,  thinking 
it  almost  a  profanation  to  engage  in  combat  upon  the  day  on 
which  our  Lord  died  for  man's  redemption.  He  begged  that 
the  engagement  might  be  postponed  even  one  day;  but  the 
Danes  were  all  the  more  resolute  to  engage  on  the  next  morn- 
ing, for,  says  an  old  legend  of  the  battle,  Brodar,  having  con- 
sulted one  of  the  Danish  pagan  oracles,  was  told  that  if  he 
gave  battle  upon  the  Friday  Brian  would  fall. 

With  early  dawn  next  day.  Good  Friday,  23rd  of  Ajiril, 
1014,  all  was  bustle  in  both  camps.  The  Danish  army,  facing 
inland,  northwards  or  northeast,  stretched  along  the  shore  of 
Dublin  Bay,  its  left  flank  touching  and  protected  by  the  city 
of  Dublin,  its  center  being  about  the  spot  where  Clontarf 
Castle  now  stands,  and  its  right  wing  resting  on  Dollymount. 
The  Irish  army,  facing  southwards,  had  its  right  on  Drum- 
condra,  its  center  on  Fairview,  and  its  extreme  left  on  Clon- 
tarf. The  Danish  forces  were  disposed  of  in  three  divisions, 
of  which  tlic  first,  or  left,  was  composed  of  the  Danes  of 
Dublin,  under  their  king,  Sitric,  and  the  princes  Dolat  and 
Conmeal,  with  the  thousand  Norwegians  already  mentioned 
as  clothed  in  suits  of  ringed  mail,  under  the  youthful  warriors 
Carlus  and  Anrud ;  the  second,  or  central  division,  was  com- 
]:)0sed  chiefly  of  the  Lagenians,  commanded  by  Maelmorha 
himself,  and  the  princes  of  Offaly  and  of  the  Liff ey  territory ; 
and  the  third  division,  or  right  wing,  was  made  up  of  the 
auxiliaries  from  the  Baltic  and  the  Islands,  under  Brodar, 
with  some  British  auxiliaries  from  Wales  and  Cornwall.  To 
oppose  these  the  Irish  monarch  also  marshalled  his  forces  in 
three  corps  or  divisions.  The  first,  or  right  wing,  composed 
chiefly  of  the  diminished  legions  of  the  brave  Dalcassians, 


Ancient  Ikeland  75 

was  under  the  command  of  his  son  Morrogh,  who  had  also  with 
hun  his  four  brothers,  Teige,  Donald,  Conor,  and  Flann,  and 
his  own  son  (grandson  of  Brian),  the  youthful  Torlogh,  who 
was  but  fifteen  years  of  age.  In  this  division  also  fought 
Malachy  with  the  Meath  contingent.  The  Irish  center  division 
composed  the  troops  of  Desmond,  or  South  Munster,  under 
the  command  of  KiaH,  son  of  Molloy,  and  Donel,  son  of  Duv 
Davoren  (ancestor  of  the  O'Donoghue),  both  of  the  Eugenian 
line.  The  Irish  left  wing  was  composed  mainly  of  the  forces 
of  Connaught,  under  O'Kelley,  prince  of  Hy-Manie  (the  great 
central  territory  of  Connact) ;  O'Heyne,  prince  of  Hy-Fiachra 
Ahna,  and  Echtigern,  king  of  Dalaradia.  It  is  supposed  that 
Brian's  army  numbered  about  20,000  men. 

All  being  ready  for  the  signal  of  battle,  Brian  himself, 
mounted  on  a  richly-caparisoned  charger,  rode  through  the 
Irish  lines,  as  all  the  records  are  careful  to  tell  us,  ''with  his 
sword  in  one  hand,  and  a  crucifix  in  the  other,"  exhorting  the 
troops  to  remember  the  momentous  issues  that  depended  upon 
the  fortunes  of  that  day— Keligion  and  Country  against  Pagan- 
ism and  bondage.    It  is  said,  that  on  this  occasion  he  delivered 
an  address  which  moved  his  soldiers,  now  to  tears,  and  anon 
to  the  utmost  pitch  of  enthusiasm  and  resolution.    And  we  can 
well  imagine  the  effect,  upon  an  army  drawn  up  as  they  were 
for  the  onset  of  battle  in  defence  of  ' '  Faith  and  Fatherland, ' ' 
of  such  a  sight  and  such  an  appeal— their  aged  and  venerable 
monarch, ' '  his  white  hair  floating  in  the  wind, ' '  riding  through 
their  lines,  with  the  sacred  s\inbo]  of  Redemption  borne  aloft, 
and  adjuring  them,  as  the  chronicles  tell  us,  to  '' remember 
that  on  this  day  Christ  died  for  us,  on  the  Mount  of  Calvary." 
Moreover,  Brian  himself  had  given  them  an  earnest,  such 
perhaps  as  monarch  had  never  given  before,  of  his  resolve, 
that  with  the  fortunes  of  his  country  he  and  his  sons  and 
kinsmen  all  would  stand  or  fall.    He  had  brought  ''his  sons 
and  nephews  there,"  says  the  historian,   who  might  have 
added,  and  even  his  grandchildren,"  and  showed  that  he  was 
prepared  to  let  existence  of  his  race  depend  upon  the  issue  of 
the  day."    We  may  be  sure  a  circumstance  so  affecting  as  this 
was  not  lost  upon  Brian's  soldiers.    It  gave  force  to  every 
word  of  his  address.    He  recounted,  we  are  told,  all  the  bar- 
barities and  the  sacrileges  perpetrated  by  the  invaders  in 
their  lawless  ravages  on  Irish  soil,  the  shrines  they  had  plun- 
dered, the  holy  relics  they  had  profaned,  the  brutal  cruelties 
they  had  inflicted  on  unarmed  non-combatants— nay,  on  "the 


76  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

servants  of  the  Altar."  Then,  raising  the  crucifix  aloft,  he 
invoked  the  Omnipotent  God  to  look  down  upon  them  that  day, 
and  to  strengthen  their  arms  in  a  cause  so  just  and  holy. 

Mr.  William  Kenealy  is  the  author  of  a  truly  noble  poem 
which  gives  all  the  native  vigor  and  force  of  the  original— this 
thrilling  *' Address  of  King  Brian  to  his  Army": 

Stand  ye  now  for  Erin's  glory !  Stand  ye  now  for  Erin's  cause ! 

Long  ye  Ve  groaned  beneath  the  rigor  of  the  Northmen's  sav- 
age laws. 

What  though  brothers  league  against  us?  What  though 
myriads  be  the  foe? 

Victory  shall  be  more  honoured  by  the  myriad's  overthrow. 

Proud  Connacians !  oft  w^e  've  wrangled  in  our  pletty  feuds  of 

yore; 
Now  we  fight  against  the  robber  Dane  upon  our  native  shore ; 
May  our  hearts  unite  in  friendship  as  our  blood  in  one  red 

tide, 
AVhile  we  crush  their  mail-clad  legions,  and  annihilate  their 

pride ! 

Brave  Eugenians!    Erin  triumphs  in  the  sight  she  sees  to- 
day- 
Desmond's  homesteads  all  deserted  for  tlie  muster  of  the  fray! 
Cluan's  vale  and  Galtees'  summit  send  their  bravest  and  their 

best ; 
May  such  hearts  be  theirs  for  ever  for  the  Freedom  of  the 
West! 

Chiefs  and  Kernes  of  Dalcassia !  Brothers  of  my  past  career, 
Oft  we've  trodden  on  the  pirate  flag  that  flaunts  before  us 

here ; 
You  remember  Inniscattery,  how  we  bounded  on  the  foe, 
As  the  torrent  of  the  mountain  bursts  upon  the  plain  below? 

They  have  razed  our  proudest  castles— spoiled  the  Temples 

of  the  Lord— 
Burnt  to  dust  the  sacred  relic— put  the  Peaceful  to  the 

Sword— 
Desecrated  all  things  holy— as  they  soon  may  do  again, 
If  their  power  to-day  we  smite  not— if  to-day  we  be  not  men ! 


Ancient  lui::LANu  77 

On  this  day  the  God-man  suffered— look  upon  the  sacred 

sign- 
May  we  conquer  'neath  this  banner  as  of  old  did  Constantine  I 
May  the  heathen  tribe  of  Odin  fade  before  it  like  a  dream, 
And  the  triumph  of  this  glorious  day  in  future  annals  gleam! 

God  of  Heaven  bless  our  banner— nerve  our  sinews  for  the 

strife ! 
Fight  we  now  for  all  that's  holy— for  our  altars,  land  and 

life- 
For  red  vengeance  on  the  spoiler,  whom  the  blazing  temples 

trace— 
For  the  honor  of  our  maidens  and  the  glory  of  our  race ! 

Should  I  fall  before  the  f oeman,  'tis  the  death  I  seek  to-day ; 
Should  ten  thousand  daggers  pierce  me,  bear  my  body  not 

away, 
Till  this  day  of  days  is  over— till  the  field  is  fought  and  won— 
Then  the  holy  Mass  be  chanted,  and  the  funeral  rites  be  done. 

Men  of  Erin,  men  of  Erin,  grasp  the  battle-axe  and  spear ! 
Chase  these  Northern  wolves  before  you  like  a  herd  of  fright- 
ened deer, 
Burst  their  ranks  like  bolts  from  heaven !    Down  on  the  hea- 
then crew, 
■"^'or  the  glory  of  the  Crucified,  and  Erin's  glory  tool 

Who  can  be  astonished  that,  as  he  ceased,  a  shout,  wild,  fu- 
rious and  deafening  burst  from  the  Irish  lines?  A  cry  arose 
from  the  soldiers,  we  are  told,  demanding  instantly  to  be  led 
against  the  enemy.  The  aged  monarch  now  placed  himself 
at  the  head  of  his  guards,  to  lead  the  van  of  battle ;  but  at  this 
point  his  sons  and  all  the  attendant  princes  and  commanders 
protested  against  his  attempting,  at  his  advanced  age,  to  take 
part  personally  in  the  conflict;  and  eventually,  after  much 
effort,  they  succeeded  in  persuading  him  to  retire  to  his  tent 
and  to  let  the  chief  command  devolve  upon  his  oldest  son 
Morrogh. 

''The  battle,'*  says  the  historian,  ''then  commenced— 'a 
spirited,  fierce,  violent,  vengeful,  and  furious  battle— the  like- 
ness of  which  was  not  to  be  found  at  that  time,*  as  the  old 
annalists  quaintly  describe  it.  It  was  a  conflict  of  heroes.  The 
chieftains  engaged  at  every  point  in  single  combat;  and  th« 


7S  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

greater  part  of  them  on  both  sides  fell.  The  hnpetnosity  of 
the  Irish  was  irresistible,  and  their  battle-axes  did  fearful 
execution,  every  man  of  the  ten  hundred  mailed  warriors  of 
Norway  having  been  made  to  bite  the  dust,  and  it  was  against 
them,  we  are  told,  that  the  Dalcassians  had  been  obliged  to 
contend  single-handed.  The  heroic  Morrogh  performed  prodi- 
gies of  valor  throughout  the  day.  Banks  of  men  fell  before 
him ;  and,  hewing  his  way  to  the  Danish  standard,  he  cut  down 
two  successive  bearers  of  it  with  his  battle-axe.  Two  Danish 
leaders,  Carolus  and  Conmael,  enraged  at  this  success,  rushed 
on  him  together,  but  both  fell  in  rapid  succession  by  his  sword. 
Twice,  Morrogh  and  some  of  his  chiefs  retired  to  slake  their 
thirst  and  cool  their  hands,  swollen  from  the  violent  use  of 
the  sword;  and  the  Danes,  observing  the  vigor  with  which 
the^  returned  to  the  conflict,  succeeded,  by  a  desperate  effort, 
in  cutting  off  the  brook  which  had  refreshed  them.  Thus  the 
battle  raged  from  an  early  hour  in  the  morning— innumerable 
deeds  of  valor  being  performed  on  both  sides,  and  victory  ap- 
pearing still  doubtful,  until  the  third  or  four  hour  in  the  after- 
noon, when  a  fresh  and  desperate  effort  was  made  by  the 
Irish,  and  the  Danes,  now  almost  destitute  of  leaders,  began 
to  waver  and  give  way  at  every  point.  Just  at  this  moment 
the  Norwegian  prince,  Anrud,  encountered  Morrogh,  who  was 
unable  to  raise  his  arms  from  fatigue,  but  with  the  left  hand  he 
seized  Anrud  and  hurled  him  to  the  earth,  and  with  the  other 
placed  the  point  of  his  sword  on  the  breast  of  the  prostrate 
Northman,  and,  leaning  on  it,  plunged  it  through  his  body. 
While  stooping,  however,  for  this  purpose,  Anrud  contrived  to 
inflict  on  him  a  mortal  wound  with  a  dagger,  and  Morrogh  fell 
in  the  arms  of  victory.  According  to  other  accounts,  Morrogh 
was  in  the  act  of  stooping  to  relieve  an  enemj^  when  he  received 
from  him  his  death  wound.  This  disaster  did  not  have  the  ef- 
fect of  turning  the  fortune  of  the  day,  for  the  Danes  and 
their  allies  were  in  a  state  of  utter  disorder,  and  along  their 
whole  line  had  commenced  to  fly  towards  the  city  or  to  their 
ships.  They  plunged  into  the  Tolka  at  a  time,  we  may  con- 
clude, when  the  river  was  swollen  with  the  tide,  so  that  great 
numbers  were  drowned.  The  body  of  young  Turlough  was 
found  after  the  battle  'at  the  weir  of  Olontarf,'  with  his  hands 
entangled  in  the  hair  of  a  Dane  whom  he  had  grappled  with  in 
the  pursuit. 

''But  the  chief  tragedy  of  the  day  remains  to  be  related. 
Brodar,  the  pirate  admiral,  who  commanded  in  the  point  of 


DEATH  OF  KING  BRIAN  BORU, 
Good  Friday,-  1014. 


Ancient  Ireland  79 

the  Danish  lines  remotest  from  tlio  city,  seeing  the  rout  gen- 
eral, was  making  liis  way  through  some  tliickets  with  only  a 
few  attendants,  when  he  came  upon  the  tent  of  Brian  Borumha, 
left  at  that  moment  without  his  guards.  The  fierce  Norseman 
rushed  in  and  found  the  aged  monarch  at  prayer  before  the 
crucifix,  which  he  had  that  morning  held  up  to  the  view  of  his 
troops,  and  attended  only  by  his  page.  Yet,  Brian  had  time 
to  seize  his  arms,  and  died  sword  in  hand.  The  Irish  accounts 
say  that  the  king  killed  Brodar,  and  was  only  overcome  by 
numbers;  but  the  Danish  version  in  the  Niala  Saga  is  more 
probable,  and  in  this  Brodar  is  represented  as  holding  up  his 
reeking  sword,  and  crying:  'Let  it  be  proclaimed  from  man 
to  man  that  Brian  has  been  slain  by  Brodar.'  It  is  added, 
on  the  same  authority,  that  the  ferocious  pirate  was  then 
hemmed  in  by  Brian's  returned  guards  and  captured  alive, 
and  that  he  was  hung  from  a  tree,  and  continued  to  rage  like 
a  beast  of  prey  until  all  his  entrails  were  torn  out— the  Irish 
soldiers  thus  taking  savage  vengeance  for  the  death  of  their 
king,  who  but  for  their  own  neglect  would  have  been  safe." 

Such  was  the  victory  of  Clontarf — one  of  the  most  glorious 
events  in  the  annals  of  Ireland.  It  was  the  final  effort  of 
the  Danish  power  to  effect  the  conquest  of  this  country.  Never 
again  was  that  effort  renewed.  For  a  century  subsequently 
the  Danes  continued  to  hold  some  maritime  cities  in  Ireland; 
but  never  more  did  they  dream  of  conquest.  That  design  was 
overthrown  forever  on  the  bloody  plain  of  Clontarf. 

It  was,  as  the  historian  called  it  truly,  ''a  conflict  of 
heroes."  There  was  no  flinching  on  either  side,  and  on  each 
side  fell  nearly  every  commander  of  note  who  had  entered  the 
battle.  The  list  of  the  dead  is  a  roll  of  nobility,  Danish  and 
Irish;  amongst  the  dead  being  the  brave  Caledonian  chiefs, 
the  great  Stewards  of  Mar  and  Lennox,  who  had  come  from 
distant  Alba  to  fight  on  the  Irish  side  that  day. 

But  direst  disaster  of  all— most  woful  in  its  ulterior  re- 
sults affecting  the  fate  and  fortunes  of  Ireland— was  the 
slaughter  of  the  reigning  family:  Brian  himself,  Morrogh, 
his  eldest  son  and  destined  successor,  and  his  grandson,  ''the 
youthful  Torlogh,"  eldest  child  of  Morrogh— three  genera- 
tions cut  down  in  one  day  upon  the  same  field  of  battle. 

' '  The  fame  of  the  event  went  out  through  all  nations.  The 
chronicles  of  Wales,  of  Scotland,  and  of  Man;  the  annals  of 
Ademar  and  Marianns ;  the  sages  of  Denmark  and  the  Isles, 
all  record  the  event.    The  Norse  settlers  in  Caithness  saw 


80  Ireland's  Croxn'n  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

terrific  visions  of  Valhalla  'the  day  after  the  battle.'  "  **The 
annals  state  that  Brian  and  Morrogh  both  lived  to  receive 
the  last  sacraments  of  the  Church,  and  that  their  remains 
were  conveyed  by  the  monks  to  Swords  (near  Dublin),  and 
thence  to  Armagh  by  the  Archbishop ;  and  that  their  obsequies 
were  celebrated  for  twelve  days  and  nights  with  great  splen- 
dor by  the  clergy  of  Annagh ;  after  which  the  body  of  Brian 
was  deposited  in  a  stone  coflEin  on  the  north  side  of  the  high 
altar  in  the  cathedral,  the  body  of  his  son  being  interred  on 
the  south  side  of  the  same  church.  The  remains  of  Torlogh 
and  of  several  of  the  chieftains  were  buried  in  the  old  church- 
yard of  Kilmainham,  where  the  shaft  of  an  Irish  cross  still 
marks  the  spot. '  * 


Sciilpture  on  a  Capital:  Priest's  House,  Glendalough-  Beranger,  1779. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers. 


CHAPTER  XI. 
THE  LEJNSTEK  TRIBUTE. 

BY  T,  o'XElL  KUSSKLL. 

Leinster  is  certainly  the  most  historical  of  Irish  provinces. 
There  are  many  causes  for  this.  First  among  them  may  be 
the  fact  of  the  existence  of  the  Book  of  Leinster— the  great- 
est repertory  of  ancient  and  mediaeval  history,  legend,  annals 
and  song  possessed  in  one  volume  by  any  nation  in  Europe,  or 
perhaps  in  the  world.  It  very  naturally  treats  more  fully  of 
things  appertaining  to  Leinster  than  do  any  others  of  our 
old  MS.  It  was  compiled  mostly  from  much  older  MSS.  be- 
tween the  years  1100  and  1160.  It  is  the  most  important  and 
precious,  although  not  the  most  ancient,  MS.  of  that  once 
colossal  literature  of  ancient  Ireland,  of  which  we  now  pos- 
sess only  an  insignificant  remnant.  But  there  were  other 
things  besides  the  Book  of  Leinster  that  tended  to  make  Lein- 
ster famous  and  historic.  It  was  the  province  in  which  the 
greater  part  of  the  Scandinavian  invaders  and  Anglo-French 
adventurers  landed;  it  was  the  last  of  the  Irish  provinces 
that  possessed  a  king— a  king  who  was  one  de  facto  and  de 
jure,  namely,  Art  MacMurrough,  who  died  in  the  year  1418. 
But  above  all  that  tended  to  make  Leinster  historic,  it  was  the 
province  of  the  Tribute. 

It  is  very  curious  that  so  few  who  read  Irish  history  know 
so  comparatively  little  about  the  Leinster  Tribute.  Almost 
every  one  has  lieard  something  of  Dearvorgil,  0'Ruarc\s  faith- 
less wife,  who  is  generally,  but  in  my  opinion  erroneously,  sup- 
posed to  have  been  the  cause  of  the  English  invasion  of  Ire- 
land ;  but  not  one  Irish  person  in  ten  has  ever  heard  of  Fihir 
or  Dareena,  two  ladies  who,  without  any  guilt  on  their  mem- 
ories, brought  about  the  most  unfortunate  and  important  event 
in  all  Irish  history— an  event  that,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  was 
the  prime  cause  of  Ireland 's  subsequent  political  misfortunes 
in  general — an  event  that  made  probable  its  conquest  by  the 
Danes,  and  made  possible  its  conquest  by  the  English. 

In  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era,  Tuathal  Teacht- 
mhar  was  over-King  of  Ireland.  He  had  two  beautiful  daugh- 
ters, Fihir  and  Dareena  were  their  names— fairer  it  is  said 

SI 


82  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

in  the  Book  of  Lemster,  'Hhan  the  clouds  of  heaven."  The 
king  of  Leinster  married  the  elder  one,  Fihir,  for  it  appears  to 
have  been  the  custom  in  high  life  in  ancient  Ireland  that  the 
elder  sister  should  be  married  before  the  younger  ones.  The 
King  of  Leinster  seems  to  have  soon  got  tired  of  Fihir,  and 
after  some  time  went  to  Tara  and  told  Tuatha  that  Fihir  had 
died,  and  that  he  wished  to  marry  her  sister,  Dareena.  She 
was  given  to  him,  and  he  took  her  home  with  him  to  his  dun  or 
court  in  Eath  Imel,  which  was  probably  near  the  Glen  of 
Wicklow,  now  known  as  the  Glen  of  Imeal.  Soon  after  Da- 
reena was  taken  home,  she  met  her  sister,  Fihir,  whom  she  had 
been  told  was  dead.  When  Fihir  saw  her  sister  her  shame 
was  so  great  that  she  dropped  dead,  and  when  Dareena  saw 
her  sister  dead,  she  herself  died  of  grief.  When  Tuatha  heard 
of  the  death  of  both  his  daughters,  he  sent  word  to  the  King 
of  Ulster,  who  was  foster-father  to  Dareena,  and  to  the  King 
of  Connacht,  who  was  foster-father  to  Fihir.  They  marched 
to  the  aid  of  their  suzerin,  Tuatha,  and  with  an  army  of  22,- 
000  men,  they  defeated  the  forces  of  the  King  of  Leinster, 
killed  himself,  and  ravaged  the  province  from  Naas  to  Wex- 
ford, and  imposed  the  famous,  or  rather  infamous,  tribute  on 
the  unfortunate  men  of  Leinster.  The  tribute  was  15,000 
cows,  15,000  sheep,  15,000  pigs,  15,000  silver  chains,  15,000 
mantles,  15,000  copper  cauldrons,  and  one  big  cauldron,  in 
which  twelve  pigs  could  be  boiled  at  once  whenever  there  was 
a  big  ''blow  out"  or  entertainment  at  Tara.  AVhen  we  con- 
sider the  fact  that  ancient  Leinster  was  not  nearly  big  as  the 
mddern  province,  and  was  bounded  on  the  north-east  by  the 
Liffey  at  Dublin,  and  by  the  Brosna  in  the  north-west,  thus 
lacking  half  the  county  Dublin  and  all  Louth,  Meath,  West- 
meath,  Longford,  and  part  of  the  King's  County,  which  be- 
longed to  the  province  of  Meath,  and  that  the  tribute  was 
intended  to  be  paid  every  j^ear,  we  are  struck  by  the  great 
wealth  that  must  have  been  in  Leinster  in  ancient  times.  But 
the  tribute  was  not  paid  every  year,  for  the  gallant  Leinster 
men  very  seldom  paid  it  until  thej^  had  to— that  is,  until  they 
were  defeated  in  battle.  It  is  amusing  to  read  in  the  Book  of 
Leinster,  in  the  narrative  given  about  the  tribute,  how  such 
and  such  over-kings  got  it,  but  always  observing,  as  a  sort  of 
set-off  against  the  indignity  of  having  to  pay  it,  ' '  They  didn  't 
get  it  without  a  fight,"  Nis  fuar  gan  cath.  The  tribute  was 
paid  on  and  off  for  over  five  hundred  years ;  it  was  at  length 
remitted  in  the  seventh  century  by  the  over-king  Finnachta  at 


AxciENT  Ireland  83 

the  intGrcession  of  St.  Moling.  It  is  simply  appalling  to  read 
about  the  innumerable  battles  that  for  more  than  five  hundred 
years  were  fought  about  the  Tribute.  Its  effect  was,  very 
naturally,  to  denationalize  Leinster  almost  entirely,  and  make 
its  harried  inhabitants  join  the  enemies  of  their  country  to 
find  relief  from  the  dreadful  bondage  in  which  they  were. 
Although  the  Tribute  had  been  ostensibly  remitted  before  the 
Danes  invaded  Ireland,  its  memories  had  not  vanished;  conse- 
quently we  find  the  Leinstermen  allies  of  the  Danes  very  soon 
after  thej^  had  established  themselves  in  Ireland ;  and  in  later 
times  still,  goaded  by  the  memories  of  the  Tribute,  and  the 
frequent  attempts  made  by  the  other  provinces  to  re-impose  it, 
we  find  Leinstermen  joining  with  the  English  as  they  had 
previously  joined  with  the  Danes,  and  fighting  under  the  Eng- 
lish Strongbow  at  Wexford  as  they  had  fought  under  the 
Danish  Citric  at  Clontarf. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  Leinster  Tribute  brought  about  the 
political  ruin  of  Ireland  by  totally  denationalising  one  of  its 
finest  provinces.  Much  addicted  as  the  ancient  Irish  were  to 
fighting  among  themselves,  the  candid  student  of  Irish  his- 
tory has  to  admit  that,  so  far  as  can  be  gathered  from  ancient 
MSS.,  the  Irish  lived  in  comparative  peace  before  the  Lein- 
ster Tribute  came  to  curse  them.  It  is  said  in  the  '^Liabhar 
na  L-Uidhre,"  a  manuscript  of  the  highest  authority,  that  dur- 
ing the  reign  of  Conuaire  Mor,  who  lived  about  a  century  be- 
fore the  imposition  of  the  Leinster  Tribute,  there  was  perfect 
peace  in  Ireland,  although  he  reigned  over  fifty  years.  There 
is  a  very  curious  jooem  in  the  Book  of  Leinster  composed  by 
one  Broccan.  This  poem  has  not,  so  far  as  I  know,  been  trans- 
lated by  any  one  but  myself,  and  I  am  afraid  I  have  translated 
it  very  imperfectly.  It  is  a  poem  in  praise  of  Leinster,  and 
was  written  in  the  tenth  or  eleventh  century.  There  are  two 
lines  in  it  about  the  way  Leinster  was  harried  and  ravaged 
about  the  Tribute,  which,  for  awfulness  and  terribleness  al- 
most to  blasphemy,  may  be  said  to  be  without  parallel  in  the 
literature  of  the  world.  The  poet,  and  he  seems  to  have  been 
a  Churchman  also.  says- 
It  is  beyond  the  testimony  of  the  Creator,  it  is  beyond  the 

Word  of  supplicating  Christ, 
All  the  kings  of  the  Irish  that  make  attacks  on  Leinstermen ! 

Almost  every  imaginab'e  liovror  of  war  that  cursed  Ire- 


84  Ibeland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  lioiSES 

land  for  over  five  hundred  years  may  be  traced  to  this  abomin- 
able Tribute.  One  horror  connected  with  it  is  so  awful  and 
so  unique  in  Irish  history  that  it  has  to  be  mentioned.  This 
is  the  killing  of  the  women  at  Tara  when  Cormac  Mac  Art  was 
chief  king,  in  the  year  248  of  era.  There  api^ears  to  have  been 
at  that  tune  some  political  or  druidic  festival  at  Tara,  and, 
as  was  always  the  case  in  ancient  Ireland,  wherever  there 
was  a  great  gathering  of  men  there  was  sure  to  be  a  great 
gathering  of  women,  for  women  seem  to  have  occupied  a  high 
position  in  ancient  Ireland.  What  the  nature  of  the  gather- 
ing was  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  out,  but  there  were 
thirty  royal  maidens  at  it,  each  one  having  a  hundred  female 
attendants,  making  in  all  3,030  women.  Dulaing,  the  King  of 
Leinster  at  the  time,  by  some  means  of  which  we  are  not  in- 
formed, got  to  Tara  with  a  body  of  armed  men,  burned  every 
building  in  it,  and  killed  the  whole  of  the  3,030  women.  This 
fact  is  so  often  mentioned,  not  only  in  so  many  of  the  manu- 
scripts, but  in  the  Book  of  Leinster  itself,  that  there  cannot  be 
any  doubt  as  to  its  authenticity.  The  Leinster  men  had  evi- 
dently become  maddened  to  desjieration  by  the  Tribute,  and 
were  hardly  accountable  for  what  they  did,  but  it  is  easy  to 
see  that  although  having  been  caused  by  the  odious  Tribute, 
the  act  was  looked  on,  even  by  Leinstermen,  as  a  horrible 
atrocitj^  Cormac  hanged  ten  of  the  most  prominent  of  the 
Leinster  chiefs  on  account  of  it,  and  doubled  the  Tribute  the 
unfortunate  province  had  to  pay.  It  is  not  told  to  what  parts 
of  Ireland  the  murdered  ladies  belonged,  but  we  may  be  sure 
there  were  no  Leinster  girls  among  them. 

In  a  century  or  a  century  and  a  half  after  the  murder  of 
the  women  at  Tara,  the  Leinstermen  seem  to  have  become 
absolutely  desperate,  and  to  have  been  seized  with  a  war 
mania  which  not  even  the  united  forces  of  the  over-King  and 
the  Kings  of  the  other  provinces  seem  to  have  been  able  to 
resist.  The  Leinstermen  evidently  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  it  was  better  to  die  fighting  than  to  starve  and  pay  the 
Tribute ;  so  they  fought  rather  than  pay  it ;  and  under  two  of 
their  Kings,  Enna  Ginsclach  and  Brasal  Beallach,  they  seem 
to  have  licked  all  Ireland,  over-Kings  and  provincial  Kings, 
north,  south,  and  west.  But  as  one  cannot  fight  four,  so  in 
the  long  run  the  Leinstermen  had  to  bow  their  necks  and  pay 
the  Tribute  when  they  were  unable  to  fight  and  be  victorious. 

The  most  complete  and  perfect  history  of  the  Leinster 
Tribute  we  have  is  in  the  Book  of  Leinster.   It  is  a  long  tract, 


Ancient  Ireland  85 

and  takes  up  twenty-nine  columns  of  that  manuscript.  It  has 
been  recently  translated  by  Mr.  Whitley  Stokes  in  the  Revue 
Celtique  for  1892,  and  by  Mr.  S.  H.  0 'Grady  in  Silva  Gadileca. 
The  translation  by  Mr.  Stokes  is  considered  to  be  by  far  the 
better  one  of  the  two;  but  both  translations  are  most  imper- 
fect, as  the  poetic  or  rhymed  parts  of  the  tract  are  not  trans- 
lated at  all.  The  excuse  made  by  Mr.  Stokes  for  not  having 
translated  them  is  that  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  repetitions 
of  the  prose.  This  is  in  a  measure  true ;  but  there  are  n  great 
many  things  said  in  the  poetry  that  are  entirely  omitted  in  the 
prose.  There  are  no  less  than  twenty  short  pieces  of  poetry 
in  this  tract,  altogether  over  600  lines,  hardly  a  line  of  which 
has  been  yet  translated  and  jjrinted.  It  has  to  be  admitted 
that  the  poetic  or  rhymed  parts  of  this  wondrous  tale  of  the 
*'Boramha,"  or  Tribute,  are  much  more  difficult  to  translate 
than  the  prose  parts,  and  they  are,  it  would  appear,  written  in 
more  ancient  language;  but  there  surely  can  be  nothing  in 
them  that  such  a  master  of  ancient  Gaelic  as  Mr.  Stokes  could 
not  interpret;  and,  besides,  the  poetry  contains  passages  of 
great  beauty  and  pathos.  There  is  probably  nothing  in  the 
whole  mass  of  ancient  literature,  not  excepting  even  that  of 
ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  which  for  pathos,  dramatic  power, 
originality,  and  versatility  can  surpass  this  unique  remnant  of 
ancient  Irish  literature,  which,  through  the  combined  influence 
of  carelessness,  prejudice,  and  death-like  apathy  on  the  part 
of  the  Irish  people,  had  remained  unknown  and  unheeded  for 
centuries,  and  was  translated  and  published  only  a  few  years 
ago.  Had  such  a  gem  of  history  and  song  existed  in  any  Eu- 
ropean language  save  Gaelic,  every  cultured  man  in  Christen- 
dom would  have  been  acquainted  with  it  centuries  ago. 

There  are  two  instances  of  self-sacrifice  mentioned  in  this 
wondrous  tract  relating  to  the  Borahma  or  Tribute,  which 
deserve  especial  notice.  Mr.  O 'Grady,  in  his  translation  of 
it,  passes  them  over  in  silence,  but  Mr.  Stokes  draws  especial 
attention  to  them.    The  incidents  are  as  follows : 

A  head-King  or  Emperor  of  Ireland,  who  reigned  in  the 
sixth  century  of  our  era,  was  named  Hugh.  His  son,  Cumas- 
gach,  was  the  heir-apparent.  He  was  a  bad  boy,  as  will  bo 
easily  seen.  He  took  it  into  his  head  that  he  would  visit  the 
courts  or  duns  of  the  provincial  rulers  or  Kings  and  make  in- 
sulting proposals  to  their  wives.  "We  are  not  told  how  he 
fared  until  he  reached  the  residence  of  Bran  Dubh,  King  of 
Leinster,  who  lived  near  Baltinglass,  in  the  present  county 


86  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

of  Wicklow.  Bran  had  heard  of  Cuinasgach's  intentions,  and 
was  determined  "to  fix"  him.  He  dressed  himself  in  the 
garments  of  a  slave,  and  ordered  his  people  to  tell  Cumasgach 
that  he  had  gone  over  the  sea  to  Britain  to  collect  his  Tribute 
there.  Mrs.  Bran  Dubh  took  Cmnasgach  out  to  the  cook- 
house, which  evidently  was  a  large  wooden  building  detached 
from  the  dwelling  house,  and  showed  him  and  his  attendants 
the  great  joint  of  meat  that  was  being  prepared  for  them.  At 
a  signal  given  by  Mrs.  Bran  Duhb,  who,  in  the  meantime,  had 
slipped  out  of  the  building,  a  trap  door  fell,  and  none  were 
inside  but  Cumasgach  and  one  of  his  attendants  named  Glas- 
daimh.  Then  the  house  was  set  on  fire.  ' '  Who  is  burning  the 
house  on  me?"  cried  Cumasgach.  ''  'Tis  I,"  cried  Bran  Dubh, 
making  himself  known.  ''Bran  Dubh,"  cried  Glasdaimh, 
''you  know  me;  I  have  eaten  your  food;  would  you  play 
treachery  on  me?"  *'No,"  said  Bran  Dubh,  and  he  told  Glas- 
daimh how  he  could  escape  from  the  burning  house.  * '  Do  you 
hear  that?"  said  Glasdaimh  to  Cumasgach.  "Here,  put  my 
clothes  on  you ;  they  will  not  know  you  in  them,  and  will  think 
it  is  I  who  am  escaping. ' '  So  the  poor  attendant,  Glasdaimh, 
was  burned,  and  Cumasgach,  his  master,  escaped,  but  only  tq 
be  killed  in  a  few  hours  by  one  of  Bran  Dubh's  retainers,  to 
whom  he  made  himself  Imown.  AVhen  the  chief -King,  Hugh, 
heard  of  the  killing  of  his  son,  he  invaded  Leinster  with  an 
immense  army,  and  then  occurred  the  battle  of  Dunbolg,  on 
the  borders  of  Wicklow  and  Kildare,  one  of  the  most  extra- 
ordinary ever  fought.  Bran  Dubh  could  not  get  together 
enough  men  to  oppose  the  forces  of  the  Ard-Righ,  or  chief- 
King.  He  was,  however,  equal  to  the  occasion.  He  got  3,000 
oxen,  put  two  hanging  panniers  on  each  of  them,  put  a  warrior 
armed  with  a  short  sword  and,  of  course,  a  shield,  into  each 
basket ;  put  bacon,  meal,  or  some  other  sort  of  provisions,  on 
top  of  the  panniers  or  hampers,  so  that  it  would  be  thought 
there  was  nothing  in  them  but  provisions.  The  3,000  oxen 
were  driven  into  the  camp  of  the  imperial  forces  in  the  middle 
of  the  night;  when  challenged  by  the  men  on  watch,  their 
drivers  said  they  were  the  provision  carriers  of  the  army  of 
the  chief-King.  The  loaded  oxen  were  admitted  to  the  camp ; 
the  hidden  warriors  jumped  out,  and  one  of  the  most  awful 
battles  recorded  in  Irish  history  commenced. 

The  forces  of  the  chief-King,  in  spite  of  their  much  greater 
numbers,  were  cut  to  pieces,  and  the  chief-King  himself  slain. 
The  Leinstermen  paid  no  Tribute  that  year. 


AiNClEiNT    lUELAM)  87 

The  other  incident  of  self-sacrifice  recorded  in  this  tract 
is  of  a  King  of  Coruacht  uamed  Ailiii.  He  made  an  unjust 
war  against  another  province  and  was  defeated  in  battle. 
AVhen  fleeing  from  the  field  he  ordered  his  charioteer  to  look 
back  and  tell  him  if  his  people  were  being  slaughtered.  * '  The 
slaughter  of  your  people  is  intolerable,"  replied  the  char- 
ioteer. ''Turn  the  chariot,"  said  Ailill;  ''face  my  enemies; 
when  they  kill  me  they  will  be  satisfied  and  will  cease  slaugh- 
tering my  i:>eople."  The  charioteer  did  as  he  was  directed; 
Ailill  was  killed;  the  slaughter  of  his  people  ceased;  but  we 
are  not  told  what  became  of  the  charioteer. 

The  intense  hatred  between  Leinster  and  Meath  (the  prov- 
ince under  the  direct  authority  of  the  chief  King)  engendered 
by  this  horrible  Tribute,  is  almost  inconceivable.  That  hatred 
remained  in  all  its  intensity  for  over  a  thousand  years.  The 
introduction  of  Christianity  seems  to  have  been  utterly  pow- 
erless to  stop  it,  for  Leoghaire  MacXeill,  the  chief  King  con- 
temporary with  St.  Patrick,  and  who  was  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity, was  one  of  the  most  terrible  foes  ever  the  Leinster- 
men  had.  They  often  thrashed  him  about  the  Tribute,  and 
had  even  taken  him  prisoner,  and  spared  his  life;  but  even 
in  death  he  was  their  enemy,  for  we  are  told  in  the  Leabhar 
nah-Uidhre  that  when  he  was  ' '  killed  by  the  elements  his  body 
was  interred  with  his  warrior  weapons  in  the  south-east  ram- 
part of  the  Royal  Rath  of  Leoghaire  at  Tara;  and  his  face 
was  turned  south  against  the  Leinstermen  as  if  fighting  with 
them,  for  he  had  been  their  enemy  when  he  was  alive.'* 

One  of  the  first,  if  not  the  very  first,  converts  that  St.  Pat- 
rick made  in  Ireland,  was  a  man  named  Dubhthach.  He  seems 
to  have  been  a  good  Christian,  but  it  is  probable  that  he  was 
a  better  Leinsterman  than  a  Christian,  for  he  has  left  us  a 
poem  in  praise  of  his  native  province,  which  for  intense  na- 
tionality, laudation  of  Leinster,  contempt  for  the  other  prov- 
inces, and  power  of  language  cannot  be  equalled  by  anything 
in  the  whole  immense  mass  of  ancient  Irish  literature.  The 
poem  and  translation  may  be  seen  in  0 'Curry's  "MS.  Ma- 
terials of  Irish  History."  Dubhthach  says  that,  "except  the 
Hosts  of  Heaven  round  the  Creator,  there  was  never  a  host 
like  the  Leinstermen  round  Criomhthan,"  and  that  the  war- 
cry  of  the  Leinstermen  should  ever  be  "Moradh  Laighen, 
milleadh  Midhe"— "the  magnification  of  Leinster,  the  destruc- 
tion of  Meath,"  for  Meath,  together  with  the  whole  North  of 
Ireland,  represented  the  chief  King  to  whom  the  Leinster 


88  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Tribute  was  to  be  paid.  It  is  very  curious  that  even  to  the 
present  day  whenever  there  are  wrestling  matches  in  the 
Phoenix  Park,  Dublin  and  Kildare  are  always  pitted  against 
Meath,  showing  that  the  remembrance  of  the  Tribute  has  not 
even  yet  been  vanished. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  Tribute  had  been  re- 
mitted by  the  over-King,  Fionnachta,  in  the  seventh  century, 
attempts  were  made  to  reimpose  it  on  the  unfortunate  prince 
afterwards.  It  is  popularly  believed  that  the  banishment  of 
Dermot  MacMurrough  and  the  consequent  invasion  of  Ireland 
by  the  Anglo-French  was  brought  about  by  his  liason  with  the 
wife  of  0  'Ruarc.  I  take  a  different  view  of  the  matter.  It  was 
not  until  thirteen  years  after  the  affair  with  0 'Ruarc 's  wife 
that  Dermot  was  banished.  The  facts  seem  to  be  that  the 
other  provinces  thought  it  was  time  to  re-impose  the  Tribute 
on  Leinster,  and  they  wanted  to  get  rid  of  Dermot,  who  was 
a  very  war-like  man,  and  who  would  fight  to  the  bitter  end  in 
defense  of  his  kingdom.  The  military  power  of  the  Danes  in 
Ireland  seems  to  have  been  almost  entirely  broken  at  Clon- 
tarf,  and  after  it  they  gave  the  Irish  very  little  trouble,  and 
were  unable  to  help  their  allies,  the  Leinstermen.  If  we  read 
carefully  between  the  lines  of  history  we  cannot  fail  to  see 
that  the  banishment  of  Dermot  MacMurrough  arose  from  no 
sentimental  feeling  about  his  having  broken  the  sanctity  of 
marriage,  but  from  the  sordid  one  of  getting  him  out  of  the 
way  in  order  that  the  hateful  Tribute  might  be  more  easily 
re-imposed  on  the  unfortunate  province  of  Leinster.  Many 
attempts  had  been  made  to  re-im]30se  it  after  Fionnachta  re- 
mitted it  in  the  seventh  century.  The  learned  and  pious  Cor- 
mac  M'Cullinan,  King  of  Munster  and  Archbishop  of  Cashel, 
seems  to  have  had  no  object  in  going  to  war  with  Leinster  in 
the  tenth  century  but  to  make  that  province  pay  him  his  share 
of  the  Tribute.  It  is  hinted  in  Irish  annals  that  he  was  forced 
against  his  will,  by  some  influential  man  of  his  own  province, 
into  war  with  Leinster.  His  army  was  defeated  and  he  him- 
self killed  at  the  terrible  battle  of  Ballach  Moon,  in  the  pres- 
ent count}"  of  Carlow  in  the  year  903, 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  people  will  not  become  disgusted  with 
Irish  history,  and  think  it  contains  nothing  but  a  catalogue  of 
battles  and  murders.  They  should  remember  that  the  ancient 
history  of  all  countries  is,  for  the  most  part,  a  record  of  bat- 
tles. They  should  remember  that  Greece  was  for  a  thousand 
years  as  much  of  an  internecine  battle-ground  as  ever  Ireland 


Ancient  Ireland 


89 


was ;  but  the  strife  of  Greeks  among  themselves  did  not  pre- 
vent them  from  creating  works  of  art  or  from  producing  a 
literature  that  shall  serve  as  models  of  perfection  to  the  end 
of  time.  Ireland,  too,  in  spite  of  her  internal  commotions 
and  unspeakable  political  misfortunes  of  almost  every  kind, 
created  a  literature  that  must,  if  we  can  judge  by  the  remnant 
that  is  left  of  it,  have  been  of  colossal  magnitude.  But  ancient 
Ireland  has  left  us  something  which  ancient  Greece,  with  all 
her  transcendent  genius,  has  failed  to  bequeath  us— something 
more  enduring  than  the  mightiest  works  of  architecture,  or 
the  most  perfect  specimens  of  sculpture;  for  the  music  of 
ancient  Ireland  shall,  by  its  incomparable  pathos,  melt  the 
hearts  of  multitudes  in  the  far  distant  future,  when  the 
choicest  models  of  Grecian  art  shall  have  ceased  to  exist,  and 
when  even  the  Acropolis  and  the  Parthenon  shall  have  crum- 
bled into  dust. 


Ornament  on  leather  case  of  Book  of  Armagh. 
From  Petrie's  "Rovmd  Towers." 


CHAPTER  XII. 


'l. 


ST.   PATKICK  S   BVMAh   PLACE— liY   VERY    REV.    SYLVESTER  MALONE, 

M.    R.   I.   A. 

The  burial-pkico  of  our  uatioual  saint,  like  other  incidents 
connected  with  him,  has  been  matter  of  doubt  and  discussion. 
The  doubt  arises  from  the  contradictory  notices  in  the  Book  of 
Armagh.  Tliese  notices  appear  in  one  place  to  favor  the  claim 
of  Downpatrick  to  the  burial-place;  in  a  second  place,  the 
claim  of  Saul  quite  convenient  to  it ;  and  in  a  third  place,  the 
claim  of  Armagh.  The  value  of  each  of  these  notices  is  not 
the  same,  but  depends  on  the  intrinsic  evidence  of  the  state- 
ment, as  well  as  on  the  bias  and  intelligence  of  the  writer, 
and  on  the  age  to  which  he  belonged. 

The  claim  of  Armagh  is  very  slender,  and  rests  merely  on 
the  possession  of  some  relics  of  St.  Patrick  of  some  kind, 
coupled  with  the  supposition  of  only  one  Patrick  having  been 
in  the  early  Irish  Church;  but  the  existence  of  two  Patricks 
and  their  respective  identities  have  been  established  by  a 
writer  in  the  Irish  Ecclesiastical  Record.  I  am  not  in  accord 
with  those  who  deny  the  existence  of  bodily  relics  of  St.  Pat- 
rick in  Armagh  during  the  ninth  century.  It  was  natural 
and  usual  to  desire  the  possesion  of  some  relic  of  a  saint  less 
renowned  than  St.  Patrick ;  and  that  Armagh  procured  some 
bodily  relic  of  him  is  clearly  evidenced  in  a  passage  in  the 
Book  of  Armagh.  This  passage,  which  must  have  escaped 
the  notice  of  the  advocates  for  Armagh,  taken  by  itself  would 
seem  to  favor  their  pretensions. 

The  biographers  of  our  national  saint  have  surrounded  his 
death  and  burial  with  childish  miracles.  A  comparison  in- 
stituted by  them  between  him  and  Moses,  however  edifjdng  it 
may  be,  has  led  to  error  on  several  incidents  in  his  life  and 
the  circumstances  of  his  burial.  The  advocates  for  Down- 
patrick have  so  rested  the  story  of  his  death  and  burial  on  a 
supernatural  basis,  as  scarcely  to  leave  a  human  fringe  for 
historical  criticism.  Nevertheless,  the  proofs  adduced  by 
them  appear  to  me  quite  questionable,  while  I  judge  those  in 
favor  of  Saul  to  be  highly  probable. 

I  now  give  a  description  of  St.  Patrick's  burial-place  from 
the  oldest,  most  impartial,  and  consistent  account  in  the  Book 

91 


92  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

of  Armagh.  Tireelian,  in  a  lengthened  sinnmary  of  the  saint's 
life,  taken  from  the  oral  and  written  account  of  Bishop  Ultan, 
who  lived  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  states  that  St. 
Patrick  was  like  to  Moses  in  four  things,  and  the  fourth  thing 
was,  *  *  no  person  knew  where  are  his  bones. ' '  The  writer  then 
continues  to  state  that  two  hosts  contended  for  his  body  dur- 
ing twelve  days  without  night ;  and  on  the  twelfth  day,  as  the 
contending  parties  were  going  to  give  battle,  each  party  saw 
with  themselves  the  body  on  a  bier,  and  in  consequence  re- 
frained from  fighting. 

Then,  as  if  to  justify  a  departure,  by  the  discovery  of 
Columkille  from  the  likeness  to  Moses,  the  writer  continues 
thus  in  reference  to  the  burial  and  the  prophetic  gift  of 
Columkille : 

''Columkille,  under  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  point- 
ed out  the  burial-place  of  St.  Patrick,  makes  out  for  certain 
where  it  is,  that  is,  in  Sabul-Patrick,  that  is  in  the  church,  as 
a  sprout  from  the  waves,  beside  the  sea,  where  is  the  bring- 
ing together  of  relics,  that  is  of  the  bones  of  Columkille  from 
Britain,  and  the  bringing  together  of  all  the  saints  of  Ireland 
on  the  day  of  judgment." 

Now,  nothing  can  be  clearer  than  this  valuable  statement. 
The  burial-place  is  stated  to  have  been  at  the  Sabul  or  Barn 
of  Patrick;  there  was  only  one  such  place,  and  that  within 
two  miles  of  Down.  The  passage  just  quoted  calls  for  a  few 
remarks.  First  of  all,  the  absence  of  darkness  during  the 
twelve  days  of  waking  is  only  a  natural  explanation  of  the 
effect  of  the  lights  over  the  corpse;  and  though  there  may 
have  been  a  desire  on  the  part  of  some  people  from  Armagh 
to  have  the  burial  take  place  with  themselves,  we  need  not 
suppose  there  was  a  disposition  to  come  to  blows ;  a  little  ex- 
aggeration in  the  description  is  only  very  natural.  The  saint's 
wish  was  a  command;  and,  as  stated  in  the  Booh  of  Armagh, 
that  wish  was  carried  out  by  his  burial  in  Sabul  or  Saul.  A 
holy  rivalry  for  the  possession  of  his  body  was  a  mark  of  re- 
ligious zeal.  Hence  in  another  passage  in  the  Book  or  Ar- 
magh, in  reference  to  this  subject,  the  writer  states  that  with- 
out divine  intervention,  "it  was  impossible  to  have  the  peace 
kept  about  so  illustrious  and  saintly  a  corpse."  Friendly 
contention  then  about  the  body  of  our  saint  was  only  what 
decency  required. 

There  is  no  good  reason  for  doubting  that  some  of  the 
relics  of  St.  Columkille  mav  have  been  enshrined  with  those 


Ancient  Ireland  *^:i 

of  St.  Patrick,  though  the  principal  part  of  them  were  not 
located  in  Irekmd  till  the  end  of  the  ninth  century.  St.  Colum- 
kille  in  full  health  is  said,  in  the  Book  of  Guana,  to  have  come 
to  St.  Patrick's  grave,  and  to  have  enshrined  some  of  the  relics 
buried  with  him ;  and  it  is  not  unnatural  to  suppose  that  when 
djang  he  or  his  followers  after  his  death  wished  to  have  some 
of  his  own  relies  rest  with  our  national  apostle. 

The  allusion  to  the  gathering  together  of  all  the  Irish 
saints  at  Saul  is  grounded  on  a  petition  found  in  his  confes- 
sion, to  the  eifect  that  he  should  lose  none  of  the  Irish  given 
him  by  God,  ''left  to  him  the  judgment  of  the  Irish  on  the  day 
of  doom."    This  tradition  took  another  form,  according  to 
Tirechan:  it  was  one  of  the  three  petitions  which  he  made 
when  dying,  namely,  "that  each  of  us  repenting,  even  in  the 
hour  of  death,  would  be  saved  on  the  day  of  judgment  and 
escape  hell. ' '    The  church  beside  which  our  saint  was  buried— 
the  sabul  of  Patrick— stood,  as  a  sprout  from  the  wave,  near 
the  sea.    The  tidal  waves  flowing  through  the  inlet  of  Stang- 
ford  Lough  flooded  the  low-lying  grounds,  even  under  the  very 
shadow  of  Saul.    Even  down  to  the  present  century,  the  low 
ground  was  occupied  by  a  standing  lake,  a  mile  in  circum- 
ference, and  is  still  called  the  salt  marsh ;  but,  in  early  times, 
before  a  rampart  was  thrown  up  to  dam  the  waters,  the  Sabul 
Church,  peering  above  the  wavelets,  appeared  to  spring  from 
the  very  waters.    Now,  what  is  the  reply  usually  given  to  this 
clear  and  natural  statement,  that  he  was  buried  in  Saul  ?    This 
only— that  Saul  meant  Downpatrick!    Such  a  reply  scarcely 
deserves  notice.    We  have  another  proof  that  St.  Patrick  was 
buried  in  Saul:  it  is  found  in  the  Fourth  Life  as  given  by 
Colgan.    Saul  is  incidentally  mentioned  in  connection  with  a 
plaything  that  accidentally  fell  into  St.  Patrick's  grave  there. 
The  incident  is  alluded  to  as  follows: 

*' A  boy  playing  about  the  church  of  Saul  let  his  hoop  drop 
into  a  chink  in  St.  Patrick's  grave,  and  having  put  down  his 
hand  to  take  it  up  could  not  withdraw  the  hand.  Consequent- 
ly, Bishop  Loarn,  of  Bright,  a  place  near  at  hand,  was  sent 
for,  and  on  his  arrival,  addressed  the  saint  thus:  'Why,  0 
Elder,  dost  thou  hold  the  hand  of  the  child?'  " 

Here  we  have  a  statement  incidentally  made  in  reference 
to  one  of  the  incidents  that  filled  up  the  life  of  our  saint.  It 
is  made  without  a  design  of  propping  up  a  political  or  relig- 
ious system.  It  was  made  at  a  time  when  Saul  was  compara- 
tively insignificant,  and  when  Downpatrick,  owing  to  its  situa- 


94  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

tion,  as  a  great  emporium,  had  arisen  to  importance,  and  was 
the  seat  of  the  chief  of  Ulidia. 

Let  us  examine  what  is  said  in  reply  to  this  proof.  The 
reply  is  that  St.  Patrick  did  not  hold  the  hand  of  the  boy  at 
all ;  that  the  phrase  tenentem  manum  seems  a  translation  of 
Irish  in  the  Trij^artite,  gabail  lama  ''expelling";  that  our 
saint  only  drove  away  the  boy  who  gave  annoyance,  and  that 
Bishop  Loarn,  who  probably  outlived  our  saint,  was  one  of 
his  religious  family.  The  interpretation  thus  quoted  is  given 
on  the  authority  of  Dr.  Stokes ;  but,  with  great  respect  for  his 
accurate  knowledge  of  Irish,  he  is  not  to  be  implicitly  fol- 
lowed, as  has  been  proved  elsewhere.  But  before  dealing 
with  this,  his  opinion,  I  have  to  observe  that  the  Book  of  Ar- 
magh makes  mention  of  a  Loarn  settled  in  Connaught,  there 
is  no  warrant  for  stating  that  there  was  a  Bishop  Loarn  in 
Downs,  during  the  saint's  lifetime;  nor  is  there  the  least  war- 
rant for  stating  that  he  died  before  our  saint.  There  is  no 
valid  reason,  then,  producible  for  denying  the  certain  state- 
ment of  the  biographer— that  St.  Patrick  was  dead  in  his 
grave  when  Bishop  Loarn  was  sent  for. 

I  now  deal  with  the  objection  founded  on  the  opinion  of 
Dr.  Stokes;  namely,  that  tenentem  manum  was  a  mistrans- 
lation of  gabail  lama  ''exioelllng,"  and  that  consequently  St. 
Patrick  was  not  dead,  nor  his  grave  made  on  the  occasion 
referred  to,  but  ''drove  away"  the  playing  boy  perhaps  with 
too  much  harshness;  in  confirmation  of  this  latter  view,  the 
Tripartite  is  appealed  to  as  an  authority  for  stating  that  St. 
Patrick  was  not  "always  meek  and  patient,"  and  hence  the 
rebuke  of  Bishop  Loarn  for  probably  too  much  harshness. 

Well,  an  explanation  that  involves  a  censure  on  our  na- 
tional saint  for  harshness  towards  an  unthinking  boy  at  play 
is  very  suspicious.  Besides,  even  if  the  boy  were  annoying 
the  saint,  as  alleged,  and  if  the  saint  exceeded  the  limits  of 
moderation  in  correction,  was  it  a  case  for  having  a  bishop 
sent  for,  and  having  him  rebuke  his  superior?  Moreover, 
when  the  bishop  came  on  the  scene  our  saint's  action  was 
continued;  and  if  tenentem  manum  meant  expelling,  the  boy 
must  have  been  persistently  bold  during  the  time  the  bishop 
was  being  sent  for,  and  was  coming  to  the  church;  and  this 
fact  should  render  impossible  the  charge  of  harshness  for 
driving  away  the  boy. 

Again,  if  tenentem  manum  in  the  Latin  Life  be,  as  stated, 
a  mistranslation  of  Gabail  lama  in  the  Tripartite,  and  as  Dr. 


Ancient  Ireland  95 

Stokes  has  stated  that  the  Irisli  Life  was  written  m  the 
eleventh  century,  while  the  Latin  was  written  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, how  could  the  latter  be  a  mistranslation  of  the  former? 

In  good  truth,  the  writer  of  the  Latin  Life  knew  the  mean- 
ing of  tenentem  manuni,  and  if  he  wished  to  express  the  idea 
of  expulsion,  he  had  only  to  use  the  ])roper  and  natural  Latin 
*'espello."  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  writer  of  the  Tripartite 
intended  to  express  the  same  idea,  he  would  have  used  as  on 
all  other  occasions  he  did  use,  the  word  indarb. 

The  Irish,  as  well  as  the  Latin  phrase  meant  literally 
''seizing  the  hand,"  and  figuratively  ''overpowering"  or 
"thwarting,"  But  I  am  told  that  other  instances  in  the  Tri- 
partite countenance  "expelling"  as  the  meaning  of  the  phrase. 
Well,  all  the  instances  which  occur  to  me  I  will  submit  to  a 
test.  In  looking  into  page  118  (Roll's  Tripartite),  I  find  the 
phrase  gebthar  do  lam,  "thy  hand  shall  be  seized."  This 
was  a  reply  from  the  angel  to  St.  Patrick,  who  refused  to 
budge  until  he  obtained  the  privilege  of  rescuing  as  many 
souls  from  hell  as  hairs  on  his  chasuble.  The  reply  meant, 
"you  shall  be  overpowered,"  and  nothing  more.  The  editor 
of  the  Tripartite  inferred  from  the  remark  of  St.  Patrick  about 
budging,  that  the  reply  had  an  antithetical  meaning,  but  the  in- 
ference was  not  correct.  T  alight  on  another  instance  on  page 
116.  St.  Patrick  wished  to  establish  a  house  in  Assaroe,  but 
was  opposed  by  Coirbre,  "who  sent  two  of  his  people  to  'pre- 
vent him,'  "  gabail  lama. 

But  a  more  crucial  instance  of  the  phrase  occurs  in  page 
156  of  the  Roll's  Tripartite.  Our  saint  wished  to  establish  a 
house  in  Inishowen;  but  Coelbad  "prevented  him  in  regard 
to  it,"  gabail  a  laim  ass,  which  the  editor  renders  by  expell- 
ing "thence."  Now  the  addition  of  the  word  ass  here,  and 
not  in  the  other  instances,  is  translated  by  "thence."  But 
surely  we  understand  that  when  there  is  a  question  of  a  per- 
son being  in  a  place,  and  of  his  expulsion,  the  expulsion  is 
from  that  place.  The  addition  of  the  word  ass,  then,  is  un- 
necessary on  the  supposition  that  the  phrase  gabail  lama  in 
the  other  instances  without  it  meant  "expelling."  I  shall 
not  dwell  on  another  instance,  in  page  164,  which  has  the  same 
meaning;  and  in  these  instances  the  word  ass  means  not 
"thence"  but  "in  regard  to." 

That  such  is  the  meaning  of  ass,  is  very  clearly  brought 
out  in  page  163.  It  is  there  stated  that  our  saint  wished  to 
take  a  place  in  Cell  Grlass,  and  (dimoflia  do  ass)  "he  was  re- 


yt>  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thokns  and  HufeEs 

fused,**  according  to  Roll's  editor,  but  properly  and  literally 
''it  was  refused  to  him  in  regard  to  it."  The  editor  having 
no  meaning  for  ass  but  "thence,"  and  seeing  such  a  transla- 
tion to  be  unmeaning,  he  did  not  translate  it  at  all.  The  Irish 
word  ass  lends  itself  to  various  idiomatic  phrases  with  which 
the  learned  editor  is  apparently  not  familiar.  I  hope  now  it 
may  be  admitted  that  the  allusion  to  the  detention  of  the  boy 's 
hand  in  St.  Patrick's  grave  was  not  a  mis-translation  of  the 
Irish,  and  that  it  establishes  a  belief  in  the  writer  of  Vita 
Quarta  as  to  the  burial-place  of  St.  Patrick  in  Saul.  Not- 
withstanding the  political  and  social  greatness  to  which  Down- 
patrick  had  risen,  and  the  comparative  obscurity  of  Saul,  there 
is  evidence  of  its  claim  to  St.  Patrick's  burial-place  being 
recognized  in  succeeding  ages.  Thus,  the  Four  Masters,  un- 
der the  year  1293,  state  that  the  relics  of  St.  Bridget  and 
Columkille  were  discovered  with  the  remains  of  St.  Patrick 
at  Patrick's  Saul.  The  discovery,  witnessed  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Armagh,  was  accompanied  by  miraculous  manifesta- 
tions. The  same  statement  is  made  in  the  Annals  of  Ulster. 
The  fact  remains,  that  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
we  find  solemn  testimony,  confirmatory  of  the  statement  made 
in  the  Boole  of  Armagh,  in  the  seventh  century,  in  favor  of 
Saul  being  the  burial  place  of  St.  Patrick. 

Now,  in  reply  to  the  several  clear  and  natural  statements 
made  without  the  aid  of  supernatural  agency,  in  favor  of  Saul, 
what  are  we  told?  This,  that  Saul  meant  Downpatrick,  and 
that  tenentem  manum  did  not  mean  ' '  holding  the  hand. ' '  And 
the  proof  in  favor  of  the  rival  burial-place,  of  what  is  it  com- 
posed? Merely  of  mystery,  visions,  and  miracles!  That  one 
angel  was  commissioned  by  another  to  send  St.  Patrick  to 
him ;  and  the  saint,  having  gone,  was  told  by  the  angel  from 
a  flaming  bush— (a)  that  his  death  would  be  in  Saul;  but,  as 
a  compensation  to  Armagh,  that  it  should  have  primacy;  (b) 
that  there  was  to  be  no  darkness  for  twelve  days,  or  rather 
partial  day  for  the  rest  of  the  year;  that  angels  waked  St. 
Patrick  with  vigil  and  psalmody  during  the  first  night,  whilst 
all  who  came  to  the  wake  slept ;  that  oxen,  yoked  to  the  bier, 
were  to  be  left  to  themselves  to  carry  the  corpse  to  the  des- 
tined burial-place;  (c)  that  the  rival  provinces  of  Down  and 
Armagh  were  kept  from  deadly  fight  by  the  swelling  tide, 
which  became  instinct  with  life;  that  on  the  ebb  of  the  tide 
the  people  of  Armagh,  fording  the  river,  fancied  they  saw  the 
bier  carried  on  toward  Armagh,  till  it  disappeared  at  Cab- 


Ancient  Ireland  07 

cenne  stream;  that  the  corpse  was  to  be  buried,  by  angelic 
directions,  seven  feet  deep  in  the  earth ;  that  the  relics  should 
not  be  removed  from  the  earth,  but  a  church  built  over  them ; 
(d)  and  yet,  that  no  person  knew  where  was  the  burial-place. 
All  this  supplies  material  for  the  argument  in  favor  of  Down- 
patrick ! 

But  I  would  offer  a  few  hurried  remarks— (a)  We  are 
told  in  one  place  that  St.  Patrick  went  to  the  angel,  but  quite 
the  contrary  in  the  next  page,  (b)  The  primacy  is  said  to 
have  been  given  then  to  Armagh ;  but  it  had  been  given,  on  as 
good  authority,  long  before  then  to  Armagh,  (c)  The  angel 
directed— a  very  practical  direction— that  a  church  should  be 
built  where  the  oxen  were  to  stop,  over  the  corpse.  What  if 
they  had  not  stirred  from  Saul,  where  there  was  a  church,  or 
moved  to  a  place  where  there  was  already  a  church?  (d)  It  is 
strange  that,  as  the  Armagh  people  acknowledged  the  finger 
of  God  on  the  disappearance  of  the  phantom  bier,  they  paid 
no  heed  to  the  angel 's  directions,  and  were  determined  to  give 
battle  or  have  the  corpse,  (e)  It  is  equally  strange  that  a 
church  directed  by  angels  to  be  built,  was  undertaken  only 
at  the  end  of  the  seventh  century.  The  narrator  states  that 
when  a  foundation  for  the  church  was  being  dug,  quite  re- 
cently (novissimis  temporibus),  flames  issued  from  the  grave. 
Does  not  this  prove  that  the  burial-place  was  known,  notwith- 
standing the  similarity  to  Moses?  Besides,  the  angel,  in  di- 
recting the  building  of  a  church,  and  directing  that  the  delvers 
should  sink  the  grave  seven  feet  deep,  must  not  have  intended 
that  the  burial-place  should  be  unknown.  I  may  be  told  that 
a  mistake  in  regard  to  Saul  should  rather  be  admitted  than 
a  whole  cycle  of  miracles  in  the  defence  of  falsehood.  Well, 
however  unpleasant  the  fact,  it  must  be  admitted  that  unen- 
lightened zeal  or  dishonest  bias  can  sport  with  miracles  for 
its  own  ends ;  and  the  Book  of  Armagh  affords  ample  proof  of 
it  in  another  passage. 

The  Book  of  the  Angels  tells  its  readers  that  an  angel, 
having  tapped  St.  Patrick  out  of  slumber,  snatched  from  his 
long  vigils,  announced  that  God  ''gave  him  and  to  the  diocese 
of  Armagh  all  Ireland."  The  saint  then  is  represented  as  de- 
precating such  a  large  and  unnecessary  gift,  because  of  re- 
ceiving already  a  peculiar  rent,  given  freely,  though  a  debt 
ordained  by  God,  from  every  free  church,  and  as  having  no 
doubt  that  this  debt  would  be  decreed  for  the  future  bishops  of 
■Annagh  by  all  cenobitical  monasteries.    What  a  caricature 


98  Ireland's  Crovvx  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

and  profane  libel  this  on  the  saint's  disinterestedness!  The 
writer  ought  to  have  remembered  the  confession : 

'  *  They  have  given  me  small  voluntary  gifts,  and  some  of 
their  ornaments  upon  the  altar ;  but  I  returned  these  to  them, 
though  they  were  displeased  with  me  for  doing  so.  But  .  . 
.  I  wished  to  keep  myself  prudently  in  everything  .  .  . 
so  that  unbelievers  may  not,  in  my  ministry,  in  the  smallest 
point,  have  occasion  to  defame  it. 

''But,  perhaps,  since  I  have  baptized  so  many  thousands, 
I  may  have  accepted  half  a  screapall.  Tell  it  to  me,  and  I  will 
restore  it.  When  the  Lord  ordained  everywhere  clergy, 
through  my  humble  ministry,  then  if  I  asked  the  price  of  my 
shoe,  tell  it  against  me,  and  I  will  restore  you  more.  I  spent 
for  you,  that  they  may  receive  me." 

In  order  to  prop  up  the  claims  of  Downpatrick,  angels  must 
commune  with  each  other ;  man  had  to  abdicate  his  senses ;  the 
brute  beasts  are  brought  on  the  scene  to  act  their  part;  and 
the  waters  became  instinct  with  life  "in  digging  deep  valleys, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  piercing  the  air  "  as  a  barrier  against 
contending  provinces.  Heaven  and  earth  are  moved,  with 
their  inhabitants,  in  order  to  neutralize  an  historical  and  the 
earliest  statement  in  favor  of  Saul.  This  simple  and  natural 
statement,  in  striking  contrast  to  its  contradictory,  tells  us 
that  our  saint,  overtaken  by  the  sickness  of  death  at  Saul,  was 
there  buried.  Saul  was  his  first  love,  the  scene  of  his  first 
missionary  success,  and  the  closing  scene  of  his  divinely-fav- 
ored apostolate.  The  alleged  signs  and  wonders  in  connec- 
tion with  the  burial  resemble  others  on  which,  before  the  pres- 
ent, I  had  to  observe  that  their  extravagance  appeared  in 
proportion  to  the  evidence  of  the  falsehood  in  support  of 
which  they  appeared  to  be  manufactured.  Downpatrick  pos- 
sessed nothing  in  fact,  in  association,  in  prophecy,  not  even 
a  church,  suggestive  of  a  burial-place.  Neither  the  glory 
of  God,  so  far  at  it  is  allowed  us  to  raise  a  corner  of  the  myste- 
rious veil,  nor  edification  of  man  called  for  Divine  interposi- 
tion on  the  occasion.  As  to  the  dying  wish  of  the  saint,  it  cer- 
tainly did  not  lean  to  Downpatrick,  nor  probably,  notwith- 
standing the  repeated  and  accentuated  assurances  to  the  con- 
trary in  the  Book  of  ArmagTi,  to  Armagh;  for  his  wish  on 
such  a  matter  would  be  an  absolute  command;  and  as  to  a 
chosen  spot,  ''all  Ireland  was  given  to  him  as  his  diocese.** 

It  was  only  natural,  then,  in  the  circumstances  that  the 
great  high  priest,  the  glorious  national  apostle,  would  lie 


Ancient  Ireland 


99 


where  he  fell;  and,  if  it  were  not  natural,  it  would  be  a  matter 
of  indifference  to  him  who,  in  his  extreme  old  age,  had  to  say: 

' '  I  daily  expect  murder,  or  to  be  circumvented,  or  reduced 
to  slavery,  or  to  a  mishap  of  some  kind.  .  .  .  And  if  ever 
I  have  imitated  anything  good  on  account  of  my  God,  Whom 
I  love,  I  pray  Him  to  grant  me  that,  with  those  proselytes  and 
captives,  I  may  pour  out  my  blood  for  His  name 's  sake,  even 
though  I  may  be  deprived  of  burial,  and  my  corpse  most  mis- 
erably be  torn  limb  from  limb  by  dogs  or  wild  beasts,  or  birds 
of  the  air  should  devour  it. ' ' 

In  conclusion :  the  alleged  angelic  direction  in  regard  to  the 
burial  of  St.  Patrick  in  Down,  and  to  the  church  to  be  built 
over  him,  is  still  further  proved  to  be  false  by  the  fact  that 
law  and  custom  forbade  any  person  in  the  fifth  century  to  be 
buried  in  a  church,  or  a  church  to  be  built  over  him,  unless 
he  was  a  martyr. 


Ornament  on  top  of  Devenish  Round  Tower 
From  Petrie's  "Roxmd  Towers,"  400. 


SECTION  II. 


THE  NORMAN  INVASION 


J 


BY 


MARTIN  HAVERTY,  Author  of  a  "History  of  Ireland" 

CONTAINING 

DERMOT  McMORROUGH'S  PERFIDY— ABDUCTION  AND  FATE  OF   THE 

WIFE  OF  THE  PRINCE  OF  BREFNI— STRONGBOW'S  ARRIVAL 

IN  IRELAND— ALLEGED  BULL  OF  POPE  ADRLVN— 

LANDING  OF  HENRY  II. 


101 


JV..IJ  -- w^w^^^W 


THE  NORMAN  INVASION. 

BY  MARTIN  HAVERTV. 


CHAPTER  I. 

CAUSES   THAT   LED   TO   THE   INVASION— DERMOT    MAC    MURROUGH 's 

PERFIDY. 

Dermot  MacMurrougli,  or  Diarmaid-na-Gall,  that  is,  Der- 
mot  of  the  foreigners,  as  he  is  often  called,  the  infamous  king 
of  Leinster  who  betrayed  his  country  to  the  English,  now  ap-" 
pears  on  the  scene,  and,  from  the  commencement,  his  ill- 
omened  career  is  marked  by  crime.  In  the  year  1135,  accord- 
ing to  Mageoghegan's  Annals  of  Clonmacnoise,  he  took  the 
abbess  of  Kildare  from  her  cloister  and  compelled  her  to 
marry  one  of  his  men,  at  the  same  time  killing  170  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Kildare  who  attempted  to  prevent  the  sacrilegious  out- 
rage.  After  being  involved  in  various  feuds  in  the  interval, 
he  endeavored,  in  1141,  to  crush  all  resistance  to  his  tyranny 
by  a  barbarous  onslaught  upon  the  nobles  of  his  province. 
He  killed  Donnell,  lord  of  Hy-Faelain,  and  Murrough  O'Tuat- 
hail;  put  out  the  eyes  of  Muirkertach  MacGillamochalmog, 
lord  of  Feara  Cualann,  or  Wicklow,  and  killed  or  blinded 
seventeen  other  chieftains,  besides  many  of  inferior  rank. 

In  the  year  1152  Meath  was  dismembered  by  the  monarch, 
O'Louglin,  aided  by  Turlough  0 'Conor,  Dermot  MacMur- 
rough,  and  other  princes.  From  Clonard  westward  was  given 
to  Murrough  O'Melaghlin,  who  had  been  formerly  deposed, 
and  from  the  same  point  eastward,  to  Murrough 's  son  Me- 
laghlin.  Tiernan  O'Rourke,  lord  of  Breffny,  was  also  dispos- 
sessed of  his  territory  by  this  host  of  confederated  princes; 
and  at  the  same  time  another  mortal  injury  was  inflicted  on 
him,  his  wife,  Dervorgil,  being  carried  off  by  MacMurrough, 
the  king  of  Leinster. 

The  time  and  other  circumstances  of  this  abduction  have 
been  strangely  distorted  by  historians  to  give  a  coloring  of 
romance  to  the  account  of  the  English  invasion,  with  which 
it  cannot  have  had  the  least  connection.  It  occurred,  accord- 
ing to  our  authentic  annals,  in  1152,  and  Dermot's  flight  to 

103 


104  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

England,  and  invitation  to  the  invaders,  did  not  take  place 
till  1166.  Dervorgil  was  at  the  former  of  these  dates  forty- 
four  years  of  age,  and  her  paramour  sixty-two.  She  was 
shamefully  encouraged  by  her  brother,  Melaghlin  O'Melagh- 
lin,  just  then  made  lord  of  East  Meath,  to  abandon  her  hus- 
band, who  appears  to  have  treated  her  harshly  before  that, 
and  to  have  deserved  little  sympathy  as  a  hero  of  romance. 
On  leaving  0  'Rourke,  she  took  with  her  the  cattle  and  articles 
which  formed  her  dowry;  and  the  following  year,  when  she 
was  rescued  from  MacMurrough  by  Turlough  0 'Conor,  and 
restored  to  her  family,  the  same  cattle  and  other  property 
were  also  restored.  It  is  probable  that  she  did  not  reside  again 
with  her  husband,  but  retired  immediately  to  Mellifont,  where 
she  endeavored  by  charity  and  rigid  penance  during  the  re- 
mainder of  her  life,  to  expiate  her  misconduct.  Meditating 
vengeance  against  the  country  from  which  he  was  compelled  to 
fly  in  disgrace,  the  fugutive  king  of  Leinster  arrived  at  Bris- 
tol, where  he  learned  that  Henry  II.,  to  whom  he  had  deter- 
mined to  apply  for  aid,  was  absent  in  Aquitaine.  Thither  he 
immediately  proceeded ;  and  having  at  length  found  the  Eng- 
lish king,  he  laid  before  him  such  a  statement  of  his  grievances 
as  he  thought  fit.  He  offered  to  become  Henry's  vassal,  should 
he,  through  his  assistance,  be  reinstated  in  his  kingdom,  and 
made  the  most  abject  protestations  of  reverence  and  submis- 
sion. Henry  lent  a  willing  ear  to  his  statement,  and  must 
have  been  forcibly  struck  by  this  invitation  to  carry  out  a 
project  which  he  himself  had  long  entertained,  and  for  which 
he  had  been  long  making  grave  preparations  many  years 
before.  That  project  was  the  invasion  of  Ireland.  As  his 
hands  were,  however,  just  then  full  of  business— for  he  was 
engaged  in  bringing  into  submission  the  proud  nobles  of  the 
province  in  which  he  then  was,  while  at  home  the  resistance 
of  St.  Thomas  a  Becket,  who  would  not  suffer  him  to  trample 
on  the  rights  of  the  church  with  impunity,  was  become  daily 
more  irksome— he  could  not  occupy  himself  personally  in 
Dermot's  affairs,  but  gave  him  letters  addressed  to  all  his 
subjects— English,  French,  and  Welsh— recommending  Der- 
mot  to  them,  and  granting  them  a  general  license  to  aid  that 
prince  in  the  recovery  of  his  territory  by  force  of  arms. 

With  this  authorization  Dermot  hastened  back  to  Wales, 
where  he  gave  it  due  publicity,  but  for  some  time  his  efforts 
to  induce  anyone  to  espouse  his  cause  were  unavailing.  At 
length,  he  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  some  needy  military 


The  Norman  Invasion  105 

adventurers  suited  to  his  purpose.  The  chief  of  these  was 
Richard  de  Clare,  commonly  called  Strongbow  (as  his  father, 
Gilbert,  also  had  been),  from  his  skill  with  the  crossbow. 
This  man,  who  was  earl  of  Pembroke  and  Strigul,  or  Chep- 
stow, being  of  a  brave  and  enterprising  spirit,  and  of  ruined 
fortune,  entered  warmly  into  Dermot's  design.  He  under- 
took to  raise  a  sufficient  force  to  aid  the  king  of  Leinster 
in  the  recovery  of  his  kingdom,  for  which  Dermot  promised 
him  his  daughter,  Eva,  in  marriage,  and  the  succession  to  the 
throne  of  Leinster.  Two  Anglo-Norman  knights,  Maurice 
FitzGerald  and  Robert  FitzStephen,  also  enlisted  themselves 
in  the  cause  of  Dermot.  These  men  were  half-brothers,  being 
the  sons  of  Nesta,  who  had  been  first  the  mistress  of  Henry  I., 
then  the  wife  of  Gerald  of  Windsor,  governor  of  Pembroke 
and  lord  of  Carew,  to  whom  she  bore  the  former  of  the  adven- 
turers, and  finally  the  mistress  of  Constable  Stephen  de 
Marisco,  who  was  the  father  of  Robert  FitzStephen.  These 
knights  were  men  of  needy  circumstances,  and  Dermot  prom- 
ised to  reward  them  liberally  for  their  services,  by  granting 
them  the  city  of  Wexford  with  certain  lands  adjoining.  Such 
were  the  obscure  individuals  by  whom  the  first  introduction 
of  English  power  into  Ireland  was  planned  and  carried  out. 
The  year  1168  was  now  drawing  to  a  close,  and  Dermot 
MacMurrough,  relying  on  the  promises  which  he  had  obtained, 
ventured  back  to  Ireland,  and  remained,  during  the  winter, 
concealed  in  a  monastery  of  Augustinian  canons  which  he 
had  founded  at  Ferns.  There  is  some  uncertainty  as  to  the 
date  of  the  first  landing  of  the  Anglo-Normans  in  Ireland;  and 
it  may  also  be  doubted,  whether  some  of  the  proceedings  of 
Dermot  and  his  foreign  auxiliaries,  mentioned  obscurely  in 
the  native  annals,  occurred  previous  to  the  arrival  of  Fitz- 
Stephen, and  the  surrender  of  Wexford,  in  May,  1169,  or 
were  identical  with  those  recorded  after  that  time.  Thus  it 
is  stated,  that  early  in  the  year  a  few  of  Dermot's  Welsh 
auxiliaries  arrived,  and  that  with  their  aid  he  recovered  pos- 
session of  Hy-Kinsellagh ;  but  that  this  movement  on  his  part 
was  premature,  and  that  at  the  approach  of  a  force,  hastily 
collected  by  Roderic  0  'Connor  and  Tiernan  0  'Rourke,  a  battle 
in  which  some  of  the  Welsh  were  killed  having  been  fought 
at  Cill  Osnadh,  now  Kellistown,  in  the  county  of  Carlow, 
Dermot,  who  only  wanted  to  gain  time,  made  a  hypocritical 
peace  with  the  monarch,  giving  him  seven  hostages  for  ten 
cantreds  of  his  former  territory.    It  is  added,  that  he  gave  a 


106  Ireland's  Crow>^  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

hundred  ounces  of  gold  to  0  'Rourke,  as  an  atonement  for  the 
injury  he  had  formerly  inflicted  on  him;  but  all  this  seems 
to  be  only  a  confused  version  of  some  of  the  events  which  we 
are  now  about  to  relate  in  order,  on  the  authority  of  Giraldus 
Cambrensis  and  Maurice  Egan. 

According  to  the  most  probable  account  of  the  first  Anglo- 
Norman  descent,  Robert  FitzStephen,  with  30  knights  all 
of  his  own  kinsmen,  60  men-at-arms,  and  300  skillful  archers, 
disembarked  in  May,  1169,  at  Bannow^  near  Wexford.  One 
of  the  knights  was  Hervey  de  Montemarisco,  or  Mount- 
maurice,  a  paternal  uncle  of  Earl  Strongbow;  and  the  next 
day,  at  the  same  place,  landed  Maurice  de  Prendergast,  a 
Welsh  gentleman,  with  10  knights  and  60  archers.  Dermot, 
on  receiving  notice  of  their  arrival,  marched  with  the  utmost 
speed  to  join  them  with  500  men,  being  all  that  he  could 
muster;  and  with  the  joint  force,  he  proceeded  immediately  to 
lay  siege  to  the  town  of  Wexford,  the  inhabitants  of  which 
were  Dano-Irish.  The  first  assault  was  repelled  with  great 
bravery,  the  inhabitants  ha\dng  previously  set  fire  to  the 
suburbs,  that  they  might  not  afford  a  cover  to  the  enemy;  but 
when  the  Anglo-Normans  were  preparing  to  renew  the  attack 
next  morning,  the  townspeople  demanded  a  parley  and  terms 
of  capitulation  were  negotiated  by  the  clergy ;  Dermot  though 
with  great  reluctance,  consenting  to  pardon  the  inhabitants 
on  returning  to  their  allegiance.  In  the  first  day's  assault 
eighteen  of  the  English  had  been  slain,  and  only  three  of  the 
brave  garrison.  FitzStephen  burned  the  shii^ping  which  lay 
before  the  town ;  and  it  is  said  that  he  destroyed  also  the  ves- 
sels which  had  conveyed  his  own  troops  from  England,  to 
show  that  they  were  resolved  never  to  retreat.  The  lordship 
of  the  town  was  then,  according  to  the  contract,  made  over 
to  him  and  to  FitzGerald,  who  had  not  yet  arrived,  and  two 
cantreds  of  land,  lying  between  the  towns  of  Wexford  and 
Waterford,  were  granted  by  Dermot  to  Hervey  of  Mount- 
mauricG. 

Dermot  now  conducted  his  allies  to  Ferns,  where  they 
remained  inactive  for  three  weeks,  without  molestation,  and 
indeed  without  appearing  to  excite  any  attention  on  the  part 
of  King  Roderic  and  the  other  Irish  princes.  This  apathy  of 
the  Irish,  which  appears  to  us  so  unaccountable  and  which  was 
so  lamentable  in  its  consequences,  partly  arose,  no  doubt, 
from  the  insignificance  of  the  invaders,  in  point  of  numbers. 
Never  did  a  national  calamity,  so  mighty  and  so  deplorable. 


The  Norman  Invasion  107 

proceed  from  a  commencement  more  contemptible  than  did 
the  English  occupation  of  Ireland.  The  Irish  were  accus- 
tomed to  employ  parties  of  Danish  mercenaries  in  their  feuds. 
They  had  also  mixed  themselves  up  more  than  once  in  the 
quarrels  of  the  Welsh;  and  they  looked  upon  MacMurrough's 
handful  of  Welsh  and  Normans  as  casual  auxiliaries  who  came 
on  special  duty  and  would  depart  when  it  was  performed. 
The  Irish  annalists  expressly  state  that  the  monarch,  with 
a  number  of  subordinate  princes  and  a  large  army,  entered 
Leinster  at  this  very  time,  and  ''went  to  meet  the  men  of 
Munster,  Leinster,  and  Ossory,"  but  *'set  nothing  by  the 
Flemings,"  as  the  first  party  of  the  invaders  are  called  in 
these  records.  As  to  Roderic,  he  showed  no  foresight  or 
prudence,  no  energy  of  character  or  real  bravery,  and  no  re- 
gard for  the  interests  of  Ireland  as  an  integral  nation, 
throughout  the  whole  of  this  most  fatal  crisis  in  his  coun- 
try's fortunes.  About  this  time  he  celebrated  the  fair  of 
Tailtin,  when  the  concourse  assembled  was  so  great  that  the 
horsemen  are  said  to  have  been  spread  over  the  tract  of 
country  from  Mullach  x\iti,  now  the  hill  of  Lloyd,  west  of 
Kells,  to  Mullach  Tailtin,  a  distance  of  about  six  and  a  half 
miles;  yet,  while  this  display  of  numbers  was  made  within  a 
couple  of  days'  march,  Dermot,  with  his  handful  of  foreign 
auxiliaries,  was  permitted  to  overrun  the  province  of  Leinster, 
and  to  brave  the  anger  of  the  imbecile  monarch. 

Emboldened  by  the  inactivity  of  his  enemies,  Dermot 
resolved  to  act  on  the  offensive;  and  as  he  had  a  cause  of 
quarrel  with  MacGilla  Patrick,  prince  of  Ossory,  who,  actu- 
ated by  a  feeling  of  jealousy,  had  put  out  the  eyes  of  Enna, 
a  son  of  MacMurrough's,  who  was  in  his  power  as  a  hostage, 
he  detennined  to  make  him  the  object  of  his  vengeance.  Be- 
tween the  forces  of  his  province  and  the  garrison  of  Wexford. 
Dermot  was  enabled  to  muster  3,000  men,  but  his  principal 
reliance  was  on  his  foreign  friends,  in  whose  ranks  he  chiefly 
remained;  and  the  Wexford  men  were  so  hated  and  dis- 
trusted by  him,  that  they  were  not  allowed  to  encamp  at  night 
with  the  rest  of  the  army.  Thus  Dermot  marched  into  Ossory, 
where  the  inliabitants  made  a  brave  stand;  but  after  a  good 
deal  of  fighting,  having  been  decoyed  from  a  strong  position 
into  one  where  they  were  exposed  to  the  Norman  cavalry,  they 
were  ultimately  defeated,  and  three  hundred  of  their  heads 
were  piled  up  before  Dermot  as  a  trophy  of  ^actory.  This 
ferocious  monster  is  said  to  have  leaped  and  clapped  his 


108  Ireland's  Ckown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

hands  with  joy  at  the  sight ;  and  Cambrensis  adds  that  he 
turned  over  the  heads  in  the  ghastly  heap,  and  that  recogniz- 
ing one  of  them  as  the  head  of  a  man  to  whom  he  had  par- 
ticular aversion,  he  seized  it  by  both  ears,  and  with  brutal 
frenzy  bit  off  the  nose  and  lips  of  his  dead  enemy.  Such  is 
the  character  which  we  receive  of  this  detestable  tyrant,  even 
from  contemporary  English  authorities. 

Eoderic,  awakening  at  length  to  a  sense  of  the  duty  which 
devolved  on  him,  convened  a  meeting  of  the  Irish  princes  at 
Tara,  and,  in  obedience  to  the  summons,  a  large  army  was 
mustered;  while  Dermot,  who  had  already  carried  desolation 
through  a  great  portion  of  Ossory,  became  dismayed  at  the 
first  symptoms  of  preparations  against  him,  and,  halting  with 
his  English  friends  in  their  career  of  havoc,  returned  to 
Ferns,  and  hastily  entrenched  hmiself  there.  Scarcely,  how- 
ever, had  the  Irish  army  assembled,  when  dissension  broke 
out  in  its  ranks,  and  on  marching  as  far  as  Dublin,  Eoderic 
thought  fit  to  dispense  with  the  services  of  MacDunlevy  of 
Ulidia,  and  of  0 'Carroll  of  Oriel,  who  accordingly  drew  off 
their  respective  contingents,  and  returned  home.  Still  the 
monarch  arrived  before  Ferns  with  an  army  sufficient  to 
annihilate  the  small  force  which  he  found  collected  there  round 
Dermot ;  for  it  must  be  observed,  that  on  the  news  of  an  Irish 
army  being  in  the  field,  the  king  of  Leinster  was  abandoned 
by  a  great  number  of  his  Irish  followers. 

The  conduct  of  Eoderic  on  this  occasion  lamentably  illus- 
trates the  weakness  of  his  character.  Instead  of  proceeding 
at  once  to  crush  the  dangerous  foe,  or  insisting  on  the  uncon- 
ditional submission  of  Dermot,  he  entered  into  private  nego- 
tiations, first  with  FitzStephen,  and  then  with  Dermot; 
endeavoring  to  induce  the  former  to  abandon  the  king  of 
Leinster,  and  to  return  to  his  own  country,  or  to  detach  the 
latter  from  his  foreign  allies,  and  bring  them  to  an  humble 
admission  of  his  allegiance.  Such  attempts  showed  the  feeble- 
ness of  his  councils,  and  only  excited  the  contempt  of  both 
FitzStephen  and  Dermot.  Eoderic 's  overtures  were  there- 
fore rejected  with  disdain,  and  preparations  were  made  on 
both  sides  for  battle.  "We  cannot  now  judge  how  far  the 
strength  of  the  position  occupied  by  the  enemy  justified  the 
reluctance  of  the  Irish  monarch  to  attack;  but  we  find  him 
again  endeavoring  to  avert  the  necessity  of  fighting  by  further 
treating  willi  the  perfidious  Dermot,  so  that  it  was  Eoderic, 
and  not  the  besieged,  who  appeared  to  supplicate  for  peace. 


The  Norman  Invasion  100 

At  length  terms  were  agreed  on,  Roderic  consenting  to  give 
the  full  sovereignty  of  Leinster  to  Dermot  and  to  his  heirs, 
on  his  own  supremacy  being  acknowledged;  and  Dermot  on 
the  other  part,  giving  his  favorite  son,  Conor,  as  a  hostage 
to  the  monarch,  and  binding  himself  solemnly  by  a  secret 
treaty  to  bring  over  no  more  foreign  auxiliaries,  and  to  dis- 
miss those  now  in  his  service,  so  soon  as  circumstances  would 
permit  him  to  do  so. 

About  this  time  Maurice  de  Prendergast  withdrew  from 
Dermot,  with  his  followers,  to  the  number  of  200 ;  and  finding 
that  his  departure  from  Ireland  was  prevented,  he  offered 
his  services  to  the  king  of  Ossory.  This  defection  alarmed 
Dermot,  and  enabled  his  enemy,  MacGilla  Patrick,  to  make 
some  reprisals;  but  Maurice  soon  abandoned  the  latter  also, 
and  returned  for  a  short  time  to  Wales. 

Dermot,  who  only  desired  to  gain  time,  soon  betrayed  the 
insincerity  of  his  concessions  to  Roderic;  for  Maurice  Fitz- 
Gerald  having  in  a  few  days  after  arrived  with  a  small  party 
of  knights  and  archers  at  Wexford,  he  hastened  to  meet  his 
ally,  regardless  of  his  treaty,  and,  with  this  addition  to  his 
forces,  marched  to  attack  Dublin,  which  had  thrown  off  its 
allegiance  to  him,  and  was  then  governed  by  Hasculf  Mac- 
Turkill,  a  prince  of  Danish  descent.  The  territory  around  the 
city  was  soon  laid  waste  in  so  merciless  a  way,  that  the 
inhabitants  were  obliged  to  sue  for  peace;  and  the  king  of 
Leinster  having  glutted  his  revenge,  accepted  their  submis- 
sion, for  the  purpose  of  being  free  to  lend  assistance  to 
Donnell  O'Brien,  prince  of  Thomond,  who  had  married  the 
daughter  of  Dermot,  and  half-sister  of  Eva,  and  had  just 
then  rebelled  against  the  monarch  Roderic.  This  opportunity 
of  weakening  the  power  of  the  latter  was,  to  the  vindictive 
king  of  Leinster,  too  gratifying  to  be  neglected ;  and  Dermot 
felt  so  elated  by  repeated  successes,  that  he  was  no  longer 
content  with  his  position  as  a  provincial  prince,  but  set  up  a 
claim  to  the  sovereignty  of  Ireland,  which  he  grounded  on  the 
right  of  an  ancestor.  In  his  ambitious  aim  he  was  encouraged 
by  his  English  auxiliaries;  and  in  a  consultation  with  Fitz- 
Stephen  and  FitzGerald,  it  was  resolved  that  a  message  be 
sent  immediately  to  Strongbow,  pressing  him  to  fulfil  his 
engagements,  and  to  come  to  their  aid  with  as  little  delay  as 
possible. 

Strongbow  on  his  part  felt  himself  in  a  difficult  position. 
He  could  no  longer  act  upon  Henry's  letters  patent,  Dermot 


ilO  Irela.\i/s  Crowx  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

being  now  reinstated  in  bis  kingdom;  and  a  new  sanction 
being  necessary  to  autborize  a  bostile  expedition  to  Ireland, 
be  repaired  to  Normandy,  wbere  tbe  English  king  tben  was, 
to  solicit  bis  permission.  Henry,  wbo  was  naturally  jealous 
and  suspicious,  and  entertained  a  particular  aversion  to  tbe 
ambitious  earl  of  Pembroke,  in  order  to  rid  bimself  of  bis 
opportunity,  gave  bim  an  equivocal  answer,  wbicb  Strongbow 
l^retended  to  understand  as  tbe  required  permission.  He 
thereupon  returned  to  Wales,  set  about  collecting  men  with 
all  possible  diligence,  and  sent  Eajinond  le  Gros  with  ten 
knights  and  seventy  archers  as  bis  advanced  guard.  This 
party  landed  at  a  small  rocky  promontory  then  called  Dundolf, 
or  Downdonnell,  near  Waterford,  and  being  joined  by  Hervey 
of  Mountmaurice,  they  constructed  a  temporary  fort,  to 
enable  them  to  retain  their  position  until  Strongbow  should 
arrive.  The  citizens  of  Waterford,  aided  by  O'Faelain,  or 
O'Phelan,  prince  of  the  Deisi,  and  O'Eyan,  of  Idrone,  sent 
a  hastily  collected  force  to  dislodge  the  invaders ;  but  through 
the  bravery  of  Raymond,  aided  by  accident,  the  besieged  were 
not  only  able  to  defend  themselves,  but  effectually  to  rout 
the  undisciplined  multitude  who  came  against  them,  killing, 
it  is  said,  500  men,  and  taking  seventy  of  the  principal  citizens 
prisoners.  Large  sums  of  money  were  offered  to  ransom  tbe 
J after,  but  the  English,  as  some  say,  swayed  by  the  sangniinary 
counsel  of  Hervey  of  Mountmaurice,  rejected  these  offers; 
and  for  the  purpose  of  striking  terror  into  the  Irish  brutally 
massacred  the  prisoners  by  breaking  their  limbs,  and  hurling 
them  from  the  summit  of  the  precipice  into  the  sea.  This 
atrocity  was  a  fitting  prelude  to  the  English  wars  in  Ireland; 
but  most  historians  vindicate  Raymond  le  Gros  from  tbe 
stigma  which  it  cast  upon  the  English  arms. 

In  the  meantime  Strongbow  had  assembled  bis  army  of 
adventurers  and  mercenaries  at  Milford,  and  was  about  to 
embark,  when  he  received  a  peremptory  order  from  Henry 
forbidding  the  expedition.  What  was  to  be  done?  His  hesi- 
tation, if  any,  was  very  brief,  and  he  adopted  the  desperate 
alternative  of  disobeying  his  king.  He  accordingly  sailed,  and 
with  an  army  of  about  1,200  men,  of  whom  200  were  knights, 
landed  near  Waterford  on  the  23d  of  August,  the  eve  of  St. 
Bartholomew's  day.  Hfre  he  was  immediately  joined  by  his 
friend  Raj^nond  le  Gros,  who  had  been  three  months  in  Ire- 
land, and  the  very  next  day  he  proceeded  to  lay  siege  to 
Waterford,    The  citizens  displayed  great  heroism   in   their 


■MARRIAGE  OF  EVA  McMURROUGH  TO  EARL  STROXGBOW. 


llll,     XoliUAA     I.WASIU.N  111 

defence,  and  twice  repulsed  the  attempts  of  tlie  assailants. 
At  length  a  large  breach  was  made  in  the  wall  by  the  fall  of 
a  house  which  projected  over  it,  and  which  came  toppling 
down  when  the  props  by  which  it  had  been  supported  were 
cut  by  Raymond's  knights;  and  the  besiegers  pouring  into 
the  city  made  a  dreadful  slaughter  of  the  inhabitants.  A 
tower  in  which  Reginald,  or  Gillemaire,  as  the  Irish  annalists 
call  him,  a  lord  of  Danish  extraction,  and  OThelan,  prince  of 
the  Deisi,  continued  to  defend  themselves,  was  taken;  and 
these  two  brave  men  were  on  the  point  of  being  massacred  by 
their  pitiless  captors,  when  Dermot  MacMurrough  arrived, 
and  for  the  first  and  only  time  we  see  mercy  exercised  at  his 
request.  The  carnage  of  the  now  unresisting  inhabitants  was 
suspended.  Dermot  expressed  great  exultation  at  the  arrival 
of  Earl  Strongbow,  and  insisted  upon  paying  him  at  once  his 
promised  guerdon.  He  had  taken  his  daughter,  Eva,  with  him 
for  that  purpose;  the  marriage  ceremony  was  hastily  per- 
formed, and  the  wedding  cortege  passed  through  streets  reek- 
ing with  the  still  warm  blood  of  the  brave  and  unhappy 
citizens. 

Immediately  after  the  marriage  of  Strongbow  and  Eva, 
Dermot  and  his  allies  set  out  on  a  rapid  march  to  Dublin, 
leaving  a  small  party  to  garrison  Waterford.  Roderic  had 
collected  a  large  army  and  encamped  at  Clondalkin,  near 
Dublin ;  and  Hasculf ,  the  governor  of  that  city,  encouraged  by 
their  presence,  revolted  against  Dermot.  Hence  the  haste  of 
the  confederate  army  to  reach  Dublin ;  and  as  they  proceeded 
along  the  high  ridges  of  the  Wicklow  mountains  in  order  to 
escape  the  fortified  passes  by  which  their  march  would  have 
been  impeded  in  the  valleys,  they  arrived  under  the  walls  of 
Dublin  long  before  their  presence  there  could  be  calculated 
on.  This  rapid  movement,  and  the  now  formidable  array  of 
the  Anglo-Norman  army,  filled  the  citizens  with  consternation, 
and  recourse  was  had  to  negotiation;  the  illustrious  arch- 
bishop of  Dublin,  St.  Lawrence  0 'Toole,  being  commissioned 
to  arrange  terms  of  peace  with  Dermot.  "While  the  parley, 
however,  was  still  proceeding  in  Strongbow 's  camp,  two  of 
the  English  leaders,  Ra3^nond  le  Gros  and  Milo  de  Cogan, 
regardless  of  the  usages  of  civilized  warfare— though  some 
say  the  time  for  the  conference  had  expired— led  their  troops 
respectively  against  the  weakest  or  most  neglected  parts  of  the 
fortifications,  and  obtained  an  entrance.  The  inhabitants, 
rehing  on  the  negotiations  which  were  going  forward,  were 


JJA.,  I     I  l..JPgPi^^W""PPll 


MARRIAGE  OF  EVA  McMURROUGH  TO  EARL  STRONGBOW. 


'I'm.   XoicUAA    I.waskjn  111 

defence,  and  twice  repulsed  the  attempts  of  the  assailants. 
At  length  a  largo  breach  was  made  in  the  wall  by  the  fall  of 
a  house  which  projected  over  it,  and  which  came  toppling 
down  when  the  props  by  which  it  had  been  supported  were 
cut  by  Raymond's  knights;  and  the  besiegers  pouring  into 
the  city  made  a  dreadful  slaughter  of  the  inhabitants.  A 
tower  in  which  Reginald,  or  Gillemaire,  as  the  Irish  annalists 
call  him,  a  lord  of  Danish  extraction,  and  O'Phelan,  prince  of 
the  Deisi,  continued  to  defend  themselves,  was  taken;  and 
these  two  brave  men  were  on  the  point  of  being  massacred  by 
their  pitiless  captors,  when  Dermot  MacMurrough  arrived, 
and  for  the  first  and  only  time  we  see  mercy  exercised  at  his 
request.  The  carnage  of  the  now  unresisting  inhabitants  was 
suspended.  Dermot  expressed  great  exultation  at  the  arrival 
of  Earl  Strongbow,  and  insisted  upon  paying  him  at  once  his 
promised  guerdon.  He  had  taken  his  daughter,  Eva,  with  him 
for  that  purpose;  the  marriage  ceremony  was  hastily  per- 
formed, and  the  wedding  cortege  passed  through  streets  reek- 
ing with  the  still  warm  blood  of  the  brave  and  unhappy 
citizens. 

Immediately  after  the  marriage  of  Strongbow  and  Eva, 
Dermot  and  his  allies  set  out  on  a  rapid  march  to  Dublin, 
leaving  a  small  party  to  garrison  Waterford.  Roderic  had 
collected  a  large  army  and  encamped  at  Clondalkin,  near 
Dublin ;  and  Haseulf ,  the  governor  of  that  city,  encouraged  by 
their  presence,  revolted  against  Dermot.  Hence  the  haste  of 
the  confederate  army  to  reach  Dublin ;  and  as  they  proceeded 
along  the  high  ridges  of  the  Wicklow  mountains  in  order  to 
escape  the  fortified  passes  by  which  their  march  would  have 
been  impeded  in  the  valleys,  they  arrived  under  the  walls  of 
Dublin  long  before  their  presence  there  could  be  calculated 
on.  This  rapid  movement,  and  the  now  formidable  array  of 
the  Anglo-Norman  army,  filled  the  citizens  with  consternation, 
and  recourse  was  had  to  negotiation;  the  illustrious  arch- 
bishop of  Dublin,  St.  Lawrence  0 'Toole,  being  commissioned 
to  arrange  terms  of  peace  with  Dermot.  While  the  parley, 
however,  was  still  proceeding  in  Strongbow 's  camp,  two  of 
the  English  leaders,  Rapnond  le  Gros  and  Milo  de  Cogan, 
regardless  of  the  usages  of  civilized  warfare— though  some 
say  the  time  for  the  conference  had  expired— led  their  troops 
respectively  against  the  weakest  or  most  neglected  parts  of  the 
fortifications,  and  obtnined  an  entrance.  The  inhabitants, 
rehing  on  the  negotiations  which  were  going  forward,  were 


112  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

quite  unprepared  for  this  assault,  and  flying  panic  stricken, 
were  butchered  in  the  most  merciless  manner.  We  may  con- 
ceive the  horror  with  which  St.  Laurence,  hastening  back  to 
the  city,  found  its  streets  filled  with  carnage.  He  exposed 
his  life  in  the  midst  of  the  massacre,  endeavoring  to  appease 
the  fury  of  the  soldiers,  and  subsequently  he  had  the  bodies 
of  the  slain  collected  for  decent  burial,  interceded  for  the 
clergy  of  the  city,  and  procured  the  restoration  of  the  books 
and  ornaments  of  which  the  churches  had  been  plundered. 
Roderic  would  appear  to  have  had  some  skirmishes  with  the 
enemy  for  two  or  three  successive  days  previous  to  this,  and 
then  to  have  withdrawn  with  his  large  but  ill-organized  army ; 
but  the  Irish  annalists,  in  mentioning  the  transaction,  accuse 
the  citizens  of  Dublin  of  bad  faith,  probably  for  refusing  to 
act  in  concert  with  the  Irish,  or  for  endeavoring  to  make  a 
peace  for  themselves ;  and  they  also  allude  to  a  conflagration 
produced  in  the  city  by  lightning,  which,  no  doubt,  added  to 
the  panic.  *'As  judgment  upon  them,"  say  the  Four  Masters, 
* '  MacMurrough  and  the  Saxons  acted  treacherously  towards 
them,  and  made  a  slaughter  of  them  in  their  own  fortress,  in 
consequence  of  the  violation  of  their  word  to  the  men  of 
Ireland."  Hasculf  and  a  number  of  the  principal  citizens 
made  their  escape  in  ships,  and  repaired  to  the  Hebrides  and 
Orkneys,  and  Eoderic,  without  striking  a  blow,  drew  off  his 
army  into  Meath  to  sustain  O'Rourke,  to  whom  he  had  given 
the  eastern  portion  of  that  territory.  About  the  same  time 
the  English  garrison,  which  had  been  left  in  Waterford,  was 
attacked  and  defeated  by  Cormac  MacCarthy,  king  of  Des- 
mond, but  we  are  not  told  of  any  consequence  which  resulted. 
The  government  of  Dublin  was  now  entrusted  to  Milo  de 
Cogan;  and  Dermot,  with  his  allies,  marched  into  Meath, 
which  they  ravaged  and  laid  waste  with  an  animosity  per- 
fectly diabolical.  The  churches  of  Clonard,  Kells,  Teltown, 
Dowth,  Slane,  Kilskeery,  and  Desert-Kieran  were  plundered 
and  burned,  and  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  towns  or  villages 
which  surrounded  them  were  not  treated  with  greater  mercy. 
This  predatory  incursion  was  extended  into  Tir  Bruin,  or  the 
country  of  the  O'Rourkes  and  O'Reillys  in  Leitrim  and 
Cavan;  and  although  the  monarch  himself  appears  to  have 
avoided  all  collision  with  the  enemy,  we  are  told  that  at  last 
a  portion  of  the  latter  were  twice  defeated  in  Breffny  by 
O'Rourke.  Donnell,  prince  of  Bergia,  who  had  been  deposed 
by  Roderic,  sided  with  MacMurrough,  as  did  also  DonnelPs 


The  Norman  Invasion  113 

adheronts  among  the  peoplo  of  East  Meatli,  and  some  of  the 
men  of  Oriel. 

Alarmed  at  these  events,  Roderic  foolishly  imagined  that 
he  could  arrest  the  progress  of  Dermot  by  threatening  him 
with  the  death  of  his  hostages.  He  accordingly  sent  ambas- 
sadors to  remonstrate  with  him  for  his  perfidy  in  breaking 
his  engagements,  and  for  his  unprovoked  aggressions,  and  to 
announce  that  if  he  did  not  withdraw  his  army  within  his  own 
frontier,  and  dismiss  his  foreign  auxiliaries,  the  heads  of  his 
hostages  should  be  forfeited.  Dermot  treated  this  menace 
with  derision.  As  far  as  we  can  judge  of  his  character,  he 
would  have  preferred  the  gratification  of  his  revenge  to  the 
lives  of  all  his  children,  had  they  been  at  stake.  And  he  sent 
back  word  to  Roderic  that  he  would  not  desist  until  he  had 
fully  asserted  his  claim  to  the  sovereignty  of  all  Ireland,  and 
had  dispossessed  Roderic  of  his  kingdom  of  Connaught  into 
the  bargain. 

There  is  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  whether  Roderic 
fulfilled  his  threat.  Cambrensis,  a  contemporary  writer,  in- 
forms us  that  he  did.  Keating  says  that  he  would  not  expose 
himself  to  such  odium  as  the  execution  of  the  hostages  would 
entail ;  but  the  Four  Masters,  who  are  a  much  better  authority, 
and  would  not  have  made  the  statement  without  sufficient 
grounds,  say  that  *'the  three  royal  hostages"  were  put  to 
death  at  Athlone.  These  were  Conor,  the  son  of  Dermot; 
his  grandson  (the  son  of  Donnell  Kavanagh) ;  and  the  son  of 
his  foster  brother,  O'Caellaighe.  The  act  was  cruel,  but  in 
it  Roderic  did  not  exceed  his  strict  right ;  and  the  same  year 
Tiernan  O'Rourke  put  to  death  the  hostages  of  East  Meath, 
which  had  rebelled  against  him. 

Giraldus  Cambrensis  furnishes  some  interesting  particu- 
lars of  a  synod  held  about  the  close  of  this  year  (1170).  It 
appears  from  it  that  there  prevailed  in  England  a  barbarous 
custom  of  selling  children  as  slaves,  and  that  the  Irish  were 
the  principal  purchasers  in  that  abominable  market.  There 
are  other  authorities  also  to  show  this  nefarious  practice  was 
prevalent  in  England,  the  twenty-eighth  canon  of  the  council 
of  London,  held  in  1102,  having  been  enacted  for  its  prohibi- 
tion. The  custom  of  buying  English  slaves  was  held  by  the 
Irish  clergy  to  be  so  wicked  that,  after  deliberating  on  the 
subject,  the  synod  of  Armagh  pronounced  the  invasion  of  Ire- 
land by  Englishmen  to  be  a  just  judgment  upon  the  country 
on  account  of  it,  and  decreed  that  any  of  the  English  who  were 


114  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

held  as  slaves  in  Ireland  should  immediately  be  set  free.  It 
was  a  curious  and  characteristic  coincidence  that  an  Irish 
deliberative  assembly  should  by  an  act  of  humanity  to  Eng- 
lishmen, have  met  the  merciless  aggressions  which  the  latter 
had  just  then  commenced  against  this  country. 

In  the  midst  of  his  ambitious  and  vindictive  projects, 
Dermot  Mac^Murrough  died  at  Ferns  on  the  4th  of  May,  1171. 
His  death,  which  took  place  in  less  than  a  year  after  his 
sacrilegious  church-burnings  in  Meath,  is  described  as  accom- 
panied by  fearful  evidence  of  divine  displeasure.  He  died 
intestate,  and  without  the  sacraments  of  the  church.  His 
disease  was  of  some  unknown  and  loathsome  kind,  and  was 
attended  with  insufferable  pain,  which,  acting  on  the  naturally 
savage  violence  of  his  temper,  rendered  him  so  furious  that 
his  ordinary  attendants  were  compelled  to  abandon  him;  and 
his  body  became  at  once  a  putrid  mass,  so  that  its  presence 
above  ground  could  not  be  endured.  Some  historians  suggest 
that  this  account  of  his  death  may  have  been  the  invention 
of  enemies;  yet  it  is  so  consistent  with  what  we  know  of 
MacMurrough 's  character  and  career,  from  other  sources,  as 
to  be  no  wise  incredible.  He  reached  the  age  of  eighty-one 
years,  and  is  known  in  Irish  history  as  Diarmaid-na-Gall,  or 
Dermot  of  the  Foreigners. 

On  the  death  of  Dei-mot,  Earl  Strongbow,  regardless  of  his 
duty  as  an  English  subject,  got  himself  proclaimed  king  of 
Leinster;  and  as  his  marriage  with  Eva  could  not  under  the 
Irish  law  confer  any  right  of  succession,  he  grounded  his  claim 
on  the  engagement  made  by  the  late  king,  when  he  first  agreed 
to  undertake  his  cause.  As  this  was  the  first  step  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  English  power  in  Ireland,  it  is  well  the  reader 
should  bear  in  mind  the  way  it  was  effected.  There  was  here 
no  conquest.  The  only  fighting  which  the  invaders  yet  had 
was  with  the  Dano-Irish  of  Wexford,  TVaterf ord,  and  Dublin ; 
and  against  these,  as  well  as  in  their  predatory  excursions, 
the  Anglo-Normans  acted  in  conjunction  with  their  Irish  allies 
in  Leinster.  They  can  hardly  be  said,  so  far,  to  have  come 
in  collision  with  an  Irish  army  at  all,  and  most  certainly,  as 
Leland  observes,  "the  power  of  the  nation  they  did  not  con- 
tend with. ' *  * < The  settlement  of  a  Welsh  colony  in  Leinster,* * 
as  the  same  historian,  notwithstanding  his  strong  anti-Irish 
prejudice,  continues,  **was  an  incident  neither  interesting  nor 
alarming  to  any,  except,  perhaps,  a  few  of  most  reflection 
and  discernment.''    Even  the  Irish  annalists  speak  with  a 


The  NoRiMAN  Invasion 


115 


careless  mdifterence  of  the  event,  -but,  had  these  first 
adventurers  conceived  that  they  had  notliing  more  to  do  but 
to  march  througli  the  land  and  terrify  a  whole  nation  of  timid 
savages  by  the  glitter  of  their  armor,  they  must  have  speedily 
experienced  the  effects  of  such  romantic  madness  " 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  KelL 


CHAPTEK     11. 


,  '-r, 


ST.    LAWRENCE   0  TOOLE  — BKAVEKY   01"    THE    NORTHERN    PRINCES- 
ENGLISH    LAW    ESTABLISHED    IN    IRELAND. 

Fortune  thus  seoiucd  in  many  respects  to  lavor  Strong- 
bow  and  his  band  oi'  Anglo-Norman  and  Welsh  adventurers, 
yet  their  position  was  one  of  considerable  embarrassment. 
The  king  of  England  was  jealous  of  their  success,  and  indig- 
nant at  the  slight  they  had  put  npon  his  authority.  He  was 
also  annoyed  at  finding  his  own  designs  against  Ireland  antici- 
pated by  men  who  were  likely  to  become  insolent  and  trouble- 
some; and  he  accordingly  issued  a  peremptory  mandate, 
ordering  every  English  subject  then  in  Ireland  to  return 
within  a  certain  time,  and  prohibiting  the  sending  thither  of 
any  further  aid  or  supplies.  Alarmed  at  this  edict,  Strongbow 
dispatched  Raymond  le  Gros  to  Henry  with  a  letter  couched 
in  the  most  submissive  terms,  placing  at  the  king's  disposal 
all  the  lands  which  he  had  acquired  in  Ireland.  Henry  was 
at  the  moment  absorbed  in  the  difficulties  in  which  the  murder 
of  St.  Thomas  a  Becket— if  not  at  his  command,  at  least  at  his 
implied  desire,  and  by  his  mj^rmidons- had  involved  hun,  and 
he  neither  deigned  to  notice  the  earl's  letter,  nor  paid  any 
further  attention  to  the  Irish  affair  for  some  time,  so  that 
Strongbow,  still  tempting  fate,  continued  his  course  without 
regarding  the  royal  edict.  To  add  to  his  difficulties,  his 
standard  was  deserted  by  nearly  all  his  Irish  adherents,  on 
the  death  of  Dermot,  which  took  place  soon  after  the  date  of 
the  royal  mandate ;  and  during  his  absence  from  Dublin  that 
city  was  besieged  by  a  Scandinavian  force,  which  was  collected 
by  Hasculf,  in  the  Orkneys,  and  conveyed  in  sixty  shi})s,  under 
the  connnand  of  a  Dane  called  John  the  Furious.  Milo  de 
Cogan,  whom  Strongbow  had  left  as  governor,  bravely  re- 
pulsed the  besiegers,  but  was  near  being  cut  off  outside  the 
eastern  gate,  until  his  brother  Eichard  came  to  his  relief  with 
a  troop  of  cavalry,  whereupon  the  Norwegians  were  defeated 
with  gTeat  slaughter,  John  the  Furious  being  slain,  and  Has- 
culf made  captive.  The  latter  was  at  first  reserved  for  ran- 
som, but  on  threatening  his  captors  with  a  more  desperate 
attack  on  a  future  occasion,  they  basely  put  him  to  death. 

The  great  archbishop  of  Dublin,   St.   Laurence   0 'Toole, 

117 


118  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

whose  illustrious  example  has  consecrated  Irish  patriotism, 
perceiving  the  straits  to  which  the  Anglo-Normans  were 
reduced,  and  judging  rightly  that  it  only  required  an  ener- 
getic effort,  for  which  a  favorable  moment  had  arrived,  to 
rid  the  country  of  the  dangerous  intruders,  went  among  the 
Irish  princes  to  rouse  them  to  action.  For  this  purpose 
he  proceeded  from  province  to  province,  addressing  the  nobles 
and  people  in  spirit-stirring  words,  and  urging  the  necessity 
for  an  immediate  and  combined  struggle  for  independence. 
Emissaries  were  also  sent  to  Godfred,  king  of  the  Isle  of  Man, 
and  to  some  of  the  northern  islands,  inviting  co-operation 
against  the  common  enemy. 

Earl  Strongbow,  becoming  aware  of  the  impending  danger, 
repaired  in  haste  to  Dublin  and  prepared  to  defend  himself; 
nor  was  he  long  there  when  he  saw  the  city  invested  on  all 
sides  by  a  numerous  army.  A  fleet  of  thirty  ships  from  the 
isles  blocked  up  the  harbor,  and  the  besieged  were  so  effectu- 
ally hemmed  in  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  obtain  fresh 
supplies  of  men  or  provisions.  Eoderic  0 'Conor,  who  com- 
manded in  person,  and  had  his  own  camp  at  Castleknock,  was 
supported  by  Tiernan  O'Eourke  and  Murrough  0 'Carroll 
with  their  respective  forces,  and  8t.  Laurence  was  present  in 
the  camp  animating  the  men,  or,  as  some  pretend,  though 
very  improbably,  even  bearing  arms  himself.  The  Irish 
chiefs,  relying  on  their  numbers,  contented  themselves  with 
an  active  blockade,  and  for  a  time  their  tactics  promised  to 
be  successful,  the  besieged  being  reduced  to  extremities  for 
want  of  food.  Strongbow  solicited  a  parley,  and  requested 
that  St.  Laurence  should  be  the  medium  of  communication. 
He  offered  to  hold  the  kingdom  of  Leinster  as  the  vassal  of 
Eoderic;  but  the  Irish  monarch  rejected  such  terms  indig- 
nantly, and  required  that  the  invaders  should  immediately 
surrender  the  towns  of  Dublin,  Wexford,  and  Waterford,  and 
undertake  to  depart  from  Ireland  on  a  certain  day.  It  is 
generally  admitted  that  under  the  circumstances  the  propo- 
sitions of  Eoderic  were  merciful,  and  for  awhile  it  was  prob- 
able that  they  would,  however  unpalatable,  be  accepted. 

At  this  crisis,  Donnell  Kavanagh,  son  of  the  late  king  of 
Leinster,  contrived  to  penetrate  in  disguise  into  the  city, 
brought  Strongbow  the  intelligence  that  his  friend  Fitz- 
Stephen  was,  together  with  his  family  and  a  few  followers, 
shut  up  in  the  Castle  of  Carrig,  near  Wexford,  where  he  was 
closely  besieged,  and  must,  unless  immediately  relieved,  fall 


The  Norman  Invasion  111) 

into  the  hands  of  his  exasperated  enemies.  This  sad  news 
drove  the  garrison  of  Dublin  to  desperation;  and  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  Maurice  FitzGerald  it  was  determined  that  they 
should  make  a  sortie  with  their  whole  force,  and  attempt  the 
daring  exploit  of  cutting  their  way  through  the  besiegers. 
To  carry  out  this  enteri3rise,  Strongbow  disposed  his  men  in 
the  following  order:  Raymond  le  Gros,  with  twenty  knights 
on  horseback,  led  the  van;  to  these  succeeded  thirty  knights 
under  Milo  de  Cogan ;  and  this  body  was  followed  by  a  third, 
consisting  of  about  forty  knights,  commanded  by  Strongbow 
himself  and  FitzGerald;  the  remainder  of  their  forces,  said 
to  consist  of  only  600  men,  bringing  up  the  rear.  It  was 
about  three  in  the  afternoon  when  this  well-organized  body 
of  desperate  men  sallied  forth ;  and  the  Irish  army,  lulled  in 
false  security,  and  expecting  a  surrender  rather  than  a  sortie, 
was  taken  wholly  by  surj^rise.  A  great  number  were 
slaughtered  at  the  first  onset;  and  the  panic  which  was  pro- 
duced spreading  to  the  besieging  army,  a  general  retreat  from 
before  the  city  commenced;  so  that  Roderic,  who  with  many 
of  his  men  was  enjoying  a  bath  in  the  Liffey,  had  some  dif- 
ficulty in  effecting  his  escape.  The  English,  on  their  side, 
astonished  at  their  own  unexpected  success,  returned  to  the 
city  laden  with  spoils,  and  with  an  unlimited  supply  of  pro- 
visions. 

Strongbow  once  more  committed  the  government  of  Dublin 
to  Milo  de  Cogan,  and  set  out  with  a  strong  detachment  for 
Wexford  to  relieve  FitzStephen;  but  after  overcoming  some 
difficulty  in  the  territory  of  Idrone,  where  his  march  was 
opposed  by  the  local  chieftain  0 'Regan,  he  learned  on  ap- 
proaching Wexford  that  he  came  too  late  to  assist  his  friend. 
Carrig  Castle  had  already  fallen,  and  it  is  said  that  the 
Wexford  men  were  not  very  scrupulous  on  the  occasion  in 
their  treatment  of  foes  who  had  proved  themselves  sufficiently 
capable  of  treachery  and  cruelty.  The  story  is,  that  Fitz- 
Stephen and  his  little  garrison  were  deceived  by  the  false 
intelligence  that  Dublin  had  been  captured  by  the  Irish  army, 
that  the  English,  including  Strongbow,  FitzGerald,  and  Ray- 
mond le  Gros,  had  been  cut  to  pieces,  and  that  the  only  chance 
of  safety  was  in  immediate  surrender;  the  Dano-Irish  be- 
siegers undertaking  to  send  FitzStephen  with  his  family  and 
followers  unharmed  to  England.  It  is  added,  that  the  bishops 
of  Wexford  and  Kildare  presented  themselves  before  the 
castle  to  confirm  this  false  report  by  a  solemn  assurance;  but 


120  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

this  eircumstauee,  if  not  a  groundless  addition,  would  only 
show  that  a  rumor,  by  which  the  bishops  themselves  had  been 
deceived,  prevailed  about  the  capture  of  Dublin,  a  thing  not 
at  all  improbable.  False  news  of  a  similar  kind  is  sometimes 
circulated  in  our  own  times.  At  all  events  the  stratagem, 
if  it  was  one,  succeeded ;  and  FitzStephen  on  yielding  himself 
to  his  enemies  was  cast  into  prison,  and  some  of  his  followers 
were  put  to  death.  Scarcely  was  this  accomplished,  when 
intelligence  arrived  that  Strongbow  was  approaching,  and 
that  the  Wexford  men,  finding  themselves  unable  to  cope  with 
him  single-handed,  and  fearing  his  vengeance,  set  fire  to  their 
town,  and  sought  refuge  with  their  prisoners  in  the  little 
island  of  Beg-Erin,  whence  they  sent  word  to  the  earl  that 
if  he  made  any  attempt  to  reach  them  in  their  retreat  they 
would  instantly  cut  off  the  heads  of  FitzStephen  and  the  other 
English  prisoners.  Thus  foiled  in  his  purpose,  Strongbow 
with  a  hea^y  heart  directed  his  course  to  Waterford,  and 
immediately  invaded  the  territory  of  Ossory,  in  conjunction 
with  Donnell  O'Brien. 

During  the  earl's  absence,  Tiernan  O'Rourke  hastily  col- 
lected an  army  of  the  men  of  Breffny  and  Oriel,  and  made  an 
attack  on  Dublin,  but  he  was  repulsed  by  Milo,  and  lost  his 
son  under  the  walls.  "With  this  exception,  no  attempt  was 
made  to  molest  the  invaders  at  a  period  when  they  could  have 
been  so  easily  annihilated;  and  intestine  wars  were  carried 
on  among  the  northern  tribes,  and  also  between  Connaught 
and  Thomond,  as  if  there  had  been  no  foreign  enemy  in  the 
country. 

Strongbow,  on  the  other  side,  learnt  at  Waterford,  from 
emissaries  whom  he  had  sent  to  plead  his  cause  with  Henry, 
that  his  own  presence  for  that  purpose  was  indispensable, 
and  he  accordingly  set  out  in  haste  for  England.  He  found 
the  English  monarch  at  Newnham  in  Gloucestershire,  making 
active  preparations  for  an  expedition  to  Ireland.  Henry  at 
first  refused  to  admit  him  to  his  presence ;  but  at  length  suf- 
fered himself  to  be  influenced  by  the  earPs  unconditional 
submission,  and  by  the  mediation  of  Hervey  of  Mountmaurice, 
and  consented  to  accept  his  homage  and  oath  of  fealty,  and 
to  confirm  him  in  the  possession  of  his  Irish  acquisitions,  with 
the  exception  of  Dublin  and  the  other  seaport  towns  and  forts, 
which  were  to  be  surrendered  to  himself.  He  also  restored 
the  earl's  English  estates,  which  had  been  forfeited  on  his 
disobedience  to  the  king's  mandate ;  but  as  it  were  to  mark  his 


The  Norman  Invasion  121 

displeasure  at  the  whole  proceeding  of  the  invasion  of  Ireland 
by  his  subjects,  he  seized  the  castles  of  the  Welsh  lords  to 
punish  them  for  allowing  the  expedition  to  sail  from  their 
coasts  contrary  to  his  commands.  It  is  probable  that  in  all 
this,  hypocrisy  and  tyranny  were  the  king's  ruling  motives. 
He  liated  the  AVelsh,  and  took  the  opportunity  to  crush  them 
still  more,  and  to  garrison  their  castles  with  his  own  men. 
These  events  took  place  not  many  months  after  the  murder 
of  St.  Thomas  a  Becket,  and  it  is  generally  admitted  that  the 
king's  exiDcdition  to  Ireland,  if  not  projected,  was  at  least 
hastened,  in  order  to  withdraw  i)iiblic  attention  from  that 
atrocity,  and  to  make  a  demonstration  of  his  power  before  the 
country  at  a  moment  when  his  name  was  covered  with  the 
odium  which  the  crime  involved. 

Henry  II.,  attended  by  Strongbow,  William  FitzAdelm  de 
Burgo,  Humphrey  de  Bohen,  Hugh  de  Lacy,  Robert  Fitz- 
Bernard,  and  other  knights  and  noblemen,  embarked  at  Mil- 
ford,  in  Pembrokeshire,  with  a  powerful  armament,  and 
landed  at  a  place  called  by  the  Anglo-Norman  chroniclers 
Croch— probably  the  present  Crook— near  Waterford,  on  St. 
Luke's  day,  October  18th,  A.  D.  1171.  His  army  consisted,  it 
is  said,  of  500  knights,  and  about  four  thousand  men-at-arms ; 
but  it  was  probably  much  more  numerous,  as  it  was  trans- 
ported, according  to  the  English  account,  in  400  ships. 

Henry  assumed  in  Ireland  the  plausible  policy  which 
seemed  so  natural  to  him.  He  pretended  to  have  come  rather 
to  protect  the  people  from  the  aggressions  of  his  own  sub- 
jects than  to  acquire  any  advantage  for  himself;  but  at  the 
same  time,  as  a  powerful  yet  friendly  sovereign,  to  receive  the 
homage  of  vassal  princes,  and  to  claim  feudal  jurisdiction  in 
their  country.  It  is  impossible,  of  course,  to  reconcile  pre- 
tenses so  inconsistent  in  themselves ;  but  they  served  the  pur- 
pose for  which  they  were  invented.  He  put  on  an  air  of 
extreme  affability,  accompanied  by  a  great  show  of  dignity, 
and  paraded  a  brilliant  and  well  disciplined  army  with  all 
possible  pomp  and  display  of  power. 

The  Irish,  on  the  other  hand,  seemed  at  a  loss  what  to 
think  or  how  to  act.  An  event  had  occurred  for  which  they 
were  not  prepared  by  any  parallel  case  in  their  history.  They 
neither  understood  the  character  or  the  system  of  their  new 
foes.  Perpetually  immersed  in  local  feuds,  they  had  not 
gained  ground  either  in  military  or  national  spirit  since  their 
old  wars  with  the  Danes.   The  men  of  one  province  cared  little 


122  Ireland's  Crown  uf  Thorns  and  Roses 

what  misfortime  befell  those  of  another,  provided  their  own 
territory  was  safe.  Single,  each  of  them  had  been  hitherto 
able  to  cope  with  foes  as  they  were  accustomed  to ;  but  where 
combined  action  could  alone  suffice  there  was  nothing  to  unite 
them;  they  had  no  sentiments  in  common— no  center,  no  rally- 
ing principles. 

MaCarthy,  king  of  Desmond,  was  the  first  Irish  prince  to 
pay  homage  to  Henry.  Marching  from  Waterford  to  Lis- 
more,  and  thence  to  Cashel,  Henry  was  met  near  the  latter 
town  by  Donnell  0  'Brien,  king  of  Thomond,  who  swore  fealty 
to  him,  and  surrendered  to  him  his  city  of  Limerick.  After- 
wards there  came  in  succession  to  do  homage,  MacGilla  Pat- 
rick, prince  of  Ossory;  O'Phelan,  prince  of  the  Deisies,  and 
various  other  chieftains  of  Leath  Mogha.  All  were  most 
courteously  received;  many  of  them  were  of  course  not  a 
little  dazzled  by  the  splendor  of  Henry's  court  and  his  array 
of  steel-clad  knights ;  some  were  i^erhaps  glad  to  acknowledge 
a  sovereign  powerful  enough  to  deliver  them  from  the  petty 
warfare  with  which  they  were  harassed,  and  exhausted,  but 
none  of  them  understood  Anglo-Norman  capacity,  or  could 
have  imagined  that  in  paying  homage  to  Henry  as  a  liege 
lord  they  were  convej^ing  to  him  the  absolute  dominion  and 
ownership  of  their  ancestral  territories. 

So  well  was  it  known  in  Ireland  that  Henry  disapproved 
of  the  invasion  of  that  country  by  Strongbow  and  the  other 
adventurers,  that  the  people  of  Wexford,  who  had  got  Fitz- 
Stephen  into  their  hands,  pretended  to  make  a  merit  of  their 
own  exploit,  and  sent  a  deputation  to  Henry  on  his  arrival 
to  deliver  to  him  the  captive  knight  as  one  who  had  made  war 
without  his  sovereign's  permission.  Henry  kept  up  the  farce 
by  retaining  FitzStephen  for  some  time  in  chains  and  then 
restored  him  to  liberty. 

From  Cashel  Henry  returned  to  AVaterford,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded to  Dublin  where  he  was  received  in  great  state,  and 
where  a  temporary  pavilion,  constructed  in  the  Irish  fashion 
of  twigs  or  wicker  work,  was  erected  for  him  outside  the 
walls,  no  building  in  the  city  being  spacious  enough  to  accom- 
modate his  court.  Here  he  remained  to  pass  the  festival  of 
Christmas,  and  such  of  the  Irish  as  were  attracted  thither  by 
curiosity  were  entertained  by  him  with  a  degree  of  magnifi- 
cence and  urbanity  well  calculated  to  win  their  admiration. 
Among  the  Irish  princes  who  paid  their  homage  to  the  Eng- 
lish king  in  Dublin  were  0 'Carroll  of  Oriel,  and  the  veteran 


The  Norman  Invasion  123 

O'Rourke;  but  the  monareli  Roderic,  though  thus  abandoned 
by  his  oldest  and  most  powerful  ally,  the  chief  of  Breffny 
as  he  had  been  already  by  so  many  others  of  his  vassals,  still 
contmued  to  mamtain  an  independent  attitude.    He  collected 
an  army  on  the  banks  of  the  Shannon,  and  seemed  to  resolve 
to  defend  the  frontiers  of  his  kingdom  of  Connaught  to  the 
last;  thus  regaining  by  this  bold  and  dignified  demeanor  some 
at  least  of  the  esteem  and  sympathy  which  by  his  former 
weakness  of  character  he  had  forfeited.    Henry,  whose  object 
appeared  to  be  not  fighting  but  parade  did  not  march  agamst 
the  Irish  monarch,  but  sent  De  Lacy  and  FitzAdelm  to  treat 
with  him;  and  Roderic,  on  his  own  sovereignty  being  recog- 
mzed,  was,  it  is  said,  induced  to  pay  homage  to  Henry  through 
his  ambassadors,  as  it  was  customary  in  that  age  for  one  king 
to  pay  to  another  and  more  potent  sovereign.    We  have  no 
Irish  authority,  however,  for  this  act  of  submission;  and  as  to 
the  northern  princes,  they  still  withheld  all  recognition  of 
the  invaders'  sw^ay. 

At  Henry's  desire,  a  synod  was  held  at  Cashel  in  the  be- 
ginmng  of  this  year  (1172).    It  was  presided  over  by  Chris- 
tian,  bishop  of  Lismore,  who  was  then  apostolic  legate    and 
was  attended  by  St.  Laurence  of  Dublin,  Catholicus  0 'Duffy 
of  Tuam,  and  Donald  O'Hullucan,    of    Cashel,    with    their 
suffragan  bishops,  together  with  abbots,  archdeacons,  etc.- 
Ralph,  archdeacon  of  Landaff,  and  Nicholas,  a  royal  chaplain 
being  present  on  the  part  of  the  king.    It  was  decreed  at  this 
synod  that  the  prohibition  of  marriage  within  the  canonical 
degrees  of  consanguinity  and  affinity  should  be  more  strictly 
enforced;  that  children  should  be  catechised  before  the  church 
door,  and  baptized  in  the  fonts  in  those  churches  appointed 
tor  that  purpose;  that  tithes  of  all  the  produce  of  the  land 
should  be  paid  to  the  clergy;  that  church  lands  and  other 
ecclesiastical  property  should  be  exempt  from  the  exactions 
of  laymen  m  the  shape  of  periodical  entertainment  and  liverv 
etc.,  and  that  the  clergy  should  not  be  liable  to  any  share  of 
the  eric  or  blood  fine  levied  on  the  kindred  of  a  man  guilty  of 
homicide.    There  was  also  a  decree  regulating  wills,  by  which 
one-third  of  a  man's  movable  property,  after  payment  of  his 
debts,  was  to  be  left  to  his  legitimate  children,  if  he  had  any 
another  to  his  wife,  if  she  surm^ed;  and  the  remaining  third 
for  his  funeral  obsequies. 

These  decrees  constitute  the  boasted  reform  of  the  Irish 
Church  introduced  by  Henry  II.   It  will  be  observed  that  they 


124  Ireland's  Ckown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

indicate  no  trace  of  doctrinal  error  to  be  corrected,  or  even 
of  gross  abuse  in  discipline,  unless  it  be  the  too  general  use  of 
private  baptism,  and  the  celebration  of  marriage  within  the 
prohibited  degrees,  which  at  that  time  extended  to  very  remote 
relationships.  But  the  subject  of  this  synod  leads  us  to  an 
incident  of  the  Anglo-Norman  invasion  of  Ireland  which  has 
been  a  fertile  source  of  controversy— namely,  the  so-called 
subjection  of  Ireland  to  the  dominion  of  the  king  of  England, 
by  the  bulls  of  Adrian  IV.  and  Alexander  III. 

The  temporal  power  exercised  by  the  popes  in  the  middle 
ages  opens  up  a  question  too  general  for  discussion  here.  It 
is  enough  for  us  to  know  that  modern  investigation  has  re- 
moved much  of  the  misrei^resentation  by  vrhicli  it  was  assailed. 
Irrespective  of  religious  considerations,  we  see  in  the  Roman 
pontiffs  of  that  period  the  steadfast  friends  of  order  and 
enlightenment;  in  their  power  the  bulwark  of  the  oppressed 
people  against  feudal  tyranny;  of  ci\dlization  against  bar- 
barism ;  and  we  should  consider  well  the  circumstances  under 
which  they  acted,  and  the  received  opinions  of  the  age,  before 
we  condemn  these  Viceregents  of  Christ  for  proceedings  in 
which  their  authority  was  invoked  in  the  temporal  affairs  of 
nations.  If  this  authority  was  sometimes  perverted  to  their 
own  purposes  by  ambitious  kings,  or  its  exercise  surreptitious- 
ly obtained,  that  was  not  the  fault  of  the  popes  nor  of  the 
principle ;  as  we  shall  find  illustrated  in  the  case  we  are  now 
about  to  consider. 

Nicholas  Breakspere,  an  Englishman,  was  elected  pope 
under  the  title  of  Adrian  IV.,  December  3d,  1154,  and  Henry 
II.,  who  had  come  to  the  throne  of  England  about  a  month 
earlier,  sent  soon  after  to  congratulate  his  countryman  on  his 
elevation.  This  embassy  was  followed  by  another  insidious 
one,  the  object  of  which  was  to  represent  to  the  pope  that 
religion  and  morality  were  reduced  to  the  lowest  ebb  in  the 
neighboring  island  of  Ireland ;  that  society  there  was  torn  to 
pieces  by  factions,  and  plunged  in  the  most  barbarous  ex- 
cesses ;  that  there  was  no  respect  for  spiritual  authority ;  and 
that  the  king  of  England  solicited  the  sanction  of  his  Holiness 
to  visit  that  unhappy  country  in  order  to  restore  discipline 
and  morals,  and  to  compel  the  Irish  to  make  a  respectable 
provision  for  the  church,  such  as  already  existed  in  England. 
This  negotiation,  which  indicates  how  long  the  idea  of  in- 
vading Ireland  was  entertained  by  the  English  king,  was 
entrusted  by  Henry  to  John  of  Salisbury,  chaplain  to  Theo- 


The  NoR^rAN  Invasion  125 

bald,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  wlio  urged,  according  to  an 
opinion  then  received,  that  Constantine  tlie  Great  had  made 
a  donation  of  all  Christian  islands  to  the  successor  of  Peter; 
that,  therefore,  the  pope,  as  owner  of  the  island  of  Ireland, 
had  the  power  to  place  it  under  the  dominion  of  Henry;  and 
that  he  was  bound  to  exercise  that  power  in  the  interests  of 
religion  and  morality. 

A  hostile  authority  confesses  that  *'the  popes  were  in  gen- 
eral superior  to  the  age  in  which  they  lived";  but  we  have 
no  right  to  expect  that,  on  a  subject  of  this  temporal  and 
political  nature,  they  should  have  been  so  far  m  advance  of 
the  ideas  of  their  times  as  to  anticipate  the  political  knowl- 
edge and  discoveries  of  subsequent  ages.  We  must  also  recol- 
lect that,  however  exaggerated  the  statements  made  to  Adrian 
about  Ireland  may  have  been,  they  were  not  wholly  without 
foundation.  It  is  not  consistent  with  human  nature  that 
society  should  not  have  been  disorganized  more  or  less  by  the 
state  of  turbulence  in  which  we  know,  from  our  authentic 
history,  that  this  country  was  so  long  plunged  at  that  period. 
It  was  precisely  the  period  when  the  moral  character  of  Ire- 
land had  suffered  most  in  the  estimation  of  foreign  nations. 
St.  Bernard's  vivid  picture  of  the  vices  and  abuses  against 
which  St.  Malachy  had  to  struggle,  in  one  part  of  Ireland,  had 
only  just  then  been  presented  to  the  world.  St.  Malachy  was 
not  long  dead,  and  his  reforms  were  less  known  than  the 
abuses  which  had  so  loudly  called  for  them.  The  recent  efforts 
of  the  Irish  prelates  and  clergy  to  restore  discipline  in  the 
church,  and  piety  and  morals  among  the  j^eople,  had  only 
begun  to  produce  their  eft'ects.  Vices  may  have  been  as 
prevalent  in  other  countries,  but  this  did  not  render  Ireland 
stainless.  In  fact,  although  Pope  Adrian  IV.  had  been  the 
pupil  of  a  learned  monk,  named  Marianus,  at  Paris,  and  had 
other  sources  of  information  on  the  subject,  we  are  not  to 
wonder  that  he  should  have  formed  a  low  estimate  of  the 
state  of  religion  and  morals  in  Ireland,  and  lent  a  credulous 
ear  to  the  exaggerated  representations  of  Henry's  emissary. 
Little  knowing  of  the  mind  of  the  ambitious  king,  he,  there- 
fore, addressed  to  him  his  memorable  letter,  or  bull,  which 
was  accompanied  by  a  gold  ring  enriched  with  a  precious 
emerald,  as  a  sign  of  investiture. 

The  importance  of  this  bull  in  our  history  has  been  mon- 
strously exaggerated.  It  can  have  had  little,  if  any,  influence 
on  the  destinies  of  Ireland,    xlfter  the  bull  had  been  obtained 


126  Ireland's  Ckow.n  of  TaofiNs  and  Roses 

on  a  false  pretense  and  to  give  a  color  to  an  ambitious  design, 
a  council  of  state  was  held  in  England  to  consider  the  pro- 
jected invasion ;  but  partly  through  deference  to  his  mother, 
the  empress,  who  was  opposed  to  it,  and  partly  from  the 
pressure  of  other  affairs,  the  project  was  for  the  present 
abandoned  by  Henry,  and  the  papal  document  deposited  in 
the  archives  of  Winchester.  Thirteen  years  after  we  have 
seen  Dermot  MacMur rough  at  the  feet  of  Henry,  imploring 
English  aid.  A  few  years  more  pass  away,  and  we  behold 
the  English  monarch  making  a  triumphant  progress  through 
Leinster,  and  receiving  the  submission  of  the  kings  of  Des- 
mond and  Thomond,  and  Ossory,  and  Breffny,  and  Oriel,  if 
not  that  of  Roderic  linnself ;  yet,  not  one  word  is  breathed, 
all  this  time,  about  the  grant  from  Adrian  IV.  We  have  no 
ground  for  supposing  that  the  existence  of  that  grant  was 
even  known  to  the  Irish  prelates,  who,  following  the  example 
of  their  respective  princes,  also  paid  their  homage,  and 
assembled  at  the  call  of  Henry  in  the  synod  of  Cashel;  nor 
does  one  word  about  it  appear  to  have  transpired  among  the 
clergy  or  people  of  Ireland  until  it  was  promulgated,  together 
with  a  confirmatory  bull  of  Alexander  III.  at  a  synod  held  in 
Waterford  in  1175,  some  twenty  years  after  the  grant  had 
been  originally  made,  and  when  the  success  of  the  invasion 
had  been  an  accomplished  fact.  Some  Irish  historians  have 
questioned  the  authenticity  of  Pope  Adrian's  bull;  but  there 
appears  to  be  no  solid  reason  for  doubt  upon  the  subject. 
Others,  like  Dr.  Keating,  assign,  as  a  ground  for  the  right 
assumed  by  the  pope,  a  tradition  that  Donough,  son  of  Brian 
Borumha,  had  made  a  present  of  the  crown  of  Ireland  to  the 
reigning  pontiff,  when  he  went  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome  about 
the  year  1064 ;  but  this  story  merits  no  attention.  The  equally 
fabulous  donation  of  Constantine  the  Great,  even  if  it  had 
been  made,  could  not  have  included  Ireland,  to  which  the 
power  of  the  Roman  empire  never  had  extended.  Irish 
Catholic  historians  have  always  been  sufficiently  free  in  their 
animadversions  on  the  ''English  pope,"  as  Adrian  IV.  is 
styled,  for  his  grant;  but  a  consideration  of  the  real  circum- 
stances, as  we  have  endeavored  to  explain  them,  would  show 
how  unwarrantable  such  severity  has  been.  The  character  of 
that  pontiff  was  altogether  too  exalted  to  afford  any  ground 
for  supposing  that  he  acted  from  an  unworthy  motive.  We 
have  no  reason  to  think  that  his  intentions  were  other  than  the 
religious  ones  he  expresses,  or  that  they  were  not  wholly 


The  Norman  InvasjOxV  127 

opposed  to  the  ambitious  views  of  the  English  monarch ;  and 
we  know  how  utterly  the  conditions  specified  in  the  bull  were 
disregarded  in  the  Anglo-Norman  invasion  and  subsequent 
government  of  Ireland.  Some  show  of  fulfilling  these  condi- 
tions was  necessary,  and  hence  the  pretended  reform  of  the 
Irish  Church,  which  the  synod  of  Cashel  was  summoned  to 
effect.  We  have  enumerated  the  decrees  of  that  synod  to 
show  in  what  the  reform  consisted.  The  prelates  assembled 
at  Cashel,  and  acting  only  from  a  sense  of  duty,  joined  in 
a  report  or  wrote  letters  for  transmission  to  the  then  pope, 
Alexander  III.,  and  it  would  apjDcar  that  whatever  faults  were 
laid  to  the  charge  of  the  Irish  were,  in  this  document  or 
documents,  neither  diminished  or  excused.  The  archdeacon 
of  Llandaff  accompanied  this  report  by  a  more  ample  one, 
in  which  the  representations  as  to  the  vices  of  the  people, 
the  power  and  magnanimity  of  the  king,  and  the  salutary 
effect  which  his  authority  had  already  produced,  were  no 
doubt  highly  colored.  Just  as  Adrian's  letter  had  been 
granted  to  Henry  before  that  prince's  vicious  character  had 
been  developed,  and  before  he  had  begun  to  wage  war  on  the 
church  in  England;  so  had  the  same  unprincipled  and  hypo- 
critical monarch  contrived  to  expiate  his  crimes  in  the  eyes  of 
the  pope,  and  to  exhibit  himself  as  an  humble  son  of  the 
church  before  Alexander  was  called  upon  to  interpose  in  his 
favor.  Hence,  appeased  by  the  king's  submission,  which  was 
the  humblest  and  seemingly  the  most  contrite  possible,  and 
with  the  bull  of  his  predecessor,  Adrian,  and  the  reports 
he  had  just  received  from  Ireland  before  him,  the  sovereign 
pontiff  was  induced  to  confirm  the  former  grant.  At  the 
same  time  he  issued  three  other  letters,  dated  September  20th, 
one  addressed  to  Henry  himself,  approving  of  his  proceed- 
ings; another  to  *'the  kings  and  princes  of  Hibernia,"  com- 
mending them  for  their  *' voluntary"  and  ''prudent"  sub- 
mission to  Henry,  admonishing  them  to  preserve  unshaken 
the  fealty  which  they  had  sworn  to  him,  and  expressing  joy 
at  the  prospect  of  peace  and  tranquillity  for  their  country, 
**with  God's  help,  through  the  power  of  the  same  king." 
The  third  letter  was  addressed  to  the  four  archbishops  of 
Ireland  and  their  suffragans;  and  in  it  the  pope  refers  to 
the  information  which  he  had  received  from  "other  reliable 
sources,"  as  well  as  from  their  communications  relative  to 
'•'the  enormous  vices  with  which  the  Irish  people  were  in- 
fected" j  he  designates  that  people  as  "barbarous,  rude,  and 


12S  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ignorant  of  the  divine  law";  rejoiees  at  the  improvement 
which  had  already  begun  to  manifest  itself  in  their  manners ; 
and  exhorts  and  commands  the  prelates  to  use  all  diligence 
in  promoting  and  maintaining  a  reform  so  happily  com- 
menced, and  in  taking  care  that  the  fidelity  plighted  to  the 
king  should  not  be  violated.  Such  is  the  history  of  those 
famous  papal  grants,  of  which  sectarian  industry,  as  well  as 
wounded  national  feelings,  has  greatly  magnified  the  im- 
.portance,  and  misrepresented  the  origin. 

Besides  the  synod  of  Cashel,  which  was  invoked  for 
ecclesiastical  purposes,  a  council  was  held  about  this  time  at 
Lismore,  in  which  it  was  decreed  that  the  laws  and  customs 
of  England  should  be  introduced  into  Ireland,  for  the  use 
of  the  British  subjects  settling  there.  The  native  Irish, 
however,  still  lived  under  their  own  laws  and  traditional 
usages;  but  the  protection  and  benefits  of  English  law  were 
extended  in  process  of  time  to  five  Irish  septs  or  families, 
who  in  the  law  documents  of  the  period  are  called  the  ''five 
bloods."  These  were  the  O'Neills  of  Ulster,  the  O'Melaghlins 
of  Meath,  the  0 'Conors  of  Connaught,  the  O'Briens  of  Tho- 
mond,  and  the  MacMurroughs  of  Leinster.  It  was  several 
hundred  years  later,  namely,  in  the  reign  of  James  I.,  when 
English  law  was  extended  to  Ireland  in  general,  and  even 
then  it  was  found  necessary  to  modify  it  for  the  purpose  of 
adaptation. 

Henry  made  a  new  grant  of  the  principality  of  Leinster 
to  Strongbow,  subject  to  the  feudal  condition  of  homage  and 
military  service.  He  appointed  Hugh  de  Lacy  justiciary  of 
Ireland,  and  granted  him  the  territory  of  Meath,  to  be  held 
by  similar  feudal  service.  A  large  territory'-  in  the  south  of 
Ireland  was  conferred  about  this  time  on  FitzGerald,  the 
ancestor  of  the  earls  of  Desmond ;  and  thus  was  commenced, 
on  a  large  scale,  that  wholesale  confiscation  by  which  the  land 
of  Ireland  was  taken  indiscriminately  from  its  ancient  pos- 
sessors, and  granted,  without  any  show  of  title,  to  the  Anglo- 
Norman  adventurers.  This  was  only  a  repetition  of  what 
had  taken  place  in  England  itself  on  the  conquest  of  that 
country  by  William  the  Norman.  The  Saxons  incurred  the 
contempt  of  their  invaders  from  the  facility  with  which  they 
suffered  themselves  to  be  subdued,  and  their  property  was 
everywhere  confiscated;  so  that  the  Saxon  element  in  the 
English  character  affords,  historically  speaking,  no  ground 
for  national  boasting.     The  descendants  of  the  plunderers, 


The  Norman  Invasion  120 

equally  rapacious,  found  a  now  field  for  spoliation  in  Ireland, 
and  carried  out  their  old  system  there  with  a  total  disregard  of 
both  mercy  and  justice.  Subduing  a  territory  generally  sig- 
nified among  the  ancient  Irish  only  a  transitory  act  of 
plunder  or  the  exacting  of  hostages.  With  the  Anglo-Nor- 
mans of  the  days  of  Henry  II.  and  of  aftertim*is,  to  obtain 
superiority  of  power  in  a  country,  whether  by  conquest  or 
otherwise,  signified,  on  the  contrary,  the  complete  transfer  to 
themselves  of  every  foot  of  land  in  the  country,  and  the 
plunder,  and,  if  possible,  extermination  of  its  ancient  popula- 
tion. 

Nor  did  the  Church  of  Ireland  fare  better  than  the  laity, 
notwithstanding  the  provision  of  Pope  Adrian's  bull,  that  it 
should  be  preserved  intact  and  inviolate.  Giraldus  Cam- 
brensis,  describing  what  he  witnessed  himself,  and  certainly 
without  any  friendly  leaning  towards  the  Irish,  says:  ''The 
miserable  clergy  are  reduced  to  beggary  in  the  island.  The 
cathedral  churches  mourn,  having  been  robbed  by  the  afore- 
said persons  (the  leading  adventurers)  and  others  along  with 
them,  or  who  came  over  after  them,  of  the  lands  and  ample 
estates  which  had  been  formerly  granted  to  them  faithfully 
and  devoutly.  And  thus  the  exalting  of  the  church  has  been 
changed  into  despoiling  or  plundering  of  the  church."  And 
again  he  confesses  that  ''while  we  (the  Anglo-Normans)  con- 
ferred nothing  on  the  church  of  Christ  in  our  new  principality, 
we  not  only  did  not  think  it  worthy  of  any  important  bounty, 
or  of  due  honor;  but  even,  having  immediately  taken  away 
the  lands  and  possessions,  have  exerted  ourselves  either  to 
mutilate  or  abrogate  its  former  diginities  and  ancient  privi- 
leges. ' ' 

Besides  the  princely  rewards  bestowed  on  Hugh  de  Lacy, 
as  already  mentioned,  he  was  also  appointed  lord  constable; 
Strongbow  is  supposed  to  have  borne  the  dignity  of  lord  mar- 
shal ;  the  office  of  high  steward  or  seneschal  was  conferred  on 
Sir  Bertram  de  Vernon;  and  Sir  Theobald  Walter,  ancestor 
of  the  earls  of  Ormonde,  was  appointed  to  the  then  high  office 
of  king's  butler,  whence  his  descendants  derived  their  family 
name.  By  the  creation  of  these  and  other  offices,  the  king 
organized  a  system  of  colonial  government  in  Ireland. 

Intercourse  with  England  having  been  for  a  long  while 
interrupted  by  tempestuous  weather,  Henry,  while  at  Wex- 
ford, whither  he  had  removed  from  Dublin,  at  length  received 
alarming  intelligence,  to  the  effect  that  an  investigation  rela- 


130  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

tive  to  the  murder  of  St.  Tliomns  a  Becket  was  proceeding  by 
the  pope's  orders  in  Normandy,  and  that  if  he  did  not  speedily 
appear  there  to  defend  himself,  his  dominions  were  threat- 
ened with  an  interdict.  He  accordingly  prepared  to  depart 
from  Ireland  without  waiting  to  complete  his  arrangements 
there,  and  sailed  on  Easter  Monday,  April  17th.  On  landing 
the  same  day  in  Wales,  he  went  as  a  pilgrim  to  St.  David's 
church,  and  thence  hastened  to  Normandy,  where  he  humbled 
himself  in  the  presence  of  the  papal  legates  and  of  the  bishops 
and  barons;  sparing  no  humiliation  to  purge  himself  of  his 
crimes  in  the  eyes  of  the  sovereign  pontiff,  who  thus,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  became  reconciled  to  him. 

The  city  of  Dublin  was  granted  by  Henry  to  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Bristol,  and  Hugh  de  Lacy  left  as  governor,  with 
Maurice  FitzGerald  and  Robert  FitzStephen  to  assist  him, 
each  of  the  three  having  a  guard  of  twenty  knights.  The  city 
of  Waterford  was  given  in  charge  to  Humphrey  de  Bohen, 
who  had  under  him  Robert  FitzBernard  and  Hugh  de  Gunde- 
ville,  with  a  company  of  twenty  knights,  while  Wexford  was 
committed  to  William  FitzAdelm,  whose  lieutenants  were 
Philip  de  Hastings  and  Philip  de  Breuse,  with  a  similar  guard. 
Henry  also  ordered  strong  castles  to  be  built  without  delay  in 
these  towns;  and  thus  after  a  six  months'  stay  in  Ireland,  did 
he  abandon  that  unhappy  country  as  a  prey  to  a  host  of 
greedy,  upstart  adventurers,  whom  he  enriched  with  its  spoils, 
that  they  might  have  an  interest  in  defending  their  common 
plunder. 

(England  had  now  established  her  power  in  Ireland.  We 
shall  not  follow  her  course  during  the  reign  of  her  various 
sovereigns  from  the  twelfth  to  the  eighteenth  century,  for 
these  were  troublous  times  in  Ireland,  illumined,  no  doubt, 
by  many  acts  of  daring  and  self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  her 
devoted  sons,  notably  by  the  O'Sullivans  and  O'Briens  of 
the  South,  and  the  princely  O'Neills  and  O'Donnells  of  the 
North,  but  nevertheless  England  continued  to  hold  her  own 
by  the  application  of  her  penal  laws  and  other  iniquitous 
enactments.  We  shall  take  up  the  thread  of  Ireland's  history 
in  1782,  the  period  made  glorious  by  the  abilities  and  patriot- 
ism of  the  immortal  Henry  Grattan,  preceded  by  a  complete 
account  of  the  Wexford  rebellion,  which  was  forced  upon  the 
country  as  an  excuse  for  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Union. -^ 
Compilers.) 


REV.  P.  !'■   1^^^' 


ANArCIl,  ().  S.  F. 


SECTION  III. 


THE  RISING  OF  '98 


REV.  P.  F.  KAVANAUGH,  O.  S.  F. 

CONT.^INING 

IlISTOKY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  WEXFORD— THE  BATTLES  OF  ROSS, 

OULART,  AND  VINEGAR  HILL— SKETCHES  OF  THE  WEXFORD 

LEADERS  —  FATHERS  JOHN  AND  MICHAEL  MURPHY  — 

ATROCITIES  OF  THE  ORANGEMEN  IN  WEXFORD— 

EXAMPLES  OF  IRISH  HEROISM 

AND  GENEROSITY 


131 


THE  RISING  OF  '98. 

BY  REV.  P.  F.  liAVANAUGH,  O.  S.  F, 


CHAPTER  I. 

DESCRIPTION  OF  WEXFORD  A^'D  ITS  PEOPLE  — MAKING  INFORMERS  — 
BURNING  OF  HOUSES  AND  OTHER  PERSECUTIONS. 

While  the  insurrection  of  1798  manifested  itself  in  a  series 
of  feeble  and  desultory  attempts  in  the  northern  counties  of 
Leinster,  which  the  Government  found  little  difficulty  in 
rejjressing,  their  attention  was  imperatively  called  to  its  out- 
break in  another  district,  in  the  most  southern  county  in  the 
same  province,  where  it  burst  forth  with  a  violence  as  great 
as  it  was  unexpected.  Wexford  was  the  stage  upon  which 
the  last  and  most  thrilling  scene  of  the  tragedy  was  to  be 
enacted.  So  little  apprehension  was  entertained  by  the 
authorities  of  any  serious  disturbance  in  that  county  that,  in 
addition  to  the  recently-embodied  yeomanry  corps,  only  about 
five  hundred  of  the  regular  army  had  been  stationed  there- 
Soon,  however,  the  whole  available  military  power  of  England, 
under  her  ablest  generals,  was  to  be  gathered  together  within 
its  narrow  limits— a  force  greater  than  in  after  years  sufficed 
to  overthrow  the  conqueror  of  Europe  upon  the  plains  of 
Waterloo. 

Before  entering  into  the  details  of  this  remarkable  strug- 
gle, and  the  events  that  innnediately  preceded  it,  we  deem  it 
not  amiss  to  furnish  our  readers  with  a  brief  description  of 
that  county  and  its  inhabitants. 

Mr.  T.  D.  McGee,  in  his  excellent  ''History  of  Ireland," 
thus  expresses  himself  on  the  subject:  ''AVexford,  geograph- 
ically, is  a  peculiar  county,  and  its  people  are  a  peculiar 
people.  The  county  fills  u})  the  southeastern  corner  of  the 
island,  with  the  sea  south  and  cast,  the  River  Barrow  to  the 
west,  and  the  woods  and  mountains  of  Carlow  and  Wicklow 
to  the  north.  It  is  about  fifty  miles  long  by  twenty-four  broad ; 
the  surface  undulating  and  rising  into  numerous  groups  of 
detached  hills,  two  or  more  of  wliich  are  generally  visible 
from  each  conspicuous  summit.     Almost  in  the  midst  flows 

133 


134  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  River  Slaney,  springing  from  a  lofty  Wicklow  peak,  wliicli 
sends  down,  on  its  northern  slope,  the  better  known  River 
Liffey.  On  the  estuary  of  the  Slaney,  some  seventy  miles 
south  of  Dublin,  stands  the  county  town,  the  traveler  jour- 
neying to  which,  by  the  usual  route  then  taken,  passed  in 
succession  through  Arklow,  Gorey,  Ferns,  Enniscorthy,  and 
other  places  of  less  consequence,  though  familiar  enough  to 
the  fiery  records  of  1798.  Northwestward,  the  only  road  in 
those  days  from  Carlow  to  Kilkenny  crossed  the  Blackstairs 
at  Scollagh  Gap,  entering  the  county  at  Newtownbarry,  the 
ancient  Bunclody ;  westward,  some  twenty  miles,  on  the  River 
Barrow,  stands  New  Ross,  often  mentioned  in  this  history, 
the  road  from  which  to  the  county  town  passes  through  Scul- 
labogue  Taghmon  (Ta'mon),  the  former  at  the  foot  of  Car- 
rick-byrne  rock,  the  latter  at  the  base  of  what  is  rather 
hyperbolically  called  'the  mountain  of  Forth.'  South  and 
west  of  the  town,  towards  the  estuary  of  Waterford,  lie  the 
Baronies  of  Forth  and  Bargy,  a  greater  part  of  the  popula- 
tion of  which,  even  within  our  own  time,  spoke  the  language 
Chaucer  and  Spencer  wrote,  and  retained  many  of  the  char- 
acteristics of  their  Saxon,  Flemish,  and  Cambrian  ancestors. 
Through  this  singular  district  lay  the  road  towards  Duncan- 
non  fort,  on  Waterford  harbor,  with  branches  running  off  to 
Bannow,  Ballyhack,  and  Dunbrody." 

The  Wexford  people  can  hardly  be  called  a  Celtic  race. 
The  surnames  of  Lacy,  Prendergast,  Fitzgerald,  Devereux, 
Whitty,  Walsh,  Synnot,  Furlong,  Harvey,  Boxwell,  and  Brown 
indicate  their  descent  from  Norman,  AVelsh,  and  Flemish 
ancestors ;  while  such  names  as  Cornick,  Godkin,  and  Lambert 
remind  us  of  the  latest  addition  to  the  foreign  element  in  the 
time  of  the  redoubted  Cromwell.  The  Celtic  element,  if  we 
judge  by  the  far  greater  frequency  of  such  names  as  the  above, 
forms  but  a  small  proportion  of  the  population.  The  Irish 
language  has  long  since  wholly  disappeared,  and  even  such 
unraistakenly  Irish  names  as  are  yet  found  have  dropped  the 
ancient  prefixes  of  0'  and  Mac. 

It  is  strange,  indeed,  that  such  a  population  should  have 
offered  to  the  English  the  fiercest  and  most  determined  resist- 
ance they  ever  encountered  in  Ireland,  while  the  people  of 
the  purely  Celtic  counties  **made  no  sign,**  but  remained  sunk 
in  disgraceful  apathy,  while  the  fortunes  of  their  native  coun- 
try hung  trembling  in  the  balance.  The  population  of  Wex- 
ford, in  1798,  was,  according  to  Mr.  Bushe*s  estimate,  132,912 


'S.S 


o 

^-  ^  'S 

y. 

rr  ^^    !>    2 

Oj    :t  ^ 

(-) 

^  3.-  a; 

H 

^   O     _    gj 

a;        £^'  '^ 

£;  c  =_ 

a-^  ^ 

^      H 

The  Rising  of  '98  135 

inhabitants.  That  of  the  town  of  Wexford  itself  was  upwards 
of  9,000  souls.  Others  have  estimated  the  entire  population 
at  150,000,  which  I  judge  to  be  nearer  the  truth.  Treating  of 
the  social  condition  of  the  county,  Mr.  Hay  makes  the  ensuing 
observation:  *'The  county  of  Wexford  had  long  been  re- 
markable for  the  peaceful  demeanor  of  its  inhabitants,  and 
their  good  behavior  and  industry  have  been  held  out  as  an 
exemplar  for  other  parts  of  Ireland.  So  little  and  so  seldom 
infested  with  disturbance  and  riots  of  any  kind,  that  an 
execution  for  a  capital  crime  rarely  took  place  there ;  and,  in 
the  calendar  of  its  criminals,  it  has  as  few  on  record  as  any 
part  either  of  Great  Britain  or  Ireland.  This  county  bore 
such  a  reputation  that  landed  property  was  considered  of 
higher  value  in  it  than  in  many  other  parts  of  the  country, 
purchasers  not  hesitating  to  advance  some  years*  rental  for 
lands  in  the  county  of  Wexford  than  for  the  like  in  most  other 
parts  of  Ireland."  But  as  Mr.  Hay  was  himself  a  Wexford 
man,  and  might  not  unreasonably  be  suspected  of  partiality 
for  his  native  county,  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  quoting  a  few 
extracts  from  the  work  of  an  English  gentleman,  published  at 
a  later  period,  in  which  he  treats  of  the  same  subject.  After 
lauding  at  some  length  the  superior  civilization  of  the  Wex- 
ford people,  he  asks,  ''To  what  can  this  great  difference  in 
the  appearance  of  the  country,  in  the  state  of  cultivation,  in 
the  progress  of  civilization,  in  comfort,  in  cleanliness,  in  order 
and  good  conduct  be  owing— for  this  county  is  in  Ireland?" 
This  is  an  Englishman ;  he  naturally  attributes  it  to  their  de- 
scent, derived  from  Strongbow's  little  army,  all  natives  of 
Pembrokeshire,  which,  though  situate  in  Wales,  he  asserts  to. 
have  had  a  Saxon  population.  In  continuation  he  remarks: 
*'In  the  baronies  of  Forth  and  Bargj^  at  this  day,  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  see  any  marked  difference  between  the  appearance 
of  the  country  or  the  people  and  England  or  its  population. 
There  are  the  same  cleanliness,  order,  and  neatness.  Great 
industry  prevails  amongst  a  peaceable  and  well-disposed 
people.  .  .  .  Comfort  and  contentment,  the  rewards  of 
industry,  are  everywhere  seen."  We  have  thought  it  fitting 
to  furnish  our  readers  with  the  foregoing  extracts  from  an 
authority  that  even  those  who  would  afford  but  slight  credence 
to  statements  less  evidently  impartial  must  respect,  as  a  con- 
clusive answer  to  the  calumnies  heaped  upon  a  peaceable  and 
well-disposed  people  by  certain  authors  whose  works  have 
obtained  a  wide  circulation.    We  ourselves  in  our  days,  have 


136  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

been  intimately  acquainted  with  some  of  those  men  described 
by  Musgrave  and  Maxwell,  and  other  writers  of  their  bigoted 
and  narrow-minded  class,  as  ferocious  and  ignorant  peasants 
—and  we  must  say  that  we  have  never  met  with  finer  speci- 
mens of  a  manly  and  intelligent  race.  Amidst  the  numerous 
Catholic  peasantry  of  Wexford  there  abode  a  great  number 
of  small  landed  jjroprietors.  The  majority  of  these  were  good 
landlords,  and  often  kind  neighbors,  willing  to  live  on  terms 
of  amity  with  their  humbler  fellow-countrymen,  although  they 
differed  from  them  in  religious  tenets.  It  is  true  that  even 
these,  well-disposed  as  they  were,  regarded  the  Catholics  as 
a  far  inferior  class,  and  were  little  inclined  to  admit  them  to 
any  degree  of  social  equality.  This  class  included  men  of  the 
highest  standing  in  the  county,  and  of  the  most  extensive 
landed  possessions.  But,  unhappily  for  the  peace  of  the 
country,  there  existed  at  the  time  another  class,  which  rather 
stood  on  the  boundary  of  the  aristocratic  circle  than  fairly 
within  its  area,  whose  principles  and  practice  were  essentially 
different. 

For  the  most  part  meanly  born,  or  if  well  born  of  ruined 
fortune  and  of  spendthrift  habits,  they  had  emerged  from 
obscurity  into  baneful  prominence  by  taking  advantage  of  the 
encouragement  given  by  the  Government  to  all  who  were 
willing  to  become  their  instruments  in  hunting  down  the  ad- 
herents of  the  ancient  creed.  The  men,  thus  encouraged  by 
Government,  were  violent  in  their  denunciations  of  Papists— 
untiringly  energetic  in  the  discovery  of  the  disloyal  schemes 
which,  it  seems,  these  unfortunate  Papists  were  always  hatch- 
ing. Every  post  carried  long  epistles  from  these  worthies  to 
the  authorities  of  the  Castle,  containing  accounts  of  the  dis- 
coveries they  had  made  of  conspiracies,  formed  by  the  same 
Papists,  of  course,  having  for  their  end  the  overthrow  of  the 
British  Government  in  his  Majesty's  kingdom  of  Ireland.  In 
every  private  circle  to  which  they  were  admitted,  and  in  every 
public  meeting  at  which  they  assisted,  they  poured  forth  re- 
vilings,  accusations,  and  threats  against  the  objects  of  their 
hatred.    Of  this  class  Mr.  Hay  speaks  in  the  following  terms : 

"Slaves  to  their  superiors,  but  tyrants  to  their  inferiors, 
these  needy  adventurers  became  the  tools  of  prevailing  power ; 
justices  of  peace  were  selected  from  this  class,  and  these,  by 
this  degree  of  elevation  (certainly  to  them  the  station  is  an 
exalted  one),  think  themselves  raised  to  a  level  of  equality 
with  the  most  respectable  gentlemen  of  the  country.    But  their 


The  Rising  of  '98  137 

ignorance  is  so  preposterous,  and  their  behavior  so  assuming, 
that  men  of  education,  talents,  and  fortune  are  induced  to 
withhold  themselves  from  a  situation  they  would  otherwise 
grace,  as  it  might  oblige  them  to  confer  with  other  fellows  with 
whom  they  would  not  by  any  means  hold  communion  or  keep 
company.  Thus  are  the  very  men  who  ought  to  be  the  mag- 
istrates of  the  country,  and  who  would  cheerfully  accept  the 
office,  deterred  from  holding  commissions  of  the  peace;  while 
the  justice  and  police  of  the  community  are  left  to  ignorant 
presuming  and  intemperate  upstarts,  devoid  of  all  qualifica- 
tion and  endowment,  except  that  alone,  if  it  may  be  termed 
such,  of  unconditional  submission  and  obedience  to  the  con- 
trolling nod  of  their  boasted  patrons.  If  they  faithfully  ad- 
here to  this,  they  may  go  all  lengths  to  raise  their  conse- 
quence, and  enhance  their  estimation  with  the  multitude. 
These  creatures  have,  therefore,  the  effrontery  to  push  them- 
selves forward  on  every  occasion,  and  after  a  series  of 
habitual  acts  of  turpitude,  whenever  an  opportunity  offers 
itself,  they  become  the  scourges  and  firebrands  of  the  coun- 
try." 

Thus  it  was  that  the  Government,  instead  of  treating  these 
men  as  disturbers  of  the  public  i^eace,  sowers  of  discord, 
hatred,  and  suspicion  amongst  a  people  who  had  hitherto  lived 
in  some  degree  of  peace  and  harmony,  evinced  its  approbation 
of  their  conduct  by  bestowing  upon  them  honors  which  it 
denied  to  worthier  men,  and  arming  them  with  authority  to 
carry  into  execution  all  their  nefarious  schemes.  Besides 
being  vested  with  the  magisterial  power,  they  generally  were 
appointed  to  the  command  of  a  corps  of  yeomanry ;  and  at  the 
head  of  these  mja-midons  they  roamed  through  the  country  to 
the  terror  of  the  unfortunate  inhabitants,  whose  lives  and 
properties  were  now  wholly  at  their  mercy,  since  the  Act  of 
Indemnity  had  freed  them  from  all  danger  of  being  called  to 
account  for  their  excesses.  In  their  train  followed  a  number 
of  vile  satelites  who  were  at  all  times  prepared  to  swear  to 
the  guilt  of  anyone  whom  their  employers  deemed  to  consider 
disloyal.  Orangemen  themselves,  they  claimed  for  the  mem- 
bers of  the  society  to  which  they  belonged,  a  species  of 
monopoly  in  loyalty,  so  that  outside  their  unhallowed  circle 
there  was  no  safety  for  any  man.  Liberal  Protestant  gen- 
tlemen were,  in  their  eyes,  as  much  objects  of  suspicion  and 
hatred  as  the  Papists  themselves. 

And  it  is  but  fair  to  say  that  Protestant  gentlemen  wore 


138  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

found  virtuous  enougli  to  earn  the  detestation  of  such  vile 
men,  whose  hatred  was  their  highest  eulogy. 

But  the  liberal  magistrates,  being  aware  that  the  course 
jpursued  by  the  persecutors  was  ajiproved  and  sanctioned  by 
the  Government,  deemed  it  both  useless  and  dangerous  to 
interfere.  Had  they  entertained  any  doubt  upon  the  subject, 
it  would  have  been  wholly  dissipated  by  an  incident  which 
took  place  during  this  period— the  arrest  and  imprisonment 
of  Messrs.  Colclough  and  Harvey,  whose  sense  of  justice, 
stronger  than  their  prudence,  led  them  openly  to  denounce 
what  they  deemed  the  most  cruel  and  wicked  oppression. 
Some  persons  may  be  inclined  to  condemn  the  silence  of  others 
at  such  a  time  as  cowardly  and  guilty,  but  not  all  men  have 
courage  to  advocate  the  cause  of  the  oppressed  when  tyranny, 
armed  with  irresistible  power,  it  seated  upon  the  tribunal. 
The  actual  force  of  these  instruments  of  a  cruel  policy  might 
be  in  itself  contemptible,  but  the  sanction  of  the  law  and  the 
whole  strength  of  the  Government  rendered  them  truly  for- 
midable. At  a  later  period  it  was  thought  prudent  to  restrain, 
and  even  to  punish  them,  but  for  the  time  they  were  useful, 
and  none  might  j^resume  to  interfere  with  or  thwart  their 
proceedings  till  their  task  was  completed,  and  the  people, 
maddened  with  oppression,  rose  as  one  man  to  shake  a  yoke 
that  galled  them  beyond  endurance.  To  discover  and  to  hunt 
down  the  members  of  the  United  Irish  Society  was  the  object 
to  which  they  chiefly  directed  their  efforts.  To  discover  them 
they  needed  informers,  and  in  case  these  were  not  at  hand, 
they  undertook  to  make  them.  In  this  species  of  manufacture 
they  were  skillful  workmen.  The  pitch-cap,  the  scourge,  and 
the  rope  of  the  executioner  were  the  instruments  they  em- 
ployed. Mr.  Alexander,  a  respectable  Protestant  inhabitant 
of  Ross,  gives  us  an  account  of  the  tortures  inflicted  upon  two 
men  named  Driscoll  and  Fitzpatrick,  in  order  to  compel  them 
to  act  this  infamous  part.  The  first-named  of  these  men 
was  half-strangled  three  times,  and  flogged  four  times,  to  force 
him  to  swear  informations,  but  continued,  notwithstanding, 
steadfast  in  his  refusal  to  do  what  was  required  of  him.  The 
other  man,  Fitzpatrick,  a  poor  village  schoolmaster,  old  and 
infirm,  was  engaged  in  teaching  his  little  school  when  a  mag- 
istrate entered  and  tendered  to  him  the  oath  of  allegiance. 
The  poor  man,  having  taken  the  oath  with  great  willingness, 
was  informed  by  his  visitor  that  in  further  proof  of  his  loyalty 
he  must  swear  to  the  whereabouts  of  all  the  pikes  and  the 


The  Ui«ing  of  '98  139 

owners  of  them  in  his  neighborhood  of  which  he  had  any 
knowledge.  In  vain  he  protested  tliat  he  knew  nothing  about 
pikes  or  insurgents,  and  consequently  could  not,  without  per- 
jury, swear  to  what  he  had  no  knowledge  of.  His  protesta- 
tions were  of  no  avail.  He  was  forthwith  conveyed  to  Ross, 
and  there  flogged  with  great  severity,  of  which  flogging  Mr. 
Alexander  was  a  witness,  and  "it  was  not  (he  adds)  with  dry 
eyes,  that  I  saw  the  punishment  inflicted  on  this  humble 
pioneer  of  literature." 

These  barbarities  became  of  such  frequent  occurrence  that 
the  terror-stricken  people  abandoned  their  houses  and  sought 
refuge  in  the  open  fields.  Concerning  the  burning  of  houses 
and  the  forcing  of  people  by  torture  to  become  informers,  Mr. 
Hay  makes  the  following  remarks : 

' '  The  proclamation  of  the  county  of  Wexford  having  given 
greater  scope  to  the  ingenuity  of  magistrates  to  devise  means 
of  quelling  all  symptoms  of  rebellion,  as  well  as  of  using  every 
exertion  to  procure  discoveries,  they  soon  fell  to  burning  of 
houses  wherein  pikes  or  other  offensive  weai:)ons  were  dis- 
covered, no  matter  how  brought  there ;  but  they  did  not  stop 
here,  for  the  dwellings  of  suspected  persons,  and  those  from 
which  any  of  the  inhabitants  were  found  absent  at  night,  were 
also  consumed.  This  circumstance  of  absence  from  the  houses 
very  generally  prevailed  through  the  country,  although  there 
were  the  strictest  orders  forbidding  it.  This  was  occasioned 
at  first,  as  was  before  observed,  from  the  apprehension  of 
the  Orangemen,  but  afterwards  proceeded  from  the  actual 
experiences  of  torture  by  the  people  from  the  yeomen  and 
magistrates.  Some,  too,  abandoned  their  homes  from  fear  of 
being  whipped,  if  on  being  apprehended  confessions  satisfac- 
tory to  the  magistrates  could  neither  be  given  or  extorted,  and 
this  infliction  many  persons  seemed  to  fear  more  than  death 
itself.  Many  unfortunate  men,  who  were  taken  in  their  houses, 
"were  strung  up  as  it  were  to  be  hanged,  but  were  let  down 
now  and  then  to  try  if  strangulation  would  oblige  them  to 
become  informers.  After  these  and  the  like  experiences,  sev- 
eral persons  languished  for  some  time,  and  at  length  perished 
in  consequence  of  them.  Smiths  and  carpenters,  whose  assist- 
ance was  considered  indispensable  in  the  fabrication  of  pikes, 
were  pointed  out  on  evidence  of  their  trades  as  the  first  and 
fittest  objects  of  torture.  But  the  sagacity  of  some  magis- 
trates became  at  length  so  acute,  from  habit  and  exercise,  that 
they  discerned  a  United  Irishman  even  at  the  first  glance,  and 


140  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

tlieir  zeal  never  suffered  any  person  whom  they  deigned  to 
honor  with  such  distinction  to  pass  off  without  convincing 
proof  of  their  attention.  Many  innocent  persons  were  thus 
taken  up  (continues  the  same  author)  while  peaceably  en- 
gaged in  their  own  private  concerns,  walking  along  the  road 
or  passing  through  the  market  in  the  several  towns,  without 
any  previous  accusation,  but  in  consequence  of  military  whim, 
or  the  caprice  of  magisterial  loyalty;  and  those  who  had  been 
at  market,  and  passing  by  unnoticed,  had  the  news  of  a  public 
exhibition  to  bring  home,  for  the  unfortunate  victims  thus 
seized  upon  were  instantly  subjected  to  the  torture  of  public 
whipping.  People  of  timid  dispositions  therefore  avoided 
going  to  market,  fearing  that  they  might  be  forced  to  display 
the  same  spectacle.  Provisions,  of  course,  became  dear,  for 
want  of  the  usual  supply  in  the  market  towns ;  and  the  mili- 
tary, to  redress  this  evil,  went  out  into  the  country  and  brought 
in  what  they  wanted,  at  what  price  they  pleased,  the  owners 
thinking  themselves  well  treated  if  they  got  but  half  the  value 
of  their  goods ;  and,  in  case  of  their  second  visit,  happy  if  they 
escaped  unhurt,  which,  however,  was  not  always  the  case,  and 
thus  were  the  minds  of  the  people  brought  to  admit  such  pow- 
erful impressions  of  terror  that  death  itself  was  sometimes  the 
consequence. ' ' 

So  great  was  the  terror-inspired  torture  so  frequently 
employed  that  men  expired  from  the  very  apprehension  of 
being  subjected  to  it.  Of  this  Rev.  Mr.  Gorden  gives  an  in- 
stance :  *' Whether  an  insurrection  in  the  then  existing  state  of 
the  kingdom  would  have  taken  jjlace  in  the  county  of  Wexford, 
or  in  case  of  its  eruption,  how  far  less  formidable  and  san- 
guinary it  would  have  been  if  no  acts  of  severity  had  been 
committed  by  the  soldiery,  the  yeomen,  or  tlieir  supplementary 
associates,  without  the  direct  authority  of  their  superiors,  or 
command  of  the  magistrate,  is  a  question  which  I  am  not  able 
jjositively  to  answer.  In  the  neighborhood  of  Gorey,  if  I  am 
not  mistaken,  the  terror  of  the  whippings  was  in  particular  so 
great  that  the  jjeople  would  have  been  extremely  glad  to 
renounce  forever  all  notions  of  opposition  to  government  if 
they  could  have  been  assured  of  permission  to  remain  in  a 
state  of  quietness.  As  an  instance  of  this  terror,  I  shall  relate 
the  following  fact : 

"  'On  th(3  morning  of  the  23d  of  May  a  laboring  man 
named  Denis  j\lcDaniel  came  to  my  house  with  looks  of  the 
utmost  consternation  and  dismay,  and  confessed  to  me  that 


Tun  Rrsixn  of  'OS  HI 

he  had  taken  the  United  Irishman's  oath  and  had  paid  for  a 
pike,  with  which  he  had  not  yet  been  furnished,  nineteen  pence 
halfpenny,  to  one  Kilty,  a  smith,  who  had  administered  the 
oath  to  him  and  many  others.  Whilst  I  sent  my  eldest  son, 
who  was  a  lieutenant  of  yeomanry,  to  arrest  Kilty,  I  exhorted 
McDaniel  to  surrender  himself  to  a  magistrate  and  make  his 
confession;  but  this  he  positively  refused,  saying  that  he 
should  in  that  case  be  lashed  to  make  him  produce  a  pike, 
which  he  had  not,  and  to  confess  what  he  knew  not.  I  then 
advised  him,  as  the  only  alternative,  to  remain  quietly  at 
home,  promising  that  if  he  should  be  arrested  on  the  infor- 
mation of  others  I  would  represent  the  case  to  the  magis- 
trates. He  took  my  advice,  but  the  fear  of  arrest  and  lashing 
had  so  taken  possession  of  his  thoughts  that  he  could  neither 
eat  nor  sleep,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  25th  he  fell  on  his 
face  and  expired  in  a  little  grove  near  my  house.'  " 

Authors  differ  considerably  in  their  statements  concerning 
the  extent  and  influence  of  the  United  Irish  Society  in  Wex- 
ford. Mr.  Hay  who,  on  most  points,  is  an  excellent  authority, 
seems  convinced  ' '  that  the  system  of  the  United  Irishmen  had 
not  diffused  itself  through  the  county  of  W^exford  to  the 
extent  so  confidently  affirmed  by  Sir  Richard  Musgrave,  whose 
veracity  in  almost  every  other  instance  appears  equally  ques- 
tionable. The  truth  is  that  no  authentic  proof  existed  at  the 
time  to  support  these  arrogant  assertions,  and  subsequent 
information  confirms  how  little  the  county  of  Wexford  was 
concerned  in  that  conspiracy,  as  no  return  appears  of  its 
being  organized  in  the  discoveries  of  the  secret  committees  of 
the  Houses  of  Lords  and  Coimnons.  It  would  be  contrary 
to  truth,  however,  to  say  that  there  were  no  United  Irishmen 
in  the  county  of  Wexford ;  but  by  every  statement  worthy  of 
credit  that  has  ever  appeared  their  numbers  were  compara- 
tively fewer  in  this  than  in  any  other  county  in  Ireland." 
Treating  of  the  same  subject,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gordon  remarks : 
''The  county  of  Wexford  had  not  been  otherwise  than  very 
imperfectly  organized." 

Sir  Richard  jVIusgrave,  with  a  view  to  justify  the  cruelties 
exercised  by  his  brother  Orangemen,  the  persecuting  magis- 
trates of  Wexford,  affirms  the  county  to  have  been  completely 
organized.  But  no  statement  i^ut  forward  by  such  a  man  can 
be  regarded  as  deserving  of  any  credit,  being  notorious  for 
his  virulent  and  reckless  mendacity,  heedless  of  what  assertion 
he  made  to  vilify  a  people  for  whom  he  cherished  a  most 


142  Irelaxd's  Crcavx  of  Titotixs  and  IvOSEs 

envenomed  hatred.  In  the  ''Memoirs  of  Miles  Byrne,"  the 
"Macamores"  (the  ancient  name  of  the  present  baronies  of 
Shilmalier)  are  mentioned  as  well  organized. 

Mr.  T.  D.  McGee  holds  a  contrary  opinion.  In  his  "His- 
tory of  Ireland"  we  find  the  following: 

''The  most  formidable  insurrection— indeed  the  only  real 
formidable  one— broke  out  in  the  county  of  AVexford,  a  county 
in  which  it  was  stated  there  were  not  200  United  Irishmen,  and 
which  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  had  altogether  omitted  from 
his  official  list  of  counties  organized  in  the  month  of  Feb- 
ruary. ' ' 

From  these  conflicting  statements  it  is  not  easy  to  deduce 
any  very  definite  conclusion ;  but  having  weighed  them  all  we 
may  hazard  an  opinion  that  the  organization  existed  in  the 
county  for  a  considerable  time  before  the  outbreak  of  the 
insurrection,  but  made  little  progress  owing  both  to  the  oppo- 
sition offered  to  it  by  priests  as  a  secret  society,  and  to  the 
peculiar  character  of  the  Wexford  people,  who  have  been 
always  averse  to  secret  societies  of  every  description;  but 
that  driven  to  despair  by  the  extreme  measures  adopted  by 
the  Government,  they  resolved  upon  resistance  and  then  began 
to  take  the  oath  in  great  numbers. 

The  reign  of  terror  which  we  have  feebly  endeavored  to 
describe  did  not  attain  its  full  height  till  the  arrival  of  Lord 
Kingsborough  at  the  head  of  the  merciless  corps  called  the 
"North  Cork."  Their  arrival  took  place  in  the  beginning  of 
April,  about  three  weeks  before  the  proclamation  of  the 
county.  This  infamous  horde,  who  came  to  riot  in  the  blood 
of  an  unoffending  people  and  finally  to  perish  themselves  by 
the  vengeance  of  the  same  people  roused  to  madness  by  op- 
pression, were  enlisted  from  the  dregs  of  the  Orange  popula- 
tion of  Cork.  However,  the  infamy  attached  to  their  memory 
casts  no  dark  shadow  on  the  fair  name  of  that  patriotic 
coimty ;  for  although  they  lived  amongst  the  people  they  were 
by  no  means  of  them,  and  would  have  willingly  exercised  the 
same  cruelty  upon  them  as  they  did  on  the  inhabitants  of 
Wexford. 

These  cruel  mercenaries  were  adepts  in  the  villainous  arts 
by  which  the  most  peaceable  are  roused  into  vengeful  retalia- 
tion; and  the  unfortunate  people  amongst  whom  they  came 
found  that  even  the  native  yeomen  might  be  exceeded  in 
cruelty.  The  latter,  indeed,  soon  became  emulous  imitators 
of  the  newcomers  and  evinced  that  they  lacked  not  the  will  to 


The  Disino  of  '98  143 

rival  them  in  deeds  of  rutliless  cruelty.    What  pen  can  ade 
quately  describe  the  horrors  which  were  now  dairexhTbited; 
Never,  surely  in  any  civilized  country,  were  such  scenes  beheld 

trEnXhXr.er- '''  --  -'^  --  '"e  -ti:s 

Had  the  history  of  these  events  been  written  only  by  those 
who  might  be  cons  dered  partial  to  the  sufferers  there  Su 
be  room  to  impugn  its  truthfulness,  but  men  who,  in  prindpt! 

But  we  prefer  to  hurry  over  these  scenes  of  horror  merelv 
tarrying  amongst  them  sufficiently  long  enough  to  see  bv  what 

to  cons  ituted  power-a  resistance  which,  though  it  proved 
unavaihng,  yet  gave  a  lesson  to  tyrants  ^ot  soon    orgltten 
The  chief  actors  m  those  scenes  of  blood  were  the  North  Cork 

leader  must  be  attributed  the  invention  of  the  pitch-can    TIi;= 
mos  dreaded  instrument  of  torture  was  a  spa     us  cap  Jad 

with  bo  Hut.  ni  !l,  T'  ^"'"^  previously  smeared  inside 

with  boiling  pitch,  was  placed  on  the  head  of  the  individual 
condemnexl  to  the  torture,  and  pressed  down  upon  U    o  tha 
the  heated  pitch  should  come  into  contact  with  the  scalp  on 
which  the  hair  had  been  cut  short  that  the  victim  migh?  e^e 
nence  all  the  intensity  of  the  torment.     So  great  wasle 

c^rrt  :r  ^  '':■  ™^'''^'' "'-'''''''  xiit:^^ 

cruelty  that  often,  bursting  from  the  grasp  of  the  torturers 
m  the  madness  of  the  intolerable  pain,   they   dashed   the^ 

llZlTo  ^-t --7-?"boring  wall,  and'ihus  put  an  end 
at  once  to  their  life  and  misery. 

But  for  such  as  were  not  driven  by  excessive  pain  to  self 
destruction,  an  additional  torment  remained,  for  when  tht 

hfad  of  tliT  t'"'  ""  "''P  "'"^""^  «™'^  ^"-'-d  "  the 
head  of  he  sufferer,  ,t  was  seized  and  torn  violently  off 
the  head,  bringing  away  with  it  all  the  hair  and  oftenthnes  «,e 

to  wb-T'^'  r"^  ''''  "'■^*'''"'''  ^-«™  -rithingTn  Lgoni  : 
to  which  death  would  have  been  mercy  «gonies 

This  species  of  torture,  which  might  be  duly  deemed  n 
refinement  upon  the  scalping  of  the  North  American  Mans 
must  not  be  thought  to  have  been  seldom  exeivsed  fort  was 
one  of  the  most  common  and  was  used  as  a  means  of  extortTn  ' 
evidence  to  sustain  unfounded  accusations.    It  was  tafl   ted 


144  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Rorks 

without  trial  at  the  mere  caprice  of  every  petty  officer  of 
yeomanry  or  militia.  As  these  bands  of  torturers  and  execu- 
tioners traversed  the  country,  the  unfortunate  peasantry 
whose  homes  they  approached  fled  in  terror  to  hide  themselves 
in  the  fields,  and  from  their  places  of  concealment  beheld  the 
progress  of  the  flames  that  consumed  the  humble  roof  that 
should  no  more  afford  them  shelter.  While  these  horrors  were 
in  progress,  the  magistrates  of  the  county  assembled  at  Wex- 
ford and  commanded  the  inhabitants  under  pain  of  death  to 
deliver  all  arms  in  their  possession  within  fourteen  days. 

The  result  of  their  deliberations  ajDpeared  in  the  following 
notice  which  was  distributed  through  the  county: 

*' NOTICE. —We,  the  high  sheriff  and  magistrates  of  the 
county  of  Wexford,  assembled  at  sessions,  held  at  the  county 
courthouse  in  Wexford  this  23d  day  of  May,  1798,  have  re- 
ceived the  most  clear  and  unequivocal  evidence,  private  as  well 
as  public,  that  the  system  and  plans  of  those  deluded  persons 
who  style  themselves  and  are  commonly  known  by  the  name 
of  United  Irishmen,  have  been  generally  adopted  by  the 
inhabitants  of  the  several  parishes  in  this  county,  who  have 
provided  themselves  with  pikes  and  other  arms  for  the  pur- 
pose of  carrying  their  plans  into  execution.  And  whereas  we 
have  received  information  that  the  inhabitants  of  some  parts 
of  this  county  have,  within  these  past  few  days,  returned  to 
their  allegiance,  surrendering  their  arms  and  confessing  the 
errors  of  their  past  misconduct,  now  we,  the  high  sheriff  and 
magistrates  assembled  as  aforesaid,  do  give  this  public  notice 
that  if,  within  the  space  of  fourteen  days  from  the  date  hereof, 
the  inhabitants  of  the  other  parts  of  the  county  do  not  come 
into  some  of  the  magistrates  of  this  county  and  surrender 
their  arms,  or  other  offensive  weapons,  concealed  or  other- 
wise, and  give  such  proof  of  their  return  to  allegiance  as  shall 
appear  sufficient,  an  application  will  be  made  to  Government 
to  send  the  army  at  free  quarters  into  such  parishes  as  shall 
fail  to  comply,  to  enforce  due  obedience  to  this  notice. 
"Signed  by  Edward  Percival,  sheriff,  Courtown;  John  Henry 
Lyster,  James  Boyd,  George  Le  Hunte,  Thomas  Handcock, 
John  James,  John  Pounden,  Hawtrey  White,  James  AVhite, 
Ebenezer  Jacob,  William  Hore,  Edward  D'Arcy,  John  Heatly, 
John  Grogan,  Edward  Turner,  Isaac  Cornic,  Cornelius  Gro- 
gan,  Francis  Turner,  William  Toole,  Richard  Newton  King, 
Charles  Vero." 

Terrified  by  the  extreme  cruelty  with  which  those  who  were 


The  Rising  of  '98  ]4r, 

treated  with  whom  arms  had  been  discovered,  many  of  those 
who  as  yet  possessed  them  hastened  to  give  them  up,  hoping 
that  being  unarmed  they  might  be  left  in  peace.  The  Cath- 
olic clergy,  too,  advised  their  flocks  to  adopt  this  course,  re- 
lying with  groundless  confidence  on  the  promises  of  their 
faithless  and  merciless  rulers.  This  error  of  judgment,  how- 
ever, they  afterwards  nobly  redeemed,  by  fighting  valiantly 
against  their  relentless  foes.  As  might  have  been  forseen, 
this  submission  on  the  part  of  the  people  proved  utterly  un- 
availing to  obtain  any  respite  from  persecution,  and  their 
sufferings,  instead  of  being  mitigated,  increased  day  by  day. 
Nothing  was  now  heard  in  the  country  but  the  frightful 
screams  of  the  tortured  victims  of  the  scourge  or  of  the  pitch- 
cap.  But  as  man  must  ever  cloak  his  guilt  under  some  pre- 
cious pretext,  this  was  done,  forsooth,  to  force  the  victim  to 
confess  crimes  of  which  he  was  suspected  of  being  guilty. 

Despair  took  possession  of  the  public  mind,  as  the  men 
under  whose  eyes,  and  by  whose  orders,  such  cruelties  were 
practiced  were  the  magistrates  of  the  county,  from  whom 
there  was  no  appeal.  Amongst  those  bloodthirsty  and  in- 
human wretches,  to  whose  tender  mercies  the  unfortunate 
peasantry  were  delivered  up  by  the  English  Government,  some 
may  claim  more  especial  attention.  Hunter  Gowan,  Archi- 
bald, Hamilton,  Jacob,  and  Owens,  a  Protestant  minister, 
earned  for  themselves  an  infamous  notoriety  for  the  savage 
energy  with  which  they  used  the  power  which  the  law  had 
placed  in  their  hands.  Gowan  entered  the  town  of  Gorey 
at  the  head  of  his  troops,  holding  his  sword  aloft,  with  a 
human  finger  stuck  on  its  point,  and  afterwards,  adjourning 
to  an  inn  to  refresh  himself  after  his  labors,  and  to  recount 
to  his  friends  the  infamous  exploits  of  the  day,  stirred  his 
punch  with  the  bloody  trophy.  Of  a  character  equally  in- 
famous was  Jacob  of  Enniscorthy,  who  scoured  the  country, 
accompanied  by  a  wretch  as  villainous  as  himself,  who  filled 
the  double  office  of  torturer  and  executioner.  Besides  those 
who  underwent  the  various  tortures  in  the  power  of  such 
miscreants  to  inflict— and  we  have  seen  that  their  ingenuity 
was  almost  equal  to  their  power,  which  was  unbounded— 
numbers  were  sentenced  to  transportation,  after  a  trial  which 
was  indeed  a  mockery  of  justice. 

Mr.  Hay  states  that  for  months  previous  to  the  insurrec- 
tion, groups  of  from  twelve  to  fifteen  cartloads  of  persons 
condemned  to  transportation  in  other  counties,  passed  daily 


146 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


through  the  county  of  Wexford,  on  their  way  to  Duneannon 
Fort.  The  Wexford  magistrates  soon  began  to  put  the  prece- 
dent thus  afforded  in  practice  to  a  fearful  extent.  Many  of 
the  condemned  appealed  to  the  court  of  quarter  sessions,  held 
as  described  on  the  23rd,  but,  as  might  have  been  exjjected, 
all  the  sentences  passed  by  individual  magistrates  were  con- 
firmed by  the  twenty- three  thereat  assembled.  Amongst  the 
expatriated  vitcims  was  a  priest  named  Dixon,  who  was  found 
guilty  upon  the  evidence  of  an  informer,  although  three  re- 
spectable witnesses  gave  testimony— by  swearing  an  alibi— 
sufficient  to  acquit  him  in  any  court  of  justice.  During  the 
week  preceding  the  insurrection  all  manner  of  horrid  rumors 
were  rife  in  Wexford.  As  fourteen  days  were  granted  by 
the  proclamation  issued  on  the  23rd,  for  the  submission  of 
the  people  and  the  delivering  up  of  their  arms,  it  was  hoped 
by  many  that  a  cessation  of  the  persecution  hitherto  main- 
tained might  take  place.  But  this  hope  was  grievously  dis- 
appointed. The  various  implements  of  torture  were  plied  as 
vigorously  as  before;  the  brand  of  the  legal  incendiary  still 
gave  to  the  flames  the  once  peaceful  homes  of  the  people, 
and  the  demons  of  cruelty  and  revenge  alone  rejoiced  amidst 
the  scene  of  universal  horror  and  desolation. 


CHAPTER  11. 

WHOLESALE   MASSACRES— FATHER  JOHN   MURPHY— ON   TO   OULART 

HILL. 

During  the  week  preceding  the  insurrection  two  events, 
occurred  in  Wicklow  calculated  to  deepen,  if  possible,  the  feel- 
ings of  horror  which  the  state  of  affairs  in  their  own  county 
had  already  excited  in  the  breasts  of  the  Wexfordians.  Hith- 
erto individuals  had  suffered  death  or  torture,  but  now  it 
seemed  wholesale  massacres  were  determined  upon.  One  of 
the  events  we  allude  to  occurred  at  Dunlavin;  the  other,  no 
less  shocking  in  its  detail,  took  place  at  Carnew,  and  is  thus 
related  in  the  ''Irish  Magazine,"  published  in  1811,  while  the 
affair  was  still  recent.  *'The  armed  loyalist  yeomen  of 
Coolatin  and  Carnew  traversed  the  country  threatening  the 
inhabitants  that  unless  they  came  into  Carnew  for  protection 
they  should  all  be  put  to  death.  The  people,  suspecting  the 
real  design,  remained  at  home.  However,  thirty-six  unfor- 
tunates went  and  on  their  arrival  they  were  seized  and  thrust 
into  prison,  and,  in  the  interim,  another  summons  was  de- 
spatched to  the  country  people  to  come  into  Carnew.  This 
second  invitation  they  treated  as  the  first.  The  loyalists  then 
proceeded  to  sacrifice  the  wretched  people  who  had  placed 
themselves  in  their  power.  They  tied  the  thirty-six  couples, 
back  to  back,  conveyed  them  to  the  ball-alley,  placed  them 
against  the  walls  in  pairs,  and  shot  every  one." 

Men  stood  aghast  on  hearing  of  such  a  deed  of  wholesale 
slaughter.  It  now  seemed  plain  that  no  man,  however  inno- 
cent, could  deem  himself  safe;  to  be  a  ** Papist,"  or  even  a 
liberal  Protestant,  was  a  crime  that  sufficed  to  bring  down 
destruction  on  his  head.  Brave  men  might  think  of  resistance, 
but  unarmed  and  unorganized  as  they  were,  what  could  it 
avail  but  to  render  their  ruin  more  complete?  In  this  dread- 
ful crisis,  however,  a  man  was  found  fearless  enough,  in  the 
midst  of  an  oppressed  and  dismayed  people,  to  raise  the 
standard  of  revolt,  and  bid  a  brave  defiance  to  the  tyrants  of 
his  countrj^ 

This  man  had  been  known  hitherto  only  as  a  kind,  zeal- 
ous, and  a  true  Irish  priest,  who,  though  he  had  won  the 

117 


148  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

liigliest  honors  of  scholarship  in  a  foreign  university,  yet 
had  ever  lived  among  his  humble  flock  as  one  of  themselves. 
A  gentleman  by  profession  and  education,  and  by  acquired 
accomplishments  and  natural  gifts,  fitted  to  move  in  the  high- 
est circles,  he  preferred  to  be  the  poor  man's  friend  than  the 
rich  man's  flatterer.  He,  like  others  of  his  sacred  calling, 
had  believed  in  the  faith  of  the  faithless,  and  had  counselled 
his  flock  to  deliver  up  their  arms  at  the  mandate  of  their 
rulers. 

He  now  saw  with  bitter  disappointment  that  the  submis- 
sion had  been  of  no  avail ;  that  mercy  was  shown  to  none,  not 
even  to  the  old  and  helpless,  nor  even  those  whose  sex  should 
have  been  a  sufficient  defense. 

From  the  surrounding  parishes  reports  came  of  fearful 
outrages  daily  coiumittod,  and  at  length  the  storm  burst  forth 
in  full  violence  within  the  district  whose  inhabitants  called 
liim  pastor.  On  the  26th  of  May  twenty  houses  were  set 
on  fire  in  the  parish  of  Boolevogue.  The  church  soon  after 
shared  the  same  fate,  and  soon  the  humble  temjile  wherein  a 
virtuous  people  had  often  gathered  together  to  worshi^D  God 
in  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  was  reduced  to  a  mass  of 
smoking  ruins,  and  the  zealous  priest,  who  had  prayed  and 
preached  therein,  found  himself,  without  home  or  altar,  a 
homeless  and  hunted  fugitive. 

The  often  repeated,  and,  T  believe,  commonly  received 
statement  that  the  burning  of  Father  John's  house  and  chapel 
was  what  impelled  him  to  take  part  in  the  insurrection,  is 
quite  unfounded.  Like  the  majority  of  the  Catholic  clergy  of 
the  time,  he  had  no  house  that  he  could  call  his  own,  but 
lodged  in  that  of  a  parishioner,  and  the  Chapel  of  Boole- 
vogue  was  not  burned  till  the  morning  of  Sunday,  the  27th 
of  May,  when  the  insurgents  had  already  begun  by  the  fight 
at  the  Harrow.  Father  John  had,  indeed,  opposed  the  or- 
ganization of  the  United  Irishmen,  not,  as  may  be  supposed, 
from  any  lack  of  patriotism,  but  because  he  deemed  it  unlaw- 
ful, as  unable  to  effect  what  it  aimed  at,  while  he  trusted  that 
in  time  the  English  Government  might  adopt  a  policy  more 
just  and  more  merciful  towards  his  unfortimate  country. 

In  this  expectation  he  was,  as  we  have  seen,  disap- 
pointed, for  matters  assumed,  day  by  day,  a  gloomier  aspect, 
till  the  good  priest  and  true  patriot  perceived  at  length  that 
oppression  had  risen  to  a  height  that  justified,  because  it 


Thl:  Rising  of  '98  149 

necessitated,  resistance.    The  step  he  designed  to  take  was, 
perhaps,  hastened  by  the  following  event: 

Saturday,  the  26th  of  May,  was  the  day  appointed  for  the 
peasantry  of  Boolevogue  and  its  neighborhood  to  deliver  up 
their  arms  to  a  magistrate  named  Cornick,  who  was  to  meet 
them  at  Ferns.  On  arriving  at  that  place,  according  to  ap- 
pointment, they  did  not,  as  they  expected,  meet  Cornick,  but 
were  fiercely  assailed  by  a  large  number  of  the  ''black  mob," 
as  the  Orange  yeomen  of  that  period  were  called  by  the  peas- 
antry. Their  enemies,  who  outnumbered  them  by  two  to  one, 
were  all  provided  with  swords  and  muskets,  which  they  used 
with  fatal  effect.  Overpowered  by  numbers,  but  still  fight- 
ing bravely,  the  peasantry  retreated  towards  home,  turning 
now  and  then  as  their  enemies  joressed  them  too  closely.  On 
arriving  at  Milltown,  they  were  met  by  Father  John,  who  had 
ridden  uj)  on  hearing  of  the  affray.  On  seeing  the  arrival 
of  the  priest,  the  Orangemen,  ceasing  the  pursuit,  came  to  a 
halt,  and  presently  afterwards  returned  to  Ferns.  It  was 
this  desperate  and  unprovoked  attack,  together  with  the  burn- 
ing of  the  houses  in  his  parish,  that  decided  the  hitherto 
wavering  mind  of  Father  Murphy. 

Father  John  luckily  happened  to  be  absent  when  the  houses 
above  mentioned  were  given  to  the  flames,  but  he  beheld  the 
conflagration  from  a  distance,  and  sought  refuge  in  a  neigh- 
boring thicket.  To  this  place  of  refuge,  also,  came  many  of 
his  people  involved  in  the  same  calamity.  Here,  surrounded 
by  a  crowd  of  weeping  women  and  children,  and  of  men,  who 
trembled  not  for  themselves,  but  for  their  helpless  wives, 
mothers,  and  sisters,  and  their  more  helpless  little  ones,  the 
great-souled  Soggarth  thought  more  of  their  sorrow  than  his 
own,  and  now  deeply  deplored  his  infatuation  in  counselling 
the  people  to  deliver  up  their  arms,  and  thereby  leaving  them- 
selves at  the  mercy  of  foes  whose  hatred  could  be  content  only 
with  their  utter  destruction.  He  now  resolved  to  retrieve, 
if  possible,  this  error  of  judgment. 

Hitherto  he  had  been  their  leader  in  peace,  now  they 
should  follow  him  in  the  struggle  for  freedom.  The  contest 
was,  indeed,  unequal ;  but  as  his  eye  rested  upon  the  stalwart 
forms  of  those  sturdy  men  who  stood  before  him  in  dejected 
attitudes,  his  spirit  aroused  itself  from  the  torpor  almost  of 
despair  into  which  it  had  sunk,  and  formed  a  brave  resolve 
to  change  them  into  soldiers  of  freedom.  His  resolution  taken, 
'Father  John  motioned  to  the  people  to  gather  more  closely; 


150  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Hoses 

around  him,  and  began,  in  a  direct  and  homely  style,  to  speak 
of  the  deep  sympathy  he  felt  for  them  in  their  present  af- 
fliction, which,  he  might  truly  say,  grieved  him  more  than 
his  own  mischance.  He  confessed  his  mistake  in  the  matter 
of  the  arms,  and  finally  declared  that  the  time  was  com.e  for 
resistance,  and  that  he  himself  would  lead  to  the  field  those 
of  his  i^arishioners  who  were  willing  to  follow  him,  for  he 
deemed  it  better  to  die  like  men  with  arms  in  their  hands, 
than  wait  to  be  butchered  like  dogs  in  the  ditches. 

Self-sufiicient  ignorance  may  presume  to  censure  the  coun- 
sel given  by  this  good  priest  to  his  people,  but  there  are  times 
when  resistance  to  tyranny  becomes,  if  not  a  duty,  at  least 
a  thing  just  and  lawful,  and  who  but  the  falsest,  vilest,  or 
most  ignorant  can  deny  that  it  was  thus  in  the  case  of  men 
who  took  up  arms  to  defend  life  itself,  and  what  true  men 
value  more  than  their  own,  the  lives  of  those  who  are  dear  to 
them?  There  are  histories  of  this  period  written  by  men  in 
the  service  of  the  English  Government,  in  which  the  acts  and 
motives  of  the  insurgent  peasantry  and  of  their  leaders  are 
foully  misrepresented.  The  authors  of  such  pretended  his- 
tories basely  calumniate  the  brave  men  who  made  so  grand  a 
struggle  against  their  far  too  numerous  and  too  powerful 
foes.  They  are  not  ashamed  to  call  them  ' '  deluded  wretches, ' ' 
and  to  stigmatize  their  high-souled  leader  as  a  *' ferocious 
bigot  who  delighted  in  blood. ' ' 

Alas,  Ireland  has  been  sadly  prolific  of  such  vipers  as 
those  so-called  historians— men  who,  living  on  property 
wrested  by  iniquitous  laws  from  the  people,  habitually  utter 
the  vilest  calumnies  against  the  truest  and  lealest  of  her  sons. 

The  men  they  calumniate  might  have  been  uneducated,  but 
was  it  their  own  fault  or  that  of  the  ruler  who  banned  the 
schoolmaster  and  set  a  price  on  his  head?  They  had  their 
faults,  no  doubt,  but  in  all  the  qualities  that  make  men  es- 
timable they  were  far  superior  to  their  calumniators.  They 
were  honest  men  who  lived  by  honest  labor,  not  on  the  wages 
of  dishonor;  they  were  not  descendants  of  Cromwell's  blood- 
stained hypocrites,  robbers  and  regicides,  with,  perchance,  a 
title  of  honor  that  but  made  their  native  meanness  more  con- 
spicuous by  the  contrast,  but  were  the  sons  of  honest  men 
with  humble  but  stainless  names— names  which  this  history 
intends  to  prove  they  sullied  by  no  craven  or  unworthy  act. 

When  Father  John  had  concluded  his  brief  speech,  an  ex- 
ulting cheer  burst  forth  from  all  the  men  of  his  audience. 


The  Rising  of  '98  151 

and  they  forthwith  declared  their  willingness  to  follow  him 
through  every  danger.  Well  might  those  bold  peasants  ac- 
cept with  joy  their  proffered  leader,  for  he  had  been  cast  by 
nature  in  the  mould  of  those  who  lead  men  to  victory. 

Father  John  was  rather  under  than  over  the  ordinary 
stature  of  his  countrymen,  but  broad-chested  and  strong- 
limbed,  of  remarkable  activity  as  well  as  strength.  His  com- 
plexion was  florid,  his  features  rather  handsome,  but  their 
beauty  lay  more  in  the  expression  than  in  the  shape.  His 
white  forehead  rose  over  bright  blue  eyes,  which,  though 
they  usually  beamed  with  a  cheerful  smile,  could  at  times 
flash  forth  a  glance  that  indicated  the  fiery  and  intrepid  soul 
which  in  a  just  cause  defies  danger,  and  boldly  confronts 
death  itself.  To  personal  advantages  he  united  a  most 
determined  spirit  and  a  power,  invaluable  in  a  leader,  of  in- 
spiring confidence  in  his  followers. 

Had  he  received  the  advantages  of  a  military  education 
he  might  have  successfully  aspired  to  the  highest  honors  of- 
fered by  the  career  of  arms,  but  he  has  obtained  for  himself 
a  higher  and  a  prouder  name  than  any  of  the  epauletted  tools 
of  tyrants;  for  the  soldier  who  falls  in  the  cause  of  an  op- 
pressed people  builds  for  himself  a  monument  of  fame  that 
outlives  that  of  granite  or  marble. 

Father  John,  thus  chosen  by  acclamation  the  first  captain 
of  the  insurgents,  determined  to  commence  his  new  career  by 
a  daring  deed  that  would  strike  terror  into  the  hearts  of 
tyrants.  He  proposed  that  an  attack  should  be  made  on  the 
Camolin  yeomen  cavalry  as  they  returned  that  night  from 
one  of  their  daily  forays  on  the  defenseless  people,  to  Camo- 
lin Park,  the  residence  of  their  colonel,  Lord  Mountnorris. 
The  people  were  to  disperse,  provide  themselves  with  what- 
ever arms  they  could  procure,  and  return,  when  night  had 
fallen,  to  the  appointed  place. 

In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  Father  John  and  his  brave  men 
met  as  soon  as  darkness  had  set  in  at  the  appointed  place, 
and  having  thrown  a  barricade  across  the  road  by  which  the 
cavalry  were  to  return  on  their  homeward  way,  they  con- 
cealed themselves  behind  the  ditches  on  either  side  of  the 
way.  They  had  not  been  long  in  their  place  of  concealment 
when  they  heard  the  welcome  sounds  of  horses'  feet  break- 
ing in  upon  the  silence  of  the  night,  and  in  a  brief  while  their 
ruthless  persecutors  came  in  full  view,  discussing  in  loud 
tones  their  achievements  during  the  day,  and  gloating  over 


152  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  horrible  details  of  acts  of  demon-like  wickedness,  little 
dreaming  that  their  last  foray  had  been  ridden,  and  that  their 
avengers  were  so  close  at  hand. 

Riding  thus  leisurely  along  they  arrived  at  length  within 
sight  of  the  barricade— halted  at  a  short  distance  from  it 
while  one  approached  to  ascertain  its  nature.  Then  a  wild 
yell  rising  from  behind  the  ditches  told  them  of  the  presence 
of  those  they  had  good  reason  to  fear  as  their  deadliest  foes. 
But  they  had  little  time  for  reflection,  and  but  little  for  ac- 
tion. They  had  time  only  to  fire  one  hasty  and  ill-aimed  volley 
from  their  pistols  when  the  foe  was  in  their  midst. 

The  contest  was  brief— the  pitch-fork  with  its  sharpened 
prongs  wielded  by  vigorous  arms,  and  the  deadlier  scythe 
were  more  than  a  match  for  the  sabre.  After  a  fight  that 
lasted  but  a  few  minutes,  every  saddle  was  empty  of  its  yeo- 
man rider,  and  of  those  who  had  ridden  forth  in  the  morning 
on  their  cruel  errand  of  bloodshed  and  plunder,  the  greater 
number  now  lay  upon  the  highway  bleeding  and  disfigured 
corpses.  The  horses  and  accoutrements  of  the  fallen  yeomen 
became  now  the  spoil  of  the  joyous  victors,  who,  elated  with 
this  first  and  decisive  success,  determined  to  march  to  Camo- 
lin  Park  and  take  possession  of  the  arms  therein  stored, 
which  had  been  given  up  by  the  surrounding  peasantry.  In 
this  enterprise  they  were  also  completely  successful,  captur- 
ing, in  addition  to  what  they  had  expected,  a  number  of  car- 
bines provided  by  Lord  Mountnorris  for  the  arming  of  the 
new  corps  he  had  organized.  Well  was  it  for  the  noble  col- 
onel that  he  had  not  ridden  out  with  his  corps  on  this  fatal 
day. 

Although  this  successful  effort  on  the  part  of  the  insur- 
gents had  taken  place  during  the  night,  the  tidings  of  it  had 
before  midnight  been  heard  with  joy  in  many  a  distant  cot- 
tage and  farmhouse,  and  before  morning  dawned  the  vic- 
torious band  was  augmented  by  many  a  brave  recruit,  pre- 
pared to  brave  all  dangers  fighting  for  the  good  old  cause. 
Leaving  Father  John  and  his  men  to  rejoice  in  their  first 
victory,  and  to  plan  others,  we  will  take  a  view  of  the  state 
of  the  country,  and  briefly  account  minor  events  that  oc- 
curred during  the  night  of  the  23rd,  and  on  the  ensuing  day. 

The  tidings  of  the  successful  surprise  and  defeat  of  the 
Camolin  cavalry  spread  with  great  rapidity  throughout  the 
country.  Turner,  a  magistrate,  who  escaped  with  difficulty 
from  the  pursuit  of  his  long-hunted  foes,  at  last  turned  to 


The  Rising  of  '98  153 

bay,  brought  the  startling  news  to  Wexford  early  on  Sunday 
morning. 

The  North  Cork,  then  stationed  in  the  barracks,  to  the 
number  of  100  men,  and  the  Shilmalier  yeomen  cavalry  im- 
mediately got  under  arms,  and  were  soon  on  their  march  to- 
wards Oulart  Hill,  whereon  it  was  said  that  their  peasant 
foe  intended  to  take  up  their  position. 

The  yeomany  and  militia  who  quitted  Wexford  on  this 
expedition  marched  by  different  routes — the  former  taking 
the  road  that  runs  through  the  village  of  Castlebridge,  and 
the  latter  choosing  that  by  the  seaside.  They  met  by  agree- 
ment at  Ballyfarnock,  and  proceeding  together  as  far  as  Bal- 
linamonabeg,  they  halted  with  the  intention  of  quenching  their 
thirst  and  laying  in  a  stock  of  ''Dutch  courage"  at  a  pub- 
lic house  there  belonging  to  a  man  named  Kavanagh.  Not 
finding  the  owner  at  home,  they  proceeded  to  indulge  in  co- 
pious libations,  and  when  they  had  drunk  what  they  con- 
sidered enough,  under  the  circumstances,  these  loyal  defend- 
ers of  the  country  and  sustainers  of  the  tottering  constitu- 
tion, by  way  of  payment,  set  fire  to  the  house  they  had  plun- 
dered. Thus,  not  content  with  robbing  the  unfortunate  pro- 
prietor, they  satisfied  their  brutal  instinct  of  destruction  by 
burning  his  house. 

This  is  but  an  illustration  of  the  infamous  treatment  the 
unfortunate  people  were  forced  to  endure  at  the  hands  of 
those  whom  frequent  acts  of  injustice  and  cruelty  seemed  to 
have  transformed  into  demons.  The  leader  of  these  wretches, 
bear  in  mind,  gentle  reader,  was  a  magistrate,  armed  witK 
the  power  of  life  and  death.  Tlie  news  of  the  defeat  of  the 
Camolin  cavalry  reached  Gorey  long  before  dawn,  and  the 
militia  quartered  there,  apprehending  the  victors  might  di- 
rect their  march  thither,  were  seized  with  terror,  and  forth- 
with fled  from  tlie  town.  They,  however,  returned  soon  after 
on  hearing  they  had  gone  in  the  direction  of  Oulart,  and  as 
cowards  are  ever  cruel,  they  showed  their  satisfaction  at  this 
intelligence  by  torturing  the  prisoners  they  had  taken. 

A  young  man  named  Jeremiah  Donovon,  disguised  as  a 
groom,  bearing  fictitious  letters,  directed  to  Lord  Mount- 
norris,  brought  the  news  of  the  defeat  of  the  yeomen  at  the 
Harrow  to  Castlebridge,  whence  it  spread  rapidly  over  the 
entire  country.  Next  day  he  returned  in  time  to  take  part  in 
the  fight  on  Oulart,  where  he  fell— the  only  man  killed  on  the 
insurgent  side. 


154  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

If  the  tidings  of  the  successful  result  of  the  first  encounter 
between  the  insurgents  and  their  enemies  served  to  raise  the 
hope  of  the  j^easantry,  it  filled  the  various  corps  of  yeomanry 
with  a  determination  to  take  the  direst  vengeance— not  that 
these  cravens  desired  to  meet  in  fair  fight  the  half-armed 
peasantry,  for  they  had  it  in  their  power  to  take  a  safer  if 
less  soldier-like  revenge. 

The  aged  parents,  the  helpless  wives  and  children  of  their 
feared  and  hated  foes  were  in  their  power,  and  on  these  poor 
victims  they  would  wreak  their  vengeance.  Filled  with  this 
fell  purpose,  they  sallied  forth  from  their  various  stations 
and  commenced  putting  to  death  all  persons  they  encoun- 
tered on  their  way,  and  those  were  chiefly  the  feeble  and  un- 
armed, for  the  young  and  strong  shunned  the  highway.  They 
set  fire  to  the  houses  of  those  they  designated  as  '' rebels,  Pa- 
pists, disaffected  croppies, ' '  and  in  many  instances  the  unfor- 
tunate inmates  were  consumed  in  the  flames  amidst  the  ex- 
ulting yells  of  their  destroyers.  An  historian  of  the  period 
himself  a  witness,  affirms  that  on  a  march  of  some  seven  miles 
one  corps  alone  set  fire  to  one  hundred  houses ! 

Such  achievements  as  this— the  burning  of  the  old  and 
helpless,  and  the  innocent  in  their  houses— the  Orange  his- 
torians of  the  time  mentioned  in  terms  of  mild  deprecation, 
while  they  pour  out  the  vials  of  their  most  wrathful  denuncia- 
tion upon  the  heads  of  the  hunted  peasantry,  because  they 
dared  to  retaliate  upon  such  ruthless  enemies.  Meantime 
Father  John's  force,  considerably  augmented,  amounting  to 
about  3,000  men,  badly  armed,  indeed,  but  filled  with  a  de- 
termination to  conquer  or  die,  set  out  about  mid-day  on  Sun- 
day, the  27th,  for  the  hill  of  Oularth,  where  they  arrived 
about  noon.  This  course  their  leader  chose,  to  give  the  people 
of  the  neighboring  parishes  an  opportunity  of  joining  his 
standard. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  VICTORIOUS  BATTLE  OF  OULART  HILL— FATHER  MICHAEL  MUR- 
PHY JOINS  THE  INSURGENTS— DEFEAT  OF  THE  MEATH 
MILITIA. 

During  the  night  of  the  26th,  a  number  of  peasants  as- 
sembled on  the  hill  of  Kilmacthomas,  an  eminence  about  nine 
miles  to  the  west  of  Gorey.  This  multitude  was  largely  com- 
posed of  women  and  children,  and  had  assembled,  as  it  seemed, 
more  in  the  hope  of  escaping  the  fury  of  the  yeomanry  or 
militia  than  with  a  determination  to  fight.  While  on  his  way 
to  celebrate  mass  (it  being  Sunday  morning)  Father  Michael 
Murphy  was  encountered  by  some  of  these  people  who  be- 
sought him  to  accompany  them  to  the  hill  He  had  from  the 
outset  been  strongly  opposed  to  armed  resistance,  consider- 
ing it  hopeless,  and  therefore  unlawful ;  but,  at  the  same  time, 
he  declared,  that  if  it  were  attempted,  ''he  would  go  with  the 
people.'*  In  the  fulfillment  of  this  promise  he  proceeded  to 
Kilmacthomas.  Against  the  unorganized  crowd  assembled 
on  the  eminence  in  question,  two  hundred  yeomen  marched 
out  from  Carnew,  and  advancing  boldly— probably  encour- 
aged by  the  presence  of  the  women  and  children— came  within 
musket  range,  and  poured  volley  after  volley  into  the  unre- 
sisting crowd,  who  soon  fled  in  wild  terror,  while  their  foes 
pursued  and  succeeded  in  slaughtering  about  three  hundred 
of  their  number.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Gordon  states  that  after  this 
massacre  the  yeomen  in  a  march  of  seven  miles  burned  a 
hundred  cabins,  and  two  Roman  Catholic  chapels.  We  turn 
with  pleasure  from  this  slaughter  of  helpless  women  and  chil- 
dren to  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  brave  peasants  camped  on 
Oulart  Hill. 

About  three  thousand  people  accompanied  Father  John  to 
the  hill  at  Oulart,  but  of  that  large  number  there  were  not 
more  than  three  hundred  fighting  men.  The  rest  of  the  mul- 
titude consisted  of  women,  children,  old,  infirm  men,  and  un- 
armed striplings.  Across  the  brow  of  the  hill  where  it  looks 
to  the  old  village  of  Oulart,  about  a  mile  distant,  there  ex- 
tends a  breast-high  ditch,  forming  a  dividing  line  between 
two  of  the  numerous  small  fields  into  which  the  cultivated 
surface  of  its  rounded  summit  is  di-vided.    Behind  this  con- 

155 


loG  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

veuient  breastwork  Father  Murphy  stationed  all  the  best 
armed  men  of  his  force.  Of  this  small  force  the  majority  had 
pikes,  but  others  were  furnished  with  no  more  efficient  arms 
than  scythes  and  pitchforks.  At  some  distance  in  the  rear  of 
this  body  he  j^laced  the  women  and  children,  with  the  old  men 
and  boys,  whose  too  advanced  or  unripe  age  unfitted  them  for 
the  approaching  contest.  Among  these,  however,  there  were 
many  who  afterwards  did  good  service.  The  insurgent  force 
thus  disposed  remained  upon  the  hill-top,  awaiting  in  anxious 
expectation  the  approach  of  their  enemies  from  the  direction 
of  Wexford.  It  was  the  Sabbath  day,  and  the  summer  sun 
had  attained  its  meridian  height,  and  was  already  verging 
towards  the  west,  when  the  anxious  watchers  on  Oulart  Hill 
beheld  a  long  line  of  red-coated  men  advancing  towards  them 
along  the  road  that  leads  from  Wexford,  and  crossing  the 
summit  of  a  swell  of  ground  called  the  hill  of  Bolubwee  (thus 
pronounced.)  They  halted  on  coming  within  a  short  distance 
of  the  base  of  Oulart.  These  men  were  the  North  Cork  In- 
fantry, who  had  marched  out  of  Wexford  at  an  early  hour 
that  morning.  From  their  elevated  position  the  insurgents 
could  plainly  discern  all  the  movements  of  the  hostile  body. 
The  Shilmalier  cavalry,  under"  Colonel  Le  Hunte,  who  accom- 
panied the  militia,  were  first  seen  to  get  in  motion,  extending 
their  force  so  as  to  enclose  the  hill,  evidently  with  the  design 
of  depriving  their  enemies  of  all  chance  of  escape  or  retreat 
in  case  of  their  defeat  by  the  militia. 

The  latter  deploying  into  line  began  to  advance  at  a  quick 
pace  up  the  ascent  from  the  southern  side.  The  peasantry 
awaited  their  approach  in  silence,  permitting  them  to  come 
within  musket  shot  of  their  earthen  bulwark.  Major  Lom- 
bard, the  second  in  command,  rode  somewhat  in  advance  of 
his  men,  and  not  seeing,  as  he  drew  near  the  ditch,  anything 
to  denote  the  presence  of  the  enemy,  he  concluded  that  they 
had  fled ;  under  this  impression  he  spurred  his  steed  forward, 
waving  his  sword  aloft,  and  calling  loudly  to  his  men  to  fol- 
low, exclaiming  that  ^'the  course  was  clear." 

The  words  of  ill-timed  exultation  had  scarce  passed  his 
lips  when  a  bullet  from  the  musket  of  one  of  the  watchful 
insurgents  pierced  his  breast.  He  instantly  fell  from  his 
horse,  and  lay  dead  upon  the  field.  On  beholding  the  officer 
fall,  the  militia  raised  a  shout  of  rage,  and  pressed  forward 
at  a  quickened  pace  to  avenge  his  death.  While  the  military 
were  thus  advancing,  one  of  the  insurgents  suggested  to  his 


The  Rising  of  '98  157 

comrades  that  it  would  bo  well  to  raise  their  hats  placed  on 
the  points  of  their  pikes,  over  the  top  of  the  ditch,  as  thereby 
they  might  draw  a  volley  from  the  advancing  militia.  This 
suggestion  was  instantly  adopted,  and  had  the  desired  effect. 
The  militia,  beholding,  as  they  thought,  the  heads  of  their 
opponents  elevated  above  the  ditch,  emptied  their  muskets 
with  a  hasty  volley,  which,  of  course,  proved  quite  harmless. 

Having  halted  to  deliver  this  volley,  the  soldiery  again 
advanced  at  a  less  hurried  i)ace,  loading  their  muskets  the 
while.  But  twelve  of  the  insurgents  were  armed  with  guns. 
Six  of  these  now  rose,  and  resting  the  barrels  of  their  muskets 
upon  the  ditch,  delivered  their  tire  with  deadly  accuracy  upon 
their  assailants.  Six  of  the  militia  fell,  and  their  comrades 
in  dismay  and  confusion  returned  the  fire  with  another  hasty 
and  ineffectual  volley.  Again  six  of  the  insurgents  rose  and 
130ured  in  another  fatal  volley.  This  second  volley  deprived 
the  unfortunate  red-coats  of  whatever  little  courage  the  first 
had  left  them,  and  being  now  charged  by  the  pikemen,  they  did 
not  withstand  for  five  minutes'  space  their  furious  and  de- 
termined onset.  Disorganized  and  terror-stricken,  they  soon 
broke  their  ranks,  and  fled  down  the  slope  of  the  hill  by  the 
way  they  had  advanced.  But  they  had  small  chance  of  es- 
cape from  the  swife-footed  peasantry,  who,  nimble  as  deer, 
pressed  upon  their  footsteps.  Their  destruction,  strange  to 
say,  was  rendered  more  complete  by  the  presence  of  the 
mounted  yeomen,  for  a  panic  had  seized  the  crowd  in  the  rear 
of  the  defenders  of  the  ditch  on  their  approach,  and  they  had 
actually  begun  their  flight  down  the  northern  side  of  the  hill, 
when  perceiving  the  mounted  yeomen  they  retraced  their 
steps,  returning  just  in  time  to  join  in  the  pursuit.  Many  of 
Ihe  routed  soldiery  were  piked  before  they  could  gain  the 
foot  of  tlie  hill;  some,  when  hard  pressed,  turned  to  resist; 
others  threw  down  their  arms  and  begged,  but  in  vain,  for 
mercy.  Some  of  the  more  agile  of  the  fugitives  reached  the 
fields  that  stretch  between  the  fatal  hill  and  Bolubwee,  but 
all  of  the  rank  and  file  perished  in  the  pursuit.  The  last  was 
slain  at  a  distance  of  about  a  mile  from  the  hill.  Lieutenant 
Colonel  Foote  fled  in  time,  and,  mounted  on  a  good  horse, 
reached  Wexford  in  safety.  Upwards  of  one  hundred  of  the 
common  men  fell  in  this  action. 

Six  officers  were  killed,  viz.:  Major  Lombard  (already 
mentioned),  the  Honorable  Captain  De  Courcey  (a  brother 
of  the  then   Lord  Kinsale),   three   Lieutenants— Williams, 


158  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Ware,  and  Barry,  and  Ensign  Koogh.  Concerning  this  en- 
gagement, the  Rev.  Mr.  Gordon  observes: 

''About  300  of  the  insurgents,  rallied  by  their  sacerdotal 
commander,  made  so  furious,  close,  and  sudden  an  onset  with 
their  pikes,  that,  with  the  loss  of  only  three  killed  and  six 
wounded,  they  slew  the  whole  detachment,  except  the  lieuten- 
ant-colonel, a  sergeant,  and  three  privates." 

Meantime  the  mounted  yeoman  remained  passive  specta- 
tors of  the  conflict,  and  saw  with  the  utmost  surprise  and 
dismay  the  sudden  and  total  defeat  of  their  comrades.  Their 
sympathy  with  their  unfortunate  allies  was,  however,  soon 
changed  into  fear  for  their  own  safety,  for  one  of  their  foes  on 
the  hill,  armed  with  a  long-shore  gun,  brought  down  one  of 
their  own  body  with  a  fatal  aim.  On  seeing  their  comrade 
fall  from  his  horse  dead  upon  the  field,  they  put  spurs  to  their 
horses,  and  galloped  off  with  all  speed  in  the  direction  of 
Wexford.  All  the  militia  men  were  not  slain  on  the  hill,  but 
many  of  them,  flying  in  terror  from  the  fatal  hill,  and  seeking 
to  escape  from  the  adjoining  fields,  were  pursued,  overtaken, 
and  slain. 

The  fugitive  yeomen,  when  out  of  sight,  and  safe  from 
the  pursuit  of  the  now  terrible  pikemen,  took  a  dastardly  re- 
venge, by  slaughtering  all  the  ''croppies"  they  encountered, 
and  setting  fire  to  many  houses.  While  these  cowards  are 
making  their  way  towards  Wexford,  murdering  as  they  go, 
the  victorious  insurgents,  under  their  indomitable  leader,  not 
being  able,  for  want  of  cavalry,  to  pursue  their  flying  enemies, 
set  forth  for  the  hill  of  Carrigrew,  on  which  they  encamped 
for  the  night.  Next  morning  at  an  early  hour  they  marched  in 
sort  of  military  order  to  Camolin,  where  they  were  to  find 
some  arms  that  had  lately  been  deposited  there  for  the  use 
of  the  yeomen.  From  Camolin  they  continued  their  march 
to  Ferns,  and  they  learned  that  the  royal  troops  had  retreated 
to  Gorey  and  Enniscorthy.  Father  John  now  led  on  his 
gallant  little  band  towards  the  latter  town,  taking  a  cir- 
cuitous route  thither  by  the  bridge  of  Scarawalsh,  in  order 
that  the  people  of  that  district  might  have  an  opportunity  of 
joining  the  forces.  The  glad  tidings  of  these  successes  had 
spread  rapidly  over  the  county,  and  numbers  of  gallant  young 
peasants,  for  the  most  part  of  the  better  class,  came  flocking  to 
join  the  victors,  prepared  to  fight  to  the  death  under  such  a 
brave  and  successful  leader.  The  small  force  with  which 
Father  John  had  so  boldly  begun  the  insurrection  being  by 


o 
m 


ffi 


12; 


TiiK  Rising  of  '98  159 

this  time  augmented  to  some  5,000  men,  aboue  five  hundred  of 
whom  carried  lire-arms,  chiefly  long  fowling-pieces,  it  was 
thought  expedient  to  hold  a  council  of  war  to  deliberate  on 
their  further  proceedings.  At  this  council  it  was  decided  to 
march  without  delay  to  attack  Enniscorthy.  On  their  way  to 
that  town  they  came  to  a  halt  on  the  hill  of  Balliorrell,  both 
to  rest  after  their  long  march  and  to  deliberate  concerning  the 
intended  attack.  While  they  were  halted  on  Balliorrell,  they 
were  joined  by  Rev.  Michael  Murj^hy,  at  the  head  of  some 
young  men  of  his  parish  of  Ballycarnew,  full  of  ardor  for 
fight,  but,  like  their  comrades,  ill-armed. 

The  plan  of  the  intended  attack  on  Enniscorthy  being 
finally  arranged,  the  insurgents  descended  the  hill,  and  ad- 
vanced towards  the  town.  Two  hundred  men,  armed  with 
firearms  preceded  the  main  body,  which  consisted  chiefly  of 
pikemen,  on  whose  flanks  and  in  whose  rear  some  marksmen 
were  placed.  Moving  onward  in  this  order,  they  soon  came 
in  sight  of  the  enemy,  whose  force  consisted  of  several  corps 
of  yeomanry,  mounted  and  on  foot,  and  a  body  of  the  North 
Cork  Militia  amounting  to  about  500  men.  This  disciplined 
and  well-armed  force  was  strongly  aided  in  the  engagement 
that  ensued  by  the  loyalists  of  the  town,  who  now  took  their 
stand  on  the  nearest  part  of  the  town  wall,  or  remained  more 
safely  entrenched  within  their  houses,  prepared  to  assist  as 
much  as  they  could  the  King's  troops  against  their  common 
enemy.  Besides  these  loyalist  Orangemen,  many  ''respecta- 
ble Catholics"  had  offered  their  services,  begging  to  be  sup- 
plied with  arms,  that  they  evince  their  loyalty  by  firing  upon 
their  countrymen  and  co-religionists,  but,  being  regarded  as 
untrustworthy  in  this  crisis,  they  were  refused  and  harshly 
threatened  for  their  temerity  in  daring  to  proffer  their  de- 
spised aid. 

The  advance  guard  of  the  insurgent  army  now  had  ad- 
vanced to  within  musket  shot  of  the  Duffery  gate,  the  prin- 
cipal entrance  to  the  town.  In  front  of  the  entrance  several 
corps  of  yeomanry  were  drawn  up.  Their  left  flank  was  pro- 
tected against  attack  by  the  river  Slaney,  which  runs  through 
the  town,  and  their  right  flank  and  rear  by  the  strong  walls 
of  the  town,  and  the  houses  that  overtopped  it,  garrisoned 
with  armed  loyalist  citizens.  They  were  thus  secure  on  either 
flank  and  in  rear.  Captain  Snowe,  with  his  company  of  North 
Cork,  was  stationed  at  the  bridge,  to  secure  the  retreat  of  his 
comrades,  in  case  they  suffered  a  defeat.    The  road  by  which 


160  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  assailants  advanced  to  tbe  attack  was  one  of  the  three 
leading  to  the  Dutfery  gate,  and  on  their  advance  being  per- 
ceived by  its  defenders,  they  were  charged  with  great  fury 
by  the  cavalry.  When  the  insurgents  beheld  their  enemy  ap- 
proaching swiftly  towards  them  they  quitted  the  road,  and 
posted  themselves  behind  the  ditches  that  bounded  it  on  either 
side,  and,  resting  their  guns  on  them,  poured  upon  their  ad- 
vancing foes  a  deliberate  and  deadlj^  fire,  which  cooled  their 
ardor,  and  made  them  retreat  more  cjuickly  than  they  ad- 
vanced. However,  on  being  reinforced,  they  again  advanced, 
but  with  no  better  success,  being  forced  to  fly  before  the  fire 
of  the  deliberate  gunsmen. 

While  the  gunsmen  thus  keep  their  mounted  enemies  at 
bay  and  exchange  a  distant  and  scattered  fire  with  the  hos- 
tile infantry  stationed  at  the  Duffery  gate,  and  the  towns- 
people on  the  walls  and  in  the  houses,  the  main  body  of  the 
insurgents,  being  come  to  a  halt  at  a  short  distance  from  the 
town,  hold  a  brief  consultation  as  to  the  best  mode  of  attack- 
ing troops  so  well  armed  and  so  advantageously  posted  as 
their  enemies. 

Father  John,  who  on  every  occasion  evinced  a  military 
genius,  suggested  that  the  best  plan,  and  that  most  likely  to 
be  attended  with  success,  was  to  drive  a  number  of  cattle, 
that  were  herded  in  the  rear  of  the  column,  to  the  front,  and 
thence  to  goad  them  onward  towards  their  enemy's  ranks  by 
a  chosen  body  of  pikemen,  and  that  they  might  themselves 
safely  follow  in  the  rear  of  the  maddened  herd. 

This  stratagem  was  tried,  and  proved  completely  success- 
ful. The  cattle  used  for  this  purpose— the  youngest  and  wild- 
est of  the  herd-- were  driven  quickly  to  the  front,  and  thence 
onward  towards  the  gate. 

They  no  sooner  heard  the  wild  shouts  of  those  who  drove 
them  than  they  set  forward  at  a  rapid  pace  in  the  required 
direction,  the  agile  pikemen  following  closely  upon  their  heels, 
and  thus  approaching  unharmed  the  line  of  their  armed  foes. 
The  latter,  perceiving  the  wild  herd  advancing  furiously  upon 
them,  and  hearing  from  the  rear,  above  the  bellowing  of  the 
maddened  beasts,  the  louder  and  fiercer  shouts  of  their 
dreaded  foes,  endeavored  with  all  their  might  to  check  the 
cattle  in  their  furious  advance.  To  effect  this  some  of  the 
soldiery  rushed  forward  to  drive  them  back  with  the  bay- 
onet, while  others  fired  their  muskets  into  the  midst  of  the 
herd.    But  all  their  efforts  were  unavailing  to  arrest  that 


The  Uirino  of  '98  161 

furious  onset,  for  the  cattle,  goaded  to  madness  by  the  yells 
of  the  men  in  the  rear,  and,  when  they  attempted  to  turn  back 
or  slacken  their  speed,  feeling  the  sharp  points  of  the  pikes, 
charged  furiously  forward  into  the  ranks  of  the  dismayed 
soldiery,  and  opened  the  way  for  a  yet  more  dreaded  foe— 
for  with  a  wild  cheer  or  revenge  and  hatred,  the  pikemen  were 
amongst  them.  Not  a  moment's  stand  did  they  make  against 
the  peasants  whose  destruction  they  had  but  lately  sworn  to 
accomplish.  The  remembrance  of  the  fearful  wrongs  they 
had  endured— their  burned  homesteads— their  tortured  or 
murdered  friends— nerved  the  peasant's  arm,  and  brightened 
the  courage  of  his  brave  heart.  Success,  too,  had  given  him 
confidence  in  himself,  and  days  of  hard  fighting  had  given 
him  something  of  the  soldier's  heedlessness  of  life. 

The  King's  troops,  completely  routed,  fled  with  the  ut- 
most precipitation  into  the  town,  with  their  victorious  foes  at 
their  heels  in  close  pursuit.  The  impetuous  advance  of  the 
insurgents  was,  however,  checked  by  a  most  destructive  fire 
directed  against  them  from  those  houses  near  the  gate,  whose 
doors  opened  to  receive  and  shelter  their  routed  foe.  Those 
of  the  late  defenders  of  the  Duffery  gate  who  succeeded  in 
escaping  the  fury  of  the  insurgent  assault  having  now  joined 
their  adherents  already  posted  within  the  houses— both  united, 
poured  a  terrible  fire  on  the  unsheltered  assailants.  How- 
ever, the  undaunted  peasantry  sustained  this  terrible  fusilade 
with  the  resolution  of  veteran  soldiers,  and  straightaway  pro- 
ceeded to  force  an  entrance  into  those  houses  that  proved  so 
advantageous  to  their  enemies,  and  so  destructive  to  them- 
selves. This  combination  of  valor  and  stubborn  perseverance 
finally  won  the  day.  Consternation  seized  the  foe  on  seeing 
such  a  display  of  heroic  resolution  in  those  frieze-coated  men 
on  whom  they  had  so  long  trampled  with  impunity.  Alas! 
they,  too,  were  Irishmen,  and  in  a  good  cause  might  have 
fought  valiantly,  but  having  chosen  to  become  the  hired  cut- 
throats of  a  foreign  Government,  and  employed  to  butcher 
their  fellow-countrymen,  they  lacked  that  generous  determi- 
nation to  conquer  or  die  that  men  who  fight  in  a  good  cause 
alone  can  feel.  At  length  the  sight  of  the  suburbs  in  a  blaze 
(set  on  fire  by  the  patriotic  inmates),  together  with  that  of  a 
multitude  suddenly  appearing  on  the  summit  of  Vinegar  Hill, 
completely  disheartened  the  loyalists. 

Thomas  Sinnott,  of  Kilbride,  contributed  much  to  the  in- 
surgent success  by  leading  a  large  body  across  the  Slaney, 


1C2  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

about  a  mile  above  Enniscortby,  aud  unexpectedly  pouring 
into  the  town  from  the  northern  direction.  Assailed  thus  on 
all  sides  the  dispirited  loyalists  gave  way.  Orders  were  sud- 
denly given  jto  sound  a  retreat,  and  in  short  time  the  garrison 
of  the  town,  with  their  families,  and  a  large  number  of  their 
civilian  adherents  were  on  their  way  to  Wexford.  A  panic- 
stricken  and  disordered  crowd  they  were— soldiers  and  ci- 
vilians, women  and  children,  forgetting  every  distinction  of 
rank  in  their  terrified  eagerness  to  escape.  Mr.  Hay  thus  de- 
scribes the  confusion  of  their  flight: 

''Officers  had  been  induced  to  tear  off  their  epaulets  and 
every  other  mark  that  could  distinguish  them  from  the  pri- 
vates, considering  themselves  in  more  danger  if  they  were 
recognized  as  officers.  However,  not  being  attacked,  there 
was  sufficient  leisure  to  escort  those  that  accompanied  them, 
and  who  were  in  such  a  piteous  plight  as  to  excite  on  their 
arrival  the  hearty  commiseration  of  all  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Wexford,  who  invited  them  indiscriminately  to  their  houses, 
and  supplied  them  with  every  comfort  necessary  in  their 
power— and  of  which  they  stood  in  so  much  need.  .  .  .  Some 
had  their  clothes  scorched  about  them,  others  wanted  their 
shoes  and  other  parts  of  their  dress  which  had  been  lost  or 
torn  off;  besides,  the  great  heat  of  the  day  made  it  doubly 
distressing  to  delicate  females— many  of  whom  had  the  ad- 
ditional charge  of  the  burden  and  care  of  their  children.  *  * 

While  the  retreat  was  being  sounded  a  party  of  Orange- 
men approached  the  castle  with  the  fell  intent  of  putting  all 
the  ''Papists"  therein  confined  to  death,  and  thus  avenging 
in  some  degree  their  defeat.  But,  fortunately  for  those  whose 
lives  they  had  determined  to  take,  the  keeper  of  the  prison 
had  already  fled,  taking  the  key  with  him,  and  as  the  intended 
murderers  had  not  sufficient  time  to  force  the  strong  door  of 
the  prison,  they  were  forced  to  depart,  their  cruel  intent  un- 
fulfilled. So  utter  was  the  disorganization  of  the  routed  loy- 
alists that  had  they  been  pursued  by  their  victorious  enemies 
they  must  all  have  been  slain  or  taken  prisoners;  but  the 
pikemen,  who  on  that  day  had  marched  thirty  miles,  and 
fought,  as  we  have  seen,  for  several  hours  afterwards  with- 
out partaking  of  any  food  whatever,  were  far  too  weary  to 
pursue  fresh  men,  who  fled  as  those  only  can  fly  who  fear  that 
death  pursues.  The  insurgents  used  their  victory  with  a  mod- 
eration that  adorned  their  valor,  for  no  house  was  set  on 
fire  and  no  person  maltreated  or  put  to  death  -nnd  this  al- 


The  Rising  of  '98  103 

tlioiigli  many  of  tbe  townspeople  liad  taken  an  active  part 
against  them. 

And  yet  these  men  have  been  branded  as  cruel  and  fero- 
cious because  isolated  deeds  of  revenge  were  perpetrated 
by  individuals  amongst  them. 

I  defy  the  base  defamers  of  a  race  who  are  generous  and 
forgiving  ahnost  to  a  fault,  to  substantiate  the  charges  of 
cruelty  and  ferocity  they  have  so  unscrupulously  made  against 
the  insurgents  in  the  brief  and  disastrous  but  heroic  struggle 
of  the  Irish  of  one  county  against  all  the  military  resources 
of  England ! 

In  this  action  the  English  lost  upwards  of  one  hundred 
men  of  the  rank  and  file  and  three  officers,  amongst  the  latter 
Captain  Pounden,  of  the  Enniscorthy  Infantry,  who  fell  at  the 
Duffery  Gate. 

The  insurgents,  now  masters  of  Enniscorthy,  having 
possessed  themselves  of  whatever  arms  and  ammunition  they 
found  therein,  deemed  it  prudent  to  quit  the  town,  and  en- 
camp on  the  rocky  eminence  tailed  Vinegar  Hill,  that  over- 
looks and  stands  like  a  huge  sentinel  to  guard  it. 

While  the  insurgent  army  were  encamjoed  on  and  around 
Vinegar  Hill,  their  number  was  hourly  augmented  by  fresh 
arrivals,  for  the  news  of  their  success  had  spread  far  and  wide 
during  the  night. 

Amongst  the  brave  men  who  thus  came  to  share  the  danger 
and  glory  of  the  contest  were  some  whose  position  and  edu- 
cation caused  the  insurgents  to  hail  their  arrival  with  joy. 
Garret  Byrne,  of  Balljinanus ;  Thomas  Clooney,  of  Money- 
hore ;  and  Barker,  of  Enniscorth}^  arrived  at  the  camp  during 
the  day  to  aid  to  the  best  of  their  power,  their  countrjTuen 
in  the  struggle  for  freedom.  Vinegar  Hill  was  now  the  center 
towards  which  the  insurgents  from  the  surrounding  districts 
came  flocking,  and  there  were  gathered  the  materials  of  as 
brave  an  army  as  ever  bore  arms  in  the  cause  of  an  oppressed 
country.  They  needed  but  unity  of  council  and  competent 
leaders  to  crown  their  cause  with  the  most  glorious  success. 
Unity,  however,  was  wanting,  for  everj'-  leader  held  his  own 
view  as  to  what  course  they  should  pursue,  and  the  insur- 
rection had  nearly  come  to  a  premature  end  when  a  fortunate 
incident  occurred,  which  fixed  their  wavering  thoughts  and 
made  them  resolve  to  march  on  Wexford. 

This  was  the  arrival  of  a  deputation  from  the  Wexford 
loyalists  summoning  them  to  surrender  and  disperse.     The 


104  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

arrival  of  the  liberated  prisoners  was  hailed  with  the  great- 
est enthusiasm  by  the  people  still  remaining,  and  the  joyful 
and  surprising  event,  in  a  brief  while  spreading  far  and  wide, 
had  the  effect  of  recalling  to  the  scene  those  who  were  al- 
ready quitting  it.  When  the  gentlemen  of  the  deputation  in- 
formed their  excited  audience  that  they  had  been  sent  by  the 
loyalists  to  dissuade  them  from  advancing  upon  Wexford,  the 
multitude  burst  forth  into  loud  shouts  of  exultation,  justly  re- 
garding the  embassy  in  its  true  light  as  an  evidence  of  the 
weakness  of  their  enemy  and  of  their  own  strength  which  they 
themselves  had  not  fully  estimated.  It  inspired  them  with  a 
confidence  in  themselves  and  their  cause  that  hitherto  they 
had  somewhat  lacked.  Unable  to  agree  before,  they  now  de- 
manded with  unanimous  voice  to  be  led  without  delay  against 
the  town. 

Mr.  Colclough  was  immediately  sent  back  (Mr.  Fitzgerald 
being  detained)  to  announce  their  determination.  That  very 
evening  the  insurgents  set  out  for  Wexford  and  encamped  for 
the  night  on  the  * '  Three  Rocks, ' '  a  ridge  of  the  Forth  Moun- 
tains, so  called,  which  are  situated  about  three  miles  from  the 
town. 

Upon  these  barren  and  lofty  hills  the  insurgents  pitched 
their  camp  and  having  posted  sentinels,  retired  to  rest  for 
the  night,  which  was  of  unusual  darkness.  Early  the  next 
morning  the  watchful  sentinels  aroused  their  slumbering  com- 
rades with  intelligence  that  they  had  descried  a  large  force  of 
royal  troops  on  the  march,  from  the  direction  of  Duncannon, 
towards  Wexford.  On  the  receipt  of  these  tidings  a  body  of 
men  was  despatched,  under  the  command  of  Clooney,  and 
Kelley,  of  Killan,  to  intercept  and  give  battle  to  the  advanc- 
ing force.  Well  did  these  brave  men  execute  their  orders. 
Having  descended  the  hill,  they  sought  a  convenient  ambush 
at  its  foot,  and  there  awaited  the  approach  of  the  loyalist 
force,  who  continued  to  advance  in  fancied  security  till  the  in- 
surgents, starting  from  their  place  of  ambush,  attacked  them 
at  once  both  in  front  and  rear.  The  struggle  was  brief  and 
soon  decided.  In  this,  as  in  subsequent  engagements,  the 
soldiery  proved  no  match  for  their  peasant  foe,  whose  strength 
and  activity  set  at  naught  the  resistance  of  England's  trained 
hirelings. 

After  a  fight  of  about  ten  minutes'  duration,  the  entire 
detachment,  amounting  to  about  one  hundred  men  and  three 


The  Rising  uf  'U8 


165 


officers  of  the  Meath  Militia,  were  either  slain  or  made  prison- 
ers, and  two  pieces  of  cannon  became  the  prize  of  the  victors. 
The  main  body,  of  which  the  detachment  thus  signally  de- 
feated formed  the  advanced  guard,  had  advanced  from  Dun- 
cannon  Fort  as  far  as  Taghmon  on  their  way  to  Wexford,  but 
on  hearing  of  this  defeat.  General  Fawcett,  their  commander, 
gave  orders  to  retreat  with  all  speed  whence  they  had  come. 

The  following  is  the  official  account  of  the  affair: 

Dublin  Castle,  June  2, 1798. 

**  Accounts  have  been  received  from  Major-General  Eus- 
tace at  New  Ross,  stating  that  Major-General  Fawcett  having 
marched  with  a  company  of  the  Meath  Regiment  from  Dun- 
cannon  Fort,  this  small  force  was  surrounded  by  a  very  large 
body  between  Taghmon  and  Wexford,  and  defeated.  General 
Fawcett  effected  his  retreat  to  Duncannon  Fort. ' ' 

We  now  leave  the  valiant  and  victorious  insurgents  to  en- 
joy their  latest  triumph,  in  order  to  recount  as  briefly  as  we 
may  the  chief  events  that  took  place  within  the  county  town 
since  the  battle  of  Oulart. 


Couipobcd  I'rom  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ORANGEISM  IN   WEXFORD  — COUNCILS   OF   WAR— DISHONEST  STRATA- 
GEM OF  THE  LOYALISTS. 

When  the  tidings  of  the  destruction  of  the  North  Cork 
reached  Wexford,  the  loyalists  there  were  filled  with  the  great- 
est consternation.  The  comrades  of  the  slain  men,  vowing  to 
avenge  or  perish  with  them,  hurriedly  assumed  their  arms 
and  set  out  for  Oulart.  However,  on  arriving  at  the  bridge 
they  were  met  by  a  number  of  the  loyalists  townsmen,  who 
succeeded  in  persuading  them  to  defer  for  the  present  the  exe- 
cution of  their  purpose,  and  return  to  their  barracks. 

The  widows  and  orphans  of  the  fallen  soldiers  ran  through 
the  streets  loudly  bewailing  the  loss  of  their  husbands  and 
fathers,  and  mingling  with  their  lamentations  the  bitterest  ex- 
ecrations of  the  yeomanry,  to  whose  cowardly  conduct  they 
attributed  their  destruction. 

The  militia,  not  finding  any  other  means  of  gratifying 
their  vengeance,  determined  to  put  to  death  the  prisoners  in 
the  town  jail,  singling  out  in  particular  Messrs.  Harvey,  Col- 
clough  and  Fitzgerald.  But  the  governor  of  the  jail,  Joseph 
Gladwin,  resolved  to  protect  his  charge  against  the  violence 
of  these  desperate  men.  Having  contrived  to  get  the  military 
outside  the  prison,  he  locked  the  door,  and  proceeded  to  warn 
the  prisoners  of  their  danger,  furnishing  the  three  gentlemen 
with  weapons,  that  in  case  the  militia  succeeded  in  obtaining 
an  entrance  they  might  not  perish  without  a  struggle.  The 
enraged  militia,  thirsting  for  blood,  soon  after  arrived  at  the 
gates,  and  loudly  demanded  entrance.  This  being  refused, 
they  essayed  to  burst  in  the  door,  but  its  great  strength  defied 
all  their  efforts.  At  length,  unable  by  force  or  stratagem  to 
affect  an  entrance,  these  baffled  banditti  departed  and  re- 
turned to  their  quarters. 

But  yet  greater  reverses  than  any  which  had  hitherto  be- 
fallen them  awaited  the  loyalists  at  Wexford.  Next  day  they 
heard  that  the  victors  at  Oulart  had  attacked  Enniscorthy, 
and,  from  the  dense  clouds  of  smoke  that  could  be  discerned 
hanging  over  that  town  they  concluded  that  it  had  been  set 
on  fire,  and  their  terrified  imagination  added  horrors  to  the 
catastrophe  they  had  divined.    The  arrival  of  the  fugitives 

167 


168  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

from  the  most  miserable  plight  imaginable,  and  the  exagger- 
ated accounts  they  gave  of  what  they  had  witnessed  and  what 
they  believed  had  taken  place  after  their  departure,  inspired 
their  woe-begone  brethren  of  Wexford  with  the  utmost  dread. 

The  town  of  Wexford  was  at  this  period  a  hot-bed  of 
Orangeism,  and  the  members  of  that  baneful  organization, 
upheld  and  fostered  by  English  influence,  had  hitherto  been 
absolute  masters  of  the  lives  and  properties  of  their  Catholic 
fellow-townsmen.  They  had  ruled  in  the  fiercest  spirit  of 
hatred,  the  unfortunate  possessors  of  a  creed  banned  by  the 
the  laws  of  England,  and  evinced  to  the  utmost  the  detesta- 
tion they  bore  to  any  Protestant  who  discountenanced  their 
villainous  tyranny.  They  now  beheld  with  terror  the  long 
down-trodden  helot  rising  up  in  the  energy  of  his  manhood 
and  threatening  to  shake  off  the  galling  yoke  he  had  so  long 
borne,  not,  indeed,  with  patience,  but  with  the  hapless  resig- 
nation of  despair.  In  their  days  of  power  they  had  shown 
no  mercy,  and  they  now  believed  that  if  they  fell  into  the 
hands  of  their  enemy  they  might  expect  none.  To  secure 
themselves  against  such  a  calamity  they  resolved  to  use  every 
possible  precaution. 

The  ancient  town  of  Wexford  now  bristled  with  warlike 
preparation.  Every  avenue  was  strongly  barricaded,  and 
cannon  were  planted  in  the  most  advantageous  positions.  The 
loyalist  inhabitants,  including  most  of  the  wealthier  class, 
came  forward  in  this  emergency  to  proffer  their  aid  in  the 
defense.  Two  hundred  of  their  number  were  furnished  with 
weapons  and  employed  in  guarding  the  walls  (at  the  time  en- 
tire), conforming  in  every  respect  to  military  discipline. 
Messrs.  Harvey  and  Colclough,  though  still  detained  in  prison, 
began  to  be  treated  with  some  consideration,  being  regarded 
in  the  light  of  valuable  hostages.  A  numerous  deputation  of 
magistrates  and  military  officers  waited  upon  them  in  their 
place  of  durance,  and  besought  them  to  exert  their  influence 
with  their  tenantry  in  the  baronies  of  Forth  and  Bargy,  to 
deter  them  from  taking  part  in  the  insurrection.  With  this  re- 
quest the  imprisoned  gentlemen  complied— in  truth  they  had 
no  option,  being  quite  at  the  mercy  of  their  enemies.  The 
loyalists  of  Wexford,  deeming  that  town  would  be  selected 
by  the  insurgents  as  the  next  object  of  attack,  despatched  mes- 
sengers to  obtain  reinforcements  from  the  nearest  garrisons, 
all  the  while  prosecuting  with  the  utmost  vigor  their  defensive 


The  Rising  of  '98  169 

preparations.  At  an  early  hour  on  the  29th  of  May,  the  first 
of  the  expected  reinforcements  arrived.  It  consisted  of  two 
hundred  of  the  Donegal  Militia,  under  Colonel  Maxwell,  ac- 
companied by  the  Heathfield  Yeomen  Cavalry,  commanded  by 
Captain  John  Grogan.  With  these  came  several  officers  of  the 
13th  Regiment  of  the  Meath  Militia,  who  announced  the  ap- 
proach of  that  force  under  General  Fawcett.  At  a  late  hour 
the  Taghmon  Cavalry,  under  Captain  Cox,  rode  into  town. 
Notwithstanding  the  vigorous  preparations  they  had  made, 
and  the  presence  of  such  a  large  number  of  armed  defend- 
ers, the  loyal  burghers  of  Wexford  could  not  shake  off  the 
terror  that  had  seized  them  when  the  idea  of  an  insurgent  at- 
tack upon  the  town  had  first  entered  their  minds.  Nothing 
could  exceed  the  terror  now  displayed  by  the  Orangemen,  aris- 
ing, as  it  may  naturally  be  supposed,  from  the  consciousness 
of  the  outrages  they  committed,  of  the  houses  they  had  burned, 
of  the  innocent  people  they  had  tortured  and  put  to  death. 
Filled  with  the  utmost  direful  apprehensions,  many  of  them 
hastened  to  take  refuge  on  board  the  ships  that  had  moored 
within  the  harbor,  intending  to  sail  for  England  in  case  the 
insurgents  became  masters  of  the  town.  Others  shut  them- 
selves up  in  their  houses  and  awaited  in  anxious  suspense  the 
further  course  of  events.  In  addition  to  the  precautions  al- 
ready adopted  for  the  security  of  the  place,  an  order  was 
issued  commanding  that  all  fires  should  be  extinguished,  even 
those  used  for  baking  purposes,  and  that  all  thatched  houses 
should  be  stripped  of  their  covering.  Scouts  were  despatched 
to  explore  the  country  in  all  directions,  and  to  bring  in  what- 
ever intelligence  they  could  gather  of  the  enemy's  move- 
ments. To  add  to  the  feelings  of  depression  that  weighed  so 
heavily  on  the  inhabitants,  the  bodies  of  the  officers  who  had 
been  slain  at  Oulart  were  brought  into  town  in  mournful  pro- 
cession—the first  victims  to  hostile  rage  seen  in  Wexford  on 
the  loyalist  side  since  the  contest  between  the  people  and  their 
rulers  was  entered  upon. 

Mr.  Hay,  being  thought  a  favorite  amongst  the  insurgents, 
though  a  loyalist,  was  now  appealed  to,  and  entreated  to  use 
his  influence  with  the  latter,  and,  if  possible,  to  induce  them 
to  disperse.  He  himself  gives  the  following  account  of  the 
transaction,  which  exhibits  a  strange  mixture  on  the  part 
of  the  Orangemen  of  dread  of  the  insurgents  and  distrust  of 


170  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  ** Papists,"  of  the  most  overweening  arrogance  and  most 
arrant  cowardice  curiously  combined.    He  says : 

''No  magistrate  being  found,  as  I  suppose,  that  would 
venture  on  this  dangerous  service,  it  was  then  inquired  wheth- 
er the  liberation  of  Messrs.  Harvey,  Fitzgerald  and  Colclough 
might  not  appease  the  people.  On  this  question  I  declared 
myself  incompetent  to  decide.  I  was  then  asked  whether,  if 
enlarged  on  bail,  they  would  undertake  to  go  out  to  the  in- 
surgents and  endeavor  to  prevail  on  them  to  disperse.  To 
this  inquiry  my  answer  was,  that  as  the  lives  of  these  gentle- 
men were  in  danger  from  the  fury  of  the  soldiery,  while  they 
continued  in  prison,  I  thought  they  would  comply  with  this 
request.  The  matter  now  became  public,  and  the  prisoners 
were  accordingly  visited  by  the  most  respectable  gentlemen 
in  the  town,  several  requesting  of  me  to  accompany  them  to 
the  prison  for  the  purpose  of  introduction.  Indeed,  so  marked 
was  the  attention  paid  to  them  on  this  occasion  that  an  in- 
different spectator  would  be  led  to  consider  them  rather  as  the 
governors  of  the  town  than  as  prisoners.  On  the  28th  and 
29th  I  had  many  conversations  on  this  subject  with  the  offi- 
cers and  gentlemen  of  the  place,  and  at  length  I  was  myself, 
together  with  five  other  gentlemen  (two  for  each  of  the  three 
prisoners),  bound  in  five  hundred  pounds  severally;  and 
Messrs.  Harvey,  Fitzgerald  and  Colclough  themselves  individ- 
ually, in  one  thousand  pounds  security  for  their  appearance 
at  the  next  assizes.  It  was  further  conditioned  that,  although 
they  were  all  three  bailed,  only  two  should  be  at  large  at  any 
one  time,  but  that  they  might  take  their  turns  at  going  abroad 
interchangeably  at  their  discretion,  provided  'one  should  al- 
ways remain  in  gaol  as  a  guarantee  for  the  return  of  the 
rest.'  "  How  this  embassy  fared  will  appear  in  the  sequel. 
The  force  of  royal  troops  that  now  held  possession  of  Wex- 
ford amounted  to  1,200  men,  including  regular  troops,  yeo- 
manry, militia  and  armed  citizens. 

Of  this  large  force  ex-Colonel  AVatsou,  though  not  formally 
appointed,  undertook  the  command,  to  which  important  trust 
the  energy  and  courage  he  so  signally  displayed  very  justly 
entitled  him.  But  the  brave  old  veteran  did  not  seem  quite 
successful  in  inspiring  his  own  spirit  into  his  followers.  The 
hopes  of  turning  the  tide  of  insurgent  warfare  from  the  town, 
which  for  a  while  upheld  their  sinking  spirits,  were  quite  dis- 
pelled on  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Colcough  that  evening  to  announce 


The  Rising  of  '98  171 

the  final  determination  of  tlieir  enemies.  That  gentleman, 
without  dismounting  from  his  horse,  proceeded  straightway 
to  the  '* bull-ring,"  and  there  announced  in  a  loud  voice  to  the 
people,  who  anxiously  gathered  around  him,  the  answer  re- 
turned by  the  insurgents  to  the  deputation,  and  their  resolve 
to  attack  the  town. 

Having  delivered  this  unwelcome  message,  he  proceeded  to 
visit  Mr.  Harvey,  who  was  still  detained  in  prison,  and  having 
had  a  short  interview  with  that  unlucky  captive,  rode  off  to 
his  own  residence  at  Ballyteigue.  The  tidings  brought  by  Mr. 
Colcough  completed  the  dismay  of  the  loyalists.  The  ships 
in  the  harbor,  before  quite  sufficiently  filled  with  people,  were 
now  overcrowded.  The  places  of  business  were  all  closed  as 
on  a  holiday,  but  there  was  no  appearance  of  Sabbath  calm 
or  tranquility  in  Wexford.  Every  loyalist  beheld  his  own  feel- 
ings of  terror  and  anxiety  reflected  upon  the  pallid  faces  of 
his  brethren.  As  night  fell  the  scouts  came  in  announcing  the 
approach  of  the  enemy.  Meantime  the  military  stood  to  their 
arms,  alert  and  watchful.  Fearing  lest  the  insurgents  might 
enter  by  the  bridge,  its  portcullis  was  raised,  and  all  means 
of  approach  from  that  side  cut  off.  At  daybreak  the  tarred 
piles  of  that  structure  were  discovered  to  be  on  fire,  nor  could 
the  conflagration  be  extinguished  till  the  footboards  were  quite 
consumed.  All  night  long  the  streets  echoed  to  the  heavy 
tramp  of  the  military  as  they  passed  to  and  fro  between  the 
different  posts,  while  the  only  other  sound  that  invaded  the  si- 
lence of  the  night  was  the  wailing  of  women  and  children,  ter- 
rified by  the  anticipation  of  coming  evil.  At  length  morning 
broke,  and  its  light  showed  the  loyalists  a  great  multitude  of 
people  assembled  at  Ferrybank,  at  the  farther  end  of  the 
bridge,  evidently  with  no  friendly  purpose. 

The  13th  Regiment,  under  General  Fawcett,  being  expected 
to  arrive  on  this  day,  Colonel  Watson  resolved  to  make  a  di- 
version in  their  favor,  and  by  engaging  the  attention  of  the 
insurgents  to  facilitate  the  entry  of  the  royalist  general. 

With  this  intent  he  led  out  a  force  of  some  three  hundred 
of  the  garrison,  taking  his  route  in  the  direction  of  the  *  *  Three 
Rocks. ' '  More  zealous  in  the  cause  than  his  men,  the  veteran 
pushed  on  before  them  to  reconnoitre,  but  being  descried  by 
one  of  the  wary  insurgent  sentinels,  when  he  had  advanced  as 
far  as  Belmount,  he  was  fired  at,  and  fell  pierced  with  a  mor- 
tal wound. 


172  Ireland's  Crown  ofThorns  and  Roses 

On  seeing  the  fall  of  their  leader,  the  troops,  who  were 
following  at  a  safer  distance,  took  to  flight— the  yeoman  cav- 
alry, as  they  galloped  into  town,  well  nigh  riding  down  the 
infantry.  Their  arrival  but  served  to  complete  the  dismay 
of  the  inhabitants. 

Immediately  upon  the  return  of  this  fruitless  expedition, 
a  council  of  war  was  held,  in  which  it  was  decided  to  evacuate 
the  town  forthwith.  Before  quitting  the  place,  the  yeomen 
determined  to  murder  the  prisoners  in  the  gaol.  But  the  reso- 
lute and  wary  governor,  true  to  his  trust,  foiled  them  on  this 
occasion,  as  he  had  done  on  the  previous  one,  to  which  we  have 
referred.  In  the  present  perilous  situation,  Mr.  Harvey's 
supposed  popularity  gave  him  no  little  importance  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Orange  gentry.  A  number  of  them  waited  upon  that 
worthy,  but,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  not  very  heroic  person- 
age. They  found  him  hiding  in  the  chimney  of  his  cell,  up 
which  he  had  clambered  on  hearing  that  the  yeomanry  de- 
signed to  attack  the  prison.  Being  hauled  down  from  that  un- 
dignified retreat,  with  no  small  exertion  on  the  part  of  his  visi- 
tors, in  a  very  begrimed  condition,  he  was  politely  informed 
of  the  object  in  seeking  him.  His  fears  abated  on  being  told 
that  instead  of  coming  to  take  his  life  his  visitors  only  de- 
sired him  to  try  and  save  their  own  by  proceeding  to  the  in- 
surgent camp  and  using  his  influence  there  to  obtain  as  favor- 
able terms  as  possible  for  the  loyalists. 

He  could  not,  however,  be  induced  to  undertake  this  com- 
mission, but  consented  to  write  a  letter  to  the  insurgents.  The 
epistle  penned  by  Mr.  Harvey  on  this  occasion  is  as  follows: 
**I  have  been  treated  in  this  prison  with  all  possible  humanity, 
and  am  now  at  liberty.  I  have  procured  the  liberty  of  all  the 
prisoners.  If  you  pretend  to  Christian  charity,  do  not  com- 
mit massacre,  or  burn  the  property  of  the  inhabitants,  and 
spare  your  prisoners'  lives.— B.  B.  Harvey.  Wednesday, 
May  30,  1798." 

To  find  some  trustworthy  person  to  bear  this  missive  to 
its  destination  was  the  next  step  to  be  taken.  A  Catholic  yeo- 
man named  Doyle  presented  himself,  but  his  offer  was  con- 
temptuously rejected— he  was  a  ** Papist,"  and  therefore  quite 
unworthy  in  the  eyes  of  the  senders  to  undertake  any  commis- 
sion on  their  behalf.  At  length  two  brothers,  named  Richards 
—both  counsellors— were  pitched  upon,  and  despatched  im- 
mediately to  the  ''Three  Rocks."    No  sooner  had  these  gen- 


The  Rising  of  '9R  173 

tlemen  set  out  on  tlieir  mission  than  the  military  began  to 
make  the  hastiest  preparations  for  the  flight.  The  sending  of 
the  embassy  was  in  truth  nothing  but  a  wily  and  dishonest 
stratagem  to  engage  the  attention  of  the  insurgents  and  to 
retard  their  advance  till  all  the  sinister  designs  of  the  royalist 
garrison  had  been  effected.  The  town  now  presented  an  ex- 
traordinary spectacle.  The  military  having  thrown  off  all 
discipline,  presented  the  appearance  of  an  armed  mob,  con- 
fused, disorderly,  and  terrified,  but  cruel  and  trucculent  even 
in  the  extremity  of  their  terror.  The  North  Cork  were  the 
first  to  quit  the  town  setting  fire  to  their  barracks  as  they 
abandoned  it. 

The  yeomanry  delayed  their  departure  for  some  time,  em- 
ploying the  interval  in  destroying  such  ammunition  as  they 
could  not  carry  with  them — plundering  some  houses  and  set- 
ting fire  to  others.  All  ranks  seemed  equally  affected  by  the 
disgraceful  panic  of  the  moment— the  royalist  officers  dis- 
playing no  less  cowardice  than  the  common  men.  Some  of 
these  gentlemen  tore  off  their  epaulets  and  other  insignia  of 
rank;  while  others,  thinking  this  precaution  insufficient,  di- 
vested themselves  of  their  uniforms,  and  replaced  them  with 
such  tattered  and  beggarly  garments  as  they  could  procure, 
and  thus  metamorphosed,  hurried  down  to  the  quay,  and  threw 
their  swords  and  pistols  into  the  river.  Mr.  Hay,  a  witness  of 
this  scene,  thus  describes  it:  ''The  confusion  and  dismay 
which  prevailed  were  so  great,  as  no  kind  of  signal  for  retreat 
had  been  given,  that  officers  and  privates  ran  promiscuously 
through  the  town,  threw  off  their  uniforms,  and  hid  them- 
selves wherever  they  thought  they  could  be  best  concealed. 
Some  ran  to  the  different  quays  in  expectation  of  finding  boats 
to  convey  them  off,  and  threw  their  arms  and  ammunition 
into  the  river.  All  such  as  could  accomplish  it  embarked  on 
board  the  vessels  in  the  harbor,  having  previously  turned  their 
horses  loose.  Some  ran  to  the  gaol  to  put  themselves  under 
the  protection  of  Mr.  Harvey.  ...  In  short,  it  is  im- 
possible that  a  greater  appearance  of  confusion  tumult  or 
panic  could  be  at  all  exhibited." 

This  scene  of  confusion  and  terrified  preparation  for  flight 
did  not  escape  the  vigilant  eyes  of  the  multitude  assembled 
since  early  dawn  at  Ferrybank.  Aware  of  the  intentions  of 
the  loyalists,  they  strove  hard  to  repair  the  bridge,  so  as  to 
be  enabled  to  cross  over  and  hinder  their  escape.    While  these 


174  Irelaxd's  CPvOW?s^  of  Thorxs  axd  Roses 

transactions  were  going  forward  within  tlie  town  and  in  its 
iimnediate  vicinity,  the  two  brothers  despatched  to  the  "Three 
Rocks"  by  the  loyalists  were  engaged  in  endeavoring  to  ob- 
tain terms  of  capitulation  from  the  insurgents.  They  stipu- 
lated on  the  part  of  those  who  sent  them  that  the  town,  to- 
gether with  all  the  arms  and  ammunition  it  contained  should 
be  delivered  up  to  the  captors,  on  the  sole  condition  that  the 
lives  of  the  garrison  should  be  spared.  To  these  terms  the 
insurgents  at  length  agreed,  and,  detaining  one  of  the  broth- 
ers, sent  the  other,  in  company  with  Mr.  Fitzgerald,  to  see 
that  the  conditions  were  faithfully  carried  out.  When  they 
arrived  at  the  town  they  found,  to  their  great  surprise,  that  it 
had  already  been  evacuated  by  the  military. 

Meantime  the  insurgents  of  Ferrybank  having  succeeded 
in  repairing  the  bridge,  though  too  late  to  prevent  the  escape 
of  their  treacherous  enemy,  came  pouring  into  the  town,  rend- 
ing the  air  with  shouts  of  triumph.  Immediately  on  entering, 
they  proceeded  to  the  gaol  and  liberated  the  prisoners  many 
of  whom  were  their  friends  and  relatives. 

The  town  now  threw  off  its  mourning  aspect,  and  assumed 
a  gay  and  lively  air  to  correspond  with  the  feelings  of  its  new 
occupants  and  masters. 

In  a  marvellously  brief  space  of  time  the  quaint  old  houses 
of  the  sober  town  were  profusely  decorated  with  boughs  of 
all  sizes,  and  of  every  shade  of  the  same  pleasant  hue.  All 
the  doors  were  thrown  open,  and  the  freest  hospitality  offered 
to  the  new-comers,  which,  though  no  doubt  quite  sincere  on 
the  part  of  some  of  the  inhabitants,  was  more  than  doubtful 
on  that  of  others.  So  suspicious  were  the  peasantry  of  the  sin- 
cerity of  this  welcome  when  proffered  by  known  loyalists,  that 
they  required  of  them  to  taste  the  liquor  they  offered  them 
before  partaking  of  it,  for  they  believed  these  worthies  were 
quite  capable  of  poisoning  the  draught,  not  being  in  the  least 
deceived  by  the  false  colors  they  had  hung  out. 

None  were  at  this  juncture  more  demonstrative  in  their 
exhibitions  of  affectionate  welcome  than  those  adherents  of 
the  Orange  faction  who  remained  in  town. 

No  houses  were  decorated  with  a  greater  profusion  of 
green  boughs ;  no  hats  displayed  the  green  cockade  more  than 
theirs.  Shortly  after  the  arrival  of  this  body  of  peasantry, 
the  insurgent  army  from  the  ' '  Three  Rocks ' '  marched  in  and 
halted  at  the  Windmill-Hill.  On  being  informed  of  the  treach- 
erous ruse  played  upon  them  by  the  garrison,  they  gave  way 


The  Rtsiw  of  '98  175 

for  a  time  to  violent  rago,  and  oonld  with  difficulty  be  dis- 
suaded by  their  leaders  from  setting  fire  to  the  town,  for  they 
deemed  the  inhabitants  accomplices  in  the  deception  practiced 
upon  them.  However,  the  anger  of  the  duped  insurgents  con- 
fined itself  to  the  pillage  and  burning  of  one  house,  that  of 
Captain  Boyd  of  the  Wexford  yeomanry,  a  notorious  perse^ 
cutor;  with  this  exception  the  town  sustained  no  injury  at 
their  hands. 

Those  Orangemen  who  had  taken  refuge  on  board  the 
shipping  in  the  harbor  were  now  led  back  to  town.  Two  of 
their  number  were  sacrificed  to  popular  vengeance.  These 
were  John  Boyd,  brother  of  Captain  Boyd,  above  mentioned, 
and  George  Sparrow,  an  Enniscorthy  butcher,  both  Orange- 
men, and  both  of  infamous  character.  They  were  piked  on  the 
quay  soon  after  landing. 

While  these  transactions  were  in  progress  in  the  captured 
town,  the  fugitive  military  were  on  their  way  to  Duncannon 
Fort.  They  marched  rapidly  through  the  country  till  they 
had  gained  what  they  deemed  a  safe  distance  from  Wexford, 
and  then  began  to  advance  at  a  more  leisurely  pace  till  they 
reached  the  village  of  Mayglass.  Here  they  first  began  to  glut 
their  brutal  rage  by  the  slaughter  of  a  number  of  unoffending- 
people  who  had  come  out  from  their  houses  to  gaze  upon  them 
as  they  marched  past.  They  also  found  time  to  set  fire  to  the 
Catholic  church  at  Mayglass.  In  their  further  progress  no 
one  they  encountered  escaped  their  fury,  not  even  the  women 
and  children.  On  the  ensuing  morning,  these  murderous  ban- 
ditti, exhausted  by  their  long  march,  reached  Duncannon  Fort. 

This  eventful  day  at  length  came  to  a  close,  and  night 
fell  upon  the  liberated  town  as  peacefully  as  if  nothing  had 
occurred  to  disturb  its  wonted  tranquillity ;  but  on  the  ensu- 
ing morning  the  streets  were  thronged  with  a  busy  and  ex- 
cited multitude.  An  eager  search  was  instituted  for  ammuni- 
tion, of  which  the  insurgents  stood  sorely  in  need,  and  their 
chagrin  was  excessive  at  finding  only  three  barrels  of  gun- 
powder. The  martial  spirit  of  the  victorious  insurgents  did 
not  suffer  them  to  rest  while  an  enemy  trod  the  soil  of  their, 
country,  nor  were  their  leaders  less  prompt  in  action  than 
the  men  who  marched  under  their  command. 

Early  on  the  morning  succeeding  the  capture  of  the  town 
the  insurgent  leaders  issued  orders  to  their  men  to  march 
out  and  encamp  on  the  Windmill-Hill,  leaving  behind  such  a 
force  as  they  judged  sufficient  to  garrison  the  town. 


CHAPTER  V. 

FATHER  JOHN  MURPHY  JOINED  BY  FATHERS  ROCHE  AND  KEARNS  — 
BATTLE  AT  NEWTOWN-BARRY  — GOREY  SURPRISED. 

Meantime  the  armed  thousands  posted  on  the  Windmill- 
Hill  were  told  of  the  final  determination  of  their  leaders  to 
divide  their  force  into  two  divisions,  each  of  which  would  take 
a  different  route.  Accordingly,  General  Harvey  and  the  corps 
under  his  immediate  command,  who  were  chiefly  men  from 
Forth  and  Bargy,  took  the  direction  of  Taghmon  and  en- 
camped there  for  the  night.  The  second  division,  comprising 
those  gallant  men  who  had  won  the  battles  of  Oulart  and  En- 
niscorthy,  and  were  for  the  greater  part  from  the  northern 
parts  of  the  county,  set  out  once  more  in  the  direction  of 
Gorey,  passing  on  their  way  the  scenes  of  their  former  vic- 
tories. Though  they  had  consented  to  the  appointment  of 
Harvey  as  commander-in-chief,  they  had  formed  a  true  esti- 
mate of  his  capability,  and  justly  placed  more  confidence  in  the 
man  who  had  often  led  them  to  victory.  Father  John,  their 
own  brave  Soggart.  On  the  first  day 's  march,  of  what  we  may 
call  their  second  campaign,  they  were  joined  by  the  Rev. 
Philip  Roche  and  the  Rev.  Father  Kearns.  Father  Roche  pos- 
sessed in  an  eminent  degree  those  personal  advantages  so 
highly  prized  by  his  countrjanen.  He  was  brave  and  hand- 
some, of  pleasing  manners,  and  well  fitted  in  every  way  to  be 
a  popular  leader.  Father  Kearns  was  a  man  of  great  size 
and  strength,  whose  scorn  of  danger,  and  confidence  in  his 
own  strength  and  activity,  were  evinced  by  his  going  into  ac- 
tion armed  only  with  a  heavy  riding  whip.  However,  his 
courage  degenerated  into  harshness,  and  his  self-reliance  was 
unallied  with  other  qualities  as  indispensable  in  a  leader. 

Soon  after  his  arrival.  Father  Kearns  proposed  that  an 
attack  should  be  made  on  the  soldiery  stationed  at  Newtown- 
barry,  with  the  design  of  driving  them  from  thence,  and  thus 
opening  communication  with  the  counties  of  Wicklow  and 
Carlow,  affording  their  inhabitants,  who  were  at  the  time 
being  hunted  down  like  wild  beasts,  an  opportunity  of  finding 
a  rallying  place  among  the  conquering  Wexfordmen.  This 
proposal  was  joyfully  consented  to,  and  Father  Kearns  him- 

177 


178  Ireland's  Crowx  of  Thorx?  and  Roses 

self  being  cliosen  leader  of  the  enterprise  lie  had  suggested, 
soon  found  himself  at  the  head  of  about  two  thousand  men, 
chiefly  armed  with  jDikes;  for  even  at  this  period  firearms  of 
any  description  were  rare  among  the  insurgents. 

These  soldiers  of  freedom  proceeded  without  delay  to- 
wards their  destination,  preserving  in  their  progress  as  much 
appearance  of  military  order  as  could  have  been  expected. 
They  encountered  no  enemy  on  their  march  save  some  bodies 
of  mounted  Yeomanry,  who  fled  as  they  approached,  or  if 
they  attempted  to  make  a  stand  it  was  but  for  a  moment,  be- 
ing unable  to  withstand  the  impetuous  charge  of  the  deter- 
mined pikemen.  It  is  an  admitted  fact  that  in  few  instances 
could  those  well-armed  and  well-mounted  men  be  brought  to 
face  the  undisciplined  and  ill-armed  insurgents,  who  had  lit- 
tle to  rely  on  but  their  native  valor,  heightened  by  the  sense 
of  wrong  and  the  consciousness  of  fighting  in  a  just  cause. 

When  this  division  arrived  in  sighf  of  the  town  they  halted 
in  order  to  repose  for  a  brief  while  after  their  long  and  rapid 
march.  During  this  halt  one  of  the  men  approached  Father 
Kearns,  and  modestly  suggested  that  it  would  be  prudent,  in 
case  the  attack  succeeded,  to  occupy  a  similar  position  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  town  as  a  precaution  against  any  possi- 
ble surprise.  Unfortunately  Father  Kearns  slighted  this 
wise  counsel,  and  thereby,  as  we  shall  see,  lost  the  town, 
though  successful  in  the  first  assault.  After  a  short  interval 
of  rest,  Father  Kearns,  having  first  invoked  aloud  the  Divine 
aid,  gave  the  signal  for  attack.  The  insurgents  rushed  down 
the  slope  of  the  hill  on  which  they  had  halted,  with  their  cus- 
tomary impetuosity,  and  in  a  few  minutes  reached  the  town. 
Their  confident  courage  was  nothing  daunted  by  the  sight  of 
five  hundred  regular  troops,  under  the  command  of  Colonel 
L 'Estrange,  arrayed  against  them,  together  with  several 
corps  of  the  despised  yeomanry;  for  the  people  had  so  often 
defeated  both  soldiery  and  yeomanry  that  they  began,  as  a 
natural  consequence,  to  hold  them  in  contempt. 

On  this  occasion,  as  on  others,  the  united  charge  of  the 
stalwart  peasantry,  their  semi-military  line  bristling  with  the 
formidable  pike,  carried  all  before  it.  After  a  brief  and 
feeble  resistance,  the  regular  troops  retreated  with  the  great- 
est precipitation;  and  as  for  the  yeomen,  they  galloped  off, 
after  making  a  feint  of  resistance,  to  seek  revenge  for  their 
defeat  in  burning  the  houses  and  slaughtering  the  defenseless 
friends  of  their  peasant  foemen. 


The  Rising  op  '98  179 

However,  all  the  advantages  tlius  gained  by  the  gallant  on- 
set of  the  insurgents  were  lost  by  the  neglect  of  the  precaution 
above  mentioned;  for  the  flying  soldiery  were  encountered, 
when  only  a  short  distance  outside  the  town,  by  a  detachment 
of  the  King's  County  IMilitia  despatched  to  their  aid.  On 
receiving  this  timely  reinforcement  they  rallied,  and  soon 
determined  to  return  to  the  town,  reckoning  on  their  taking  the 
enemy  by  surprise. 

Acting  on  this  resolve,  they  returned  once  more,  and  found 
their  lately  victorious  enemy  dispersed  here  and  there  through 
the  place,  and,  as  might  be  supposed,  had  little  difficulty  in 
driving  them  outside  the  walls.  Thus  what  valor  had  so 
lately  won,  lack  of  prudence  now  lost. 

However,  though  surprised  and  di^dded,  they  fought 
bravely,  and  inflicted,  in  their  retreat,  considerable  loss  on 
the  enemy.  In  this  way  was  Newtownbarry  lost  and  won, 
and  with  it  all  the  advantages  that  would  have  accrued  to 
the  insurgent  cause  from  its  j)ossession. 

Thus  were  all  the  efforts  of  these  gallant  peasants  ren- 
dered unavailing  by  the  neglect  of  an  ordinary  precaution. 
But,  while  we  regret  the  error  and  its  consequences,  we  can 
hardly  blame  such  novices  in  the  art  of  war  for  an  error  into 
which  trained  troops  have  often  fallen. 

The  men  whose  enterprise  had  thus  failed  were  now  forced 
to  march  by  small  detachments  to  reach  the  only  rallying  place 
known  to  them— the  camp  on  Vinegar  Hill.  The  greater 
number  of  tliem  reached  that  rendezvous  the  same  night,  and 
early  on  the  following  morning  set  out  to  rejoin  their  com- 
rades whom  they  found  encamped  on  the  hill  of  Carrigrew.  • 
They  were  received  kindly  by  them,  and  found  them  busily 
engaged  in  acquiring  some  knowledge  of  military  manoeuvres 
under  the  direction  of  such  patriotic  yeomen  as  had  left  their 
corps,  or  had  been  expelled  therefrom  on  suspicion  of  being 
United  Irishmen.  While  the  insurgents  were  thus  wisely  en- 
deavoring to  acquire  that  training  which,  united  to  their 
dauntless  valor,  would  have  rendered  them  invincible,  the 
English  commanders  were  not  idle,  but  were  making  prepara- 
tions to  attack,  with  an  irresistible  force,  the  foe  they  had  at 
first  despised,  but  had  now  learned  to  dread. 

On  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  June  tidings  reached  the  in- 
surgent camp  at  Carrigrew  that  two  divisions  of  the  reg-ular 
army  were  on  the  march  from  Gorey  and  Carnew  to  attack 


180  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

them;  moreover,  that  each  division  of  this  formidable  force 
was  furnished  with  artillery,  and  accompanied  by  several 
corps  of  mounted  yeomanry.  They  were  to  meet  near  the 
insurgent  position,  and  unite  for  a  combined  attack.  Of  the 
large  force  thus  acting  in  concert  against  the  insurgents. 
General  Loftus  and  General  Walpole  were  the  commanders. 

To  oppose  such  a  formidable  array  of  trained  troops,  pro- 
vided with  every  warlike  munition,  and  led  on  by  officers  of 
high  rank  and  experience,  the  means  at  the  command  of  the 
insurgent  leaders  seemed  but  too  inadequate.  They  were 
strong,  indeed,  in  numbers,  and  in  the  possession  of  a  brave 
and  determined  spirit,  but  destitute  of  all  else  that  render 
men  formidable  in  war.  They  had  neither  cavalry  nor  artil- 
lery, their  firearms  were  but  few,  and  their  supply  of  powder 
and  ball  extremely  scanty. 

The  greater  part  of  the  men  were,  it  is  true,  by  this  time 
possessed  of  pikes— admirable  weapons  when  used  in  a  close 
fight,  but  otherwise  useless.  Yet,  notwithstanding  all  these 
disadvantages,  which  would  have  been  quite  sufficient  to  in- 
duce any  but  Irishmen  to  abandon  the  contest  as  useless,  the 
men  at  Carrigrew,  confident  of  their  courage,  and  proud  of 
their  heroic  leaders,  resolved  to  meet  their  enemies  once  more 
in  battle.  The  insurgent  leaders  having  consulted  together  in 
this  perilous  and  critical  situation,  concerning  the  best  course 
to  be  adopted,  resolved  to  march  without  delay  and  attack 
that  division  of  royal  troops  just  then  advancing  towards 
them  from  Gorey,  and  having,  as  they  hoped,  defeated  them, 
to  proceed  to  the  release  of  the  unfortunate  men  confined 
and  awaiting  execution  in  that  town. 

Having  come  to  this  resolve,  the  insurgents  once  more 
quitted  Carrigrew,  and,  halting  at  a  short  distance  from  that 
eminence,  on  level  ground,  proceeded  under  the  direction  of 
their  chiefs  to  put  in  practice  some  of  the  lessons  they  had  re- 
ceived in  the  art-military  a  little  while  before. 

They  soon  fell  into  fair  marching  order,  and  at  the  word 
of  command  set  off  at  a  pace  that  few  armies  could  have 
maintained. 

A  body  of  two  hundred  chosen  pikemen,  with  gunsmen  in- 
terspersed, preceded  the  main  body  at  the  distance  of  a  mile. 
In  the  meantime.  Colonel  Walpole,  against  whose  division 
they  were  on  the  march,  had  information  of  their  advance, 
and  led  out  his  men  to  meet  them. 


The  Rising  of  '98  181 

Having  advanced  a  short  distance  beyond  Tubberneering, 
he  halted  at  a  spot  where  the  road  takes  a  sharp  turn  to  the 
right  in  the  direction  of  Carrigrew,  so  that  a  body  of  men 
advancing  from  that  direction  would  be  likely  to  march  into 
sudden  view  of  the  enemy,  and,  consequently,  surprised  and 
panic-stricken,  would  fall  an  easy  prey.  Thus  reasoned  the 
English  chief,  and  thus,  with  his  chosen  troops  drawn  up  in 
line  of  battle,  his  powerful  and  numerous  artillery  in  good 
position  to  sweep  the  insurgent  ranks  with  a  discharge  of 
ball  and  canister,  his  cavalry  all  impatient  to  make  havoc 
among  the  peasantry,  routed  and  disordered  by  the  fire  of  mus- 
ketry and  cannon,  the  royalist  officer  awaited  the  approach 
of  the  insurgents. 

He  was  not  long  kept  in  expectation. 

The  advance  guard  of  the  insurgents  arrived  at  the  point 
where  the  road  made  the  sharp  turn  described,  and  marching 
in  a  compact  body,  and  with  a  quick  step,  came  suddenly  in 
the  presence  of  their  red-coated  foes,  who  instantly  welcomed 
them  with  a  combined  and  terrible  fire  of  artillery  and 
musketry. 

The  insurgents,  on  receiving  this  unexpected  salutation, 
halted,  and  one  of  the  few  horsemen  who  accompanied  them 
was  instantly  despatched  by  their  leader  to  apprise  the  main 
body  of  the  presence  of  the  enemy.  During  this  brief  halt 
the  insurgent  vanguard  had  kept  their  ranks  manfully,  and 
now  advanced  amidst  a  storm  of  death-dealing  missiles  to 
take  up  a  less  exposed  position  behind  a  ditch  that  lay  at  some 
distance  on  their  left.  While  crossing  a  large  field  which 
extended  between  them  and  the  shelter  they  sought,  they 
suffered  great  loss  from  the  enemy,  who  continued  to  pour 
into  their  thinning  ranks  a  deadly  discharge  of  all  arms. 

The  insurgents  at  length  gained  the  ditch,  which  as  they 
had  hoped,  afforded  them  protection  from  the  enemy's  fire, 
and  thence  in  their  turn  commenced  and  maintained  a  telling 
fire  on  the  hostile  ranks.  The  insurgent  fire  was  extremely 
destructive  for  those  of  them  who  were  armed  with  guns 
were  for  the  most  part  practised  sportsmen,  and  the  ditch 
behind  which  they  lay  was  but  half  musket  shot  from  the  royal 
troops.  Thus  the  insurgent  advance  guard  galled  the  royal- 
ists and  kept  them  in  check,  for  the  latter  feared  to  advance 
and  drive  the  gunsmen  from  their  shelter,  for  though  insignifi- 
cant in  number,  they  knew  them  to  be  accompanied  by  the 


182  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

pikemen,  who  bad  ever  proved  such  terrible  foes  at  close 
quarters. 

The  main  body  of  their  dreaded  enemy  now  appeared  in 
swift  and  impetuous  advance,  drawn  up  in  the  form  of  a  cres- 
cent, and  bristling  all  over  with  the  formidable  pike.  The  ad- 
vancing insurgents  avoided  the  open  ground  on  which  their 
advance  guard  had  suffered  such  severe  loss,  and  keeping 
towards  the  left,  seemed  determined  to  assail  the  royal  troops 
on  their  left  fiauk,  while  the  gunsmen  engaged  them  in  front. 

On  seeing  this  large  body  advancing  to  attack  his  divi- 
sion, already  disheartened  by  the  loss  they  had  sustained 
from  the  persistent  and  fatal  fire  of  their  sharp-shooting  foes, 
the  royalist  commander  gave  orders  for  retreat. 

But  while  the  royal  gunners,  in  obedience  to  this  welcome 
command,  were  engaged  in  harnessing  their  horses  to  the 
gun-carriages,  they  were  surprised  and  taken,  together  with 
their  iron  charges  and  all  that  appertained  to  them,  by  the 
advance  guard  of  the  insurgents,  who  now  sallied  from  be- 
hind the  ditch  they  had  so  well  defended. 

The  insurgents,  who  were  as  merciful  as  they  were  brave, 
treated  their  prisoners  kindly,  and  soon  applied  themselves  to 
learn  from  them  the  management  of  the  destructive  weapons 
they  had  so  gallantly  captured. 

Colonel  Walpole,  though  thus  forced  to  retreat  before  his 
peasant  foe,  resolved  like  a  brave  soldier  to  make  a  final  stand, 
and  thus  decide  the  contest.  AVith  this  determination  he 
halted  at  Clough,  a  village  between  Gorey  and  Tubberneering. 
Here  he  w^as  reinforced  by  a  company  of  grenadiers,  des- 
patched by  General  Loftus  to  his  aid,  until  that  officer  should 
arrive  with  his  whole  division.  The  rallied  troops  of  Wal- 
pole, reinforced  by  the  grenadiers  of  Loftus,  were  not  long 
awaiting  the  second  attack  from  their  determined  foe,  who 
soon  appeared  in  sight,  advancing  at  a  running  pace,  with  the 
evident  design  of  coming  immediately  to  close  quarters,  and 
thus  avoiding  the  sustained  and  destructive  fire  of  their  op- 
ponents. The  English  troops  had  just  time  to  pour  a  few 
hasty  volleys  into  the  rapidly  advancing  ranks  and  then  the 
pikemen  closed  with  them. 

The  clubbed  musket  and  the  bayonet  proved  in  this,  as 
in  all  former  contests,  but  a  poor  defence  against  the  long 
pike  borne  by  the  insurgents. 

In  addition  to  the  advantage  of  the  peasantry  derived 


The  RiyiNG  of  '98  183 

from  such  an  effective  weapon  as  the  pike  in  such  contests  as 
we  describe,  they  were  themselves  in  strength  and  agility 
superior  to  the  royal  troops;  and  practised  in  every  athletic 
exercise,  they  wielded  their  arms  with  resistless  force.  The 
issue  of  the  combat  might  have  been  foreseen  once  the  in- 
surgents closed  with  their  foes.  The  regular  troops  were  com- 
pletely routed,  and  fled  in  the  utmost  confusion  and  terror, 
throwing  away  their  arms  and  accoutrements  to  facilitate 
their  escajDC.  Yet  with  all  this  they  were  captured  in  great 
numbers  by  their  swift-footed  pursuers,  who,  as  usual,  treated 
them  with  kindness,  contrary,  as  it  seemed,  to  the  expectation 
of  the  fugitives,  many  of  whom  were  found  with  their  coats 
turned  in  side  out,  to  denote,  doubtless,  a  corresponding 
change  in  their  sentiments  sufficiently  great  to  incline  the  vic- 
tors to  mercy. 

AVhen  the  contest  was  over,  the  gallant  Walpole  was  found 
lying  dead  beside  his  charger  on  the  field,  while  stretched 
around  were  numbers  of  killed  and  wounded.  Thus  ended 
the  engagement  at  Tubberneering  and  at  Clough. 

Of  the  above  described  actions,  Mr.  Plowden  says: 
''The  rebels  surprised  a  division  under  Colonel  Walpole 
at  a  place  called  Tubberneering.  The  rebels  poured  a  tre- 
mendous fire  from  the  fields  on  both  sides  of  the  road,  and 
he  received  a  bullet  through  the  head  from  the  first  fire.  His 
troops  fled  in  the  utmost  disorder,  leaving  their  cannon  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  They  were  pursued  as  far  as  Gorey, 
in  their  flight  through  which  they  were  galled  by  the  fire  of 
some  of  the  rebels  who  had  taken  station  in  the  houses.  The 
unfortunate  loyalists  of  Gorey  once  more  fled  to  Arklow  with 
the  routed  army,  leaving  all  their  effects  behind.  While  Wal- 
pole's  division  was  attacked  by  the  enemy.  General  Loftus, 
being  within  hearing  of  the  musketry,  detached  seventy  men, 
the  grenadier  company  of  the  Antrim  militia,  across  the  fields 
to  its  assistance,  but  they  were  intercepted  by  the  rebels  and 
almost  all  taken  or  killed.  The  general,  still  ignorant  of  the 
fate  of  Colonel  Walpole 's  division,  and  unable  to  bring  his  ar- 
tillery across  the  fields,  continued  his  march  along  the  high- 
way, by  a  long  circuit,  to  the  field  of  battle,  where  he  was  first 
acquainted  with  the  melancholy  event.  For  some  time  he  fol- 
lowed the  rebels  toward  Gorey,  but  finding  them  posted  on 
Gorey  hill,  from  which  they  fired  upon  him  with  the  cannon 
taken  from  Colonel  Walpole,  he  retreated  to  Carnew;  and  still, 


184  Ikeland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

contrary  to  the  opinion  of  most  of  his  officers,  thinking  Car- 
new  an  unsafe  place,  though  at  the  head  of  twelve  hundred 
effective  men,  he  abandoned  that  part  of  the  country  to  the 
rebels,  and  retreated  nine  miles  farther,  to  the  town  of  Tul- 
low,  in  the  county  of  Carlow." 

The  insurgents,  though  wearied  by  their  long  march  and 
subsequent  hard  fighting,  pushed  on  rapidly  toward  Gorey, 
resolved  to  allow  their  routed  foe  no  time  to  put  into  execu- 
tion the  vengeance  they  were  well  aware  they  meditated  on 
the  prisoners  there  confined.  So  closely  did  they  press  on 
the  flying  enemy  that  the  latter  had  no  time  to  rally  their 
broken  ranks,  or  to  put  into  execution  their  cruel  purpose. 
They  had  barely  time  to  fire  into  the  window  of  the  prison  on 
those  confined  therein,  who,  at  the  suggestion  of  Esmond 
Kyan,  one  of  their  number,  by  throwing  themselves  on  the 
ground,  avoided  the  otherwise  fatal  volley.  On  the  arrival 
of  the  insurgents  at  Gorey,  the  prisoners,  who  had  thus  nar- 
rowly escaped  death  were  set  at  liberty. 

Esmond  Kyan,  who  understood  the  management  of  artil- 
lery, was  placed  in  command  of  the  pieces  lately  captured. 
The  insurgents  now  pitched  their  camp  on  a  hill  outside  the 
town,  and  there  awaited  the  appearance  of  General  Loftus, 
who,  as  they  were  aware,  was  then  on  his  way  to  join  the 
troops  of  Walpole,  of  whose  defeat  he  was  yet  uninformed. 

On  the  appearance  of  this  officer,  he  was  received  with  a 
iWell-directed  discharge  from  the  captured  cannon. 

This  unexpected  salute  proved  too  much  for  the  courage 
of  Loftus  and  his  soldiers.  Seized  with  panic,  they  took  to 
their  heels,  and  were  perceived  by  some  of  the  mounted  in- 
surgents sent  after  them  to  ascertain  their  route,  in  full  flight 
in  the  direction  of  Carnew. 

The  insurgents,  well-nigh  exhausted  by  their  previous  ex- 
ertions and  want  of  food,  did  not  feel  inclined  to  pursue  them, 
and  having  no  cavalry,  were  forced  to  allow  them  to  escape 
unmolested. 

The  success  of  these  engagements  was  chiefly  due  to  the 
prompt  advance  of  the  insurgents  to  meet  Walpole  on  his 
march  to  Carrigrew,  instead  of  waiting  to  be  attacked  by  that 
officer  and  Colonel  Loftus  at  their  encampment  on  the  hill. 

By  this  energetic  movement,  they  disconcerted  the  plan 
agreed  on  by  two  English  leaders,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  put 
them  both  to  flight  in  separate  engagements. 


The  Rising  of  '98  185 

Loftus  seems  to  have  entertained  a  salutary  dread  of  the 
pikemen,  for  it  is  evident  that  had  he  wished  to  reinforce 
Walpole,  he  could  have  easily  arrived  in  time  as  well  as  the 
detachment  of  grenadiers  that  bore  a  pait  in  the  contest. 

The  iuhabilauts  of  Gorey  and  of  the  surrounding  district, 
so  many  of  whom  had  been  rescued  from  death  by  the  success 
and  timely  advance  of  the  insurgent  army,  now  came  flocking 
around  their  deliverers,  testifying  in  every  way  their  grati- 
tude for  a  boon  as  great  as  it  was  unhoped  for.  Many  of  them 
declared  that  on  beholding  the  formidable  array  on  foot,  horse 
and  artillery  that  marched  out  of  the  town  with  the  joyful 
and  proud  confidence  of  men  who  go  to  certain  victory,  they 
entertained  but  little  hope  of  their  ill-armed  and  undisciplined 
countrymen  offering  any  effectual  resistance. 

They,  however,  affirmed  that  Walpole  felt  so  confident  of 
victory  that  he  had  received  several  wagers  that  the  '' rebels'' 
would  not  sustain  for  twenty  minutes  the  combined  onset  of 
the  royal  forces,  aided  as  they  were  by  more  than  a  dozen  of 
yeomen  cavalry. 

The  insurgents,  remembering  their  surprise  at  Newtown- 
barry,  resolved  to  take  precautions  against  similar  misfor- 
tune, and  to  this  effect  they  took  care  to  post  sentinels  at  all 
the  advances  to  the  town. 

Thej  adopted,  moreover,  the  further  precaution  of  post- 
ing a  strong  guard  on  the  road  to  Arklow,  whence  they  deemed 
an  attack  most  likely  to  be  made.  However,  the  arrival  of  a 
large  body  of  Arklow  men  at  the  insurgent  camp,  with  the 
tidings  that  the  royal  troops  had  evacuated  the  town,  set 
them  at  ease  on  that  point. 

The  night  of  the  4th  of  June  passed  away  quietly  in  the 
camp  of  the  brave  insurgents,  whose  dauntless  courage  suc- 
cess had  so  happily  crowned. 

Here  we  may  mention  that  such  as  escaped  of  the  routed 
troops  of  Walpole,  after  passing  through  Gorey,  continued 
their  flight  to  Arklow,  which  they  also  left  behind  them,  nor 
finally  halted  till  they  reached  Dublin.  The  troops  com- 
manded by  Loftus  ended  their  flight  at  Tullow. 

These  decisive  victories  made  the  insurgents  masters  of 
the  entire  county  of  Wexford,  with  the  exception  of  New- 
townbarry.  New  Ross  and  Duncannon  Fort,  which  are  situated 
on  its  borders.  They  had  also  possession  of  that  part  of 
Wicklow  which  lies  between  Arklow  and  the  Wexford  boun- 


186  Ireland's  Croavn  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

dary.  The  gallant  Wicklow  men  had  greatly  aided  their  Wex- 
ford neighbors ;  and  had  other  counties  acted  such  a  noble  part 
English  rule  in  Ireland  would  now  be  a  thing  of  the  past.  ''It 
was  now,"  says  Mr.  Teeling,  ''that  the  Irish  government  be- 
came seriously  alarmed.  They  had  kindled  a  war  in  the  heart 
of  the  country,  and  it  was  doubtful  whether  they  possessed 
the  power  of  extinguishing  it.  The  incessant  marching  and 
countermarching  of  troops,  the  fatigues  they  encountered,  the 
losses  they  sustained,  the  several  posts  they  had  been  forced 
to  abandon,  all  tended  to  lower  that  spirit  with  which  they 
were  animated  on  first  taking  the  field. 

Intemperate  counsels  had  placed  the  country  on  the  brink 
of  ruin,  and  the  more  reflecting  on  both  sides  looked  with 
awful  suspense  to  the  result.  Mr.  Fox,  ever  sensitively  alive 
to  the  honor  of  his  country  and  the  feelings  of  humanity^ 
again  appealed  to  the  British  senate,  and  implored  the  minis- 
ter to  halt  in  his  desperate  career,  and  extend,  ere  it  should 
be  too  late,  the  hand  of  conciliation  to  Ireland. 

"I  hold,"  said  he,  "documents  incontrovertible  which 
show  that  this  sanguinary  contest  has  already  cost  His  Ma- 
jesty's forces  the  loss  of  ten  thousand  men" ;  and,  in  the  name 
of  justice  and  numanity,  he  moved  for  an  inquiry  into  the  state 
of  Ireland.  The  feeling  and  energetic  appeal  of  Mr.  Fox  was 
ineffectual,  and  with  it  the  last  hope  of  reconciliation  fled. 


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CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  BATTLE  OF  ROSS— A  YOUTHFUL  HERO— BRAVERY   OF  AN  IRISH 

WOMAN. 

The  division  of  the  insurgent  army  under  the  immediate 
command  of  General-in-Chief  Bagenal  Harvey,  having  bivou- 
acked for  the  night  of  the  30th  near  Taghmon,  arrived  at  Car- 
rickburn  the  next  day,  where  they  remained  till  the  4th  of 
June,  when  they  set  out  for  Corbet  Hill,  within  a  mile  of 
Ross,  which  town  it  was  decided  should  be  attacked  on  the 
morning  of  the  ensuing  day.  The  insurgent  leaders  decided 
that  a  simultaneous  attack  should  be  made  on  the  town  at 
three  different  points. 

Before  General  Harvey  issued  orders  for  the  assault  he 
despatched  an  aide-de-camp  named  Furlong  with  a  flag  of 
truce  to  summon  the  garrison  to  surrender. 

This  commission  proved  fatal  to  the  bearer,  for  scarce 
had  Furlong  approached  within  view  of  the  outpost,  bearing 
aloft  the  flag  of  truce,  than  he  was  fired  on  by  a  sentinel  and 
fell  mortally  wounded.  In  his  pocket  was  found  the  following 
letter  from  Harvey  to  General  Johnson: 

''Sir— As  a  friend  to  humanity,  I  request  you  will  sur- 
render the  town  of  Ross  to  the  Wexford  forces  now  assembled 
against  that  town.  Your  resistance  will  but  provoke  rapine 
and  plunder,  to  the  ruin  of  the  innocent.  Flushed  with  vic- 
tory, the  Wexford  forces,  now  innumerable  and  irresistible, 
will  not  be  controlled  if  they  meet  with  resistance.  To  pre- 
vent, therefore,  the  total  ruin  of  all  property  in  the  town,  I 
urge  you  to  a  speedy  surrender,  which  you  will  be  forced  to 
in  a  few  hours,  with  loss  and  bloodshed,  as  you  are  surrounded 
on  all  sides.  Your  answer  is  required  in  four  hours.  Mr. 
Furlong  carries  this  letter  and  will  bring  the  answer. 

''I  am,  sir, 
"B.  B.  IKrvey,  General  Commanding-in-Chief. 
**Camp  at  Corbet  Hill,  half  past  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  June  25,  1798." 

This  shooting  of  bearers  of  flags  of  truce  seems  to  have 
been  quite  a  matter  of  course  with  the  military.  It,  however, 
taught  the  insurgents  that  they  should  neither  show  mercy  to, 

187 


188  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

nor  expect  it  from,  sueli  a  faithless  foe,  and  doubtless  led  to 
the  death  of  Lord  Mountjoy  soon  after,  as  he  advanced  before 
his  regiment  with  the  intention  of  parleying  with  them  while 
advancing. 

The  town  of  Ross,  about  to  be  the  scene  of  a  bloody  con- 
test, was  garrisoned  by  about  two  thousand  regular  troops, 
under  the  command  of  General  Johnson,  in  addition  to  which 
large  force  there  were  several  corps  of  yeomanry.  Ross  was 
at  this  time  a  walled  town,  and  the  principal  entrance  from 
the  southern  side  was  by  the  Three-bullet  Gate.  Towards  this 
gate  the  road  by  which  the  insurgents  were  about  to  advance 
led  in  nearly  a  straight  line,  with  a  high  ditch  at  either  side. 
The  fields  extended  to  within  a  few  perches  of  the  wall,  and 
were  enclosed  by  ditches  similar  to  those  which  bounded  the 
road.  General  Johnson,  rightly  judging  that  the  principal  at- 
tack would  be  made  on  this  gate,  had  posted  thereat  a  strong 
force  in  the  most  advantageous  positions  within  and  without, 
while  two  six-pounders  were  planted  so  as  to  pour  their  fire 
ui3on  any  body  of  men  advancing  along  the  road  before  men- 
tioned. Behind  the  ditches  on  either  side  of  the  road,  and  in 
every  other  available  cover,  soldiers  were  placed  to  gall  with 
their  fire  the  expected  assailants.  It  must  be  admitted  that 
to  force  an  entrance  through  a  post  so  well  guarded  was  an 
enterprise  of  no  easy  nature,  but  yet  the  undisciplined  and 
ill-armed  insurgents  undertook  and  effected  the  task. 

All  who  have  written  of  the  eventful  i3eriod  vary  materi- 
ally in  their  accounts  of  the  battle  of  Ross.  Hay,  who  seems  to 
be  at  much  pains  to  obtain  accurate  information,  gives  what 
he,  no  doubt,  believed  to  be  a  correct  account  of  the  engage- 
ment, while  Clooney,  who  took  an  active  part  in  the  affair, 
differs  from  him  in  many  important  particulars.  Both  these 
impartial  writers  concur,  however,  in  stating  that  the  greater 
number  of  the  men  who  formed  the  camp  on  Corbet  Hill  took 
no  i^art  in  the  battle,  and  that  one  of  the  divisional  leaders 
deserted  his  post  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  assault.  It  ap- 
pears that  not  more  than  three  thousand  men  took  part  in 
the  assault,  and  that  great  part  even  of  these  left  before  the 
battle  was  finally  decided.  While  the  insurgents '  officers  were 
marshalling  their  men  as  best  they  could  preparatory  to  the 
attack,  they  were  much  annoyed  and  sustained  some  loss  by 
a  sharp  fire  maintained  by  the  enemy's  outposts.  Seeing  this. 
General  Harvey  ordered  Colonel  Kelly  to  charge,  and  drive 


The  Rising  of  '98  189 

in  these  outposts  with  the  battalion  of  Bantry  men  under  his 
command.  This  order  the  brave  young  colonel  so  well  obeyed 
that  he  drove  them  before  him  in  confusion  to  the  very  walls 
of  the  town.  Kelly  found  it  much  easier  to  lead  his  men  to 
the  charge  than  to  withdraw  them  from  it,  and  they  were 
soon  hotly  engaged  with  the  defenders  of  the  gate.  Clooney, 
who  had  commanded  a  similar  battalion  of  Bantry  men,  and 
had  been  ordered  by  Harvey  to  support  Kelly,  now  rushed 
forward  to  join  in  the  fray.  The  main  body  of  the  insurgents, 
seeing  their  comrades  in  actual  conflict  with  the  enemy  could 
no  longer  be  restrained,  and,  despite  the  efforts  of  their 
leaders,  poured  down  swiftly  towards  the  scene  of  strife.  This 
ardor,  so  natural  in  undisciplined  men,  entirely  disconcerted 
the  original  plan  of  assault.  The  entire  battle  was  now  fought 
between  the  defenders  of  the  gate  and  their  assailants.  From 
the  gates,  from  the  walls,  and  from  the  ditches,  the  military 
13oured  a  close  and  terrible  fire  on  the  fierce  assailants,  who, 
though  thy  fell  in  great  numbers  under  a  withering  fire,  still 
kept  rushing  forward  with  matchless  intrepidity  to  supply 
the  place  of  their  fallen  comrades. 

Even  those  who  write  in  the  bitterest  spirit  of  hostility  to 
the  insurgents,  speak  of  their  conduct  on  this  occasion  in  the 
following  terms:  ''Such  was  their  enthusiasm  that,  though 
whole  ranks  of  men  were  seen  to  fall,  they  were  succeeded 
by  others,  who  seemed  to  court  the  fate  of  their  companions 
by  rushing  on  our  troops  with  renovated  ardor."  (Sir  Rich- 
ard Musgrave.) 

An  English  officer,  forced  into  an  involuntary  admiration 
of  the  reckless  bravery  with  which  those  devoted  people 
fought,  exclaimed,  "that  the  devils  out  of  hell  could  not  resist 
them!"  After  half  an  hour  of  this  desperate  fighting  the 
soldiery  began  to  fall  back  inside  the  gate,  while  their  assail- 
ants took  possession  of  the  barracks,  which  stood  a  short  dis- 
tance from  the  wall.  Here  it  was  that  the  young  hero.  Colonel 
Kelly,  was  disabled  by  a  shot  in  the  thigh.  At  this  period  of 
the  fight  a  strong  squadron  of  the  Fifth  Dragoon  Guards  made 
a  sally  from  the  town  by  a  lane,  hoping  to  take  the  insurgents 
in  the  rear.  This,  however,  they  failed  to  do,  and  were  them- 
selves charged  by  the  fierce  pikemen,  who  in  a  few  minutes 
slew  twenty-eight  of  their  number,  together  with  their  cor- 
net, Dodwell.  An  amazon  named  Doyle,  who  marched  with 
the  insurgent  army  and  bore  herself  as  gallantly  as  the  most 


190  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

courageous  man,  now  made  herself  useful  by  cutting  off  with 
a  billhook  the  crossbelts  of  the  fallen  dragoons,  and  handing 
them,  together  with  the  cartouche  boxes,  to  her  comrades. 

The  insurgents  having  by  this  time  won  the  gate,  General 
Johnson  judged  it  time  to  sound  a  retreat,  which  signal  was 
obeyed  by  his  troops  with  more  speed  than  dignity,  while  their 
successful  opponents,  with  shouts  of  triumph,  poured  into  the 
town  for  whose  possession  they  had  so  bravely  contended. 

Though  General  Johnson,  with  the  main  body  of  his  troops, 
had  evacuated  the  town,  yet  the  insurgents  could  not  be  con- 
sidered complete  masters  of  it,  for  the  main  guard  of  the  hos- 
tile army,  with  two  swivel  guns,  still  kept  possession  of  the 
market  place,  while  Major  Vandeleur,  with  the  Clare  Militia, 
still  maintained  his  ground  at  a  suburb  called  Irishtown.  Great 
numbers  of  the  insurgents  were  now  dispersed  throughout 
the  town  in  search  of  some  refreshments,  which  they  sorely 
needed. 

Some  writers  assert  that  on  this  occasion  the  peasantry 
gave  way  to  intemperance,  and  thereby  lost  the  battle;  but 
their  fault,  in  this  particular,  has  been  greatly  exaggerated, 
and  it  is  clear  that  the  subsequent  loss  of  the  town  was  not 
wholly  owing  to  intemperance.  Many  of  the  peasantry  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  attack  upon  the  town  had  already  de- 
parted for  their  homes,  great  numbers  of  the  bravest  men 
had  been  slain,  and  those  that  remained  in  partial  possession 
of  the  town  were  well  nigh  exhausted  by  continual  exertion, 
that  loroved  too  much  even  for  their  hardy,  vigorous  frames. 

The  town  remained  in  possession  of  its  new  masters  for 
some  four  hours.  During  this  time  Colonel  S.  Clooney  col- 
lected all  the  men  he  could  to  follow  him  (and,  strange  to  say, 
he  could  not  find  more  than  forty),  and  led  them  first  to  dis- 
lodge the  guard  that  still  kept  possession  of  the  market-place ; 
but  he  was  received  with  so  hot  a  fire  from  the  men  that  held 
the  building,  that  he  was  forced  to  retreat.  Foiled  in  this  at- 
tempt, the  same  brave  and  energetic  chief  proceeded,  with 
his  small  body  of  men,  to  drive  the  Clare  Militia  from  their 
position  at  Irishtown. 

This  was  evidently  an  enterprise  of  a  desperate  nature, 
but  Clooney,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  extraordinary 
daring,  did  not  seem  to  think  so.  He  led  his  handful  of  weary 
men  across  two  fields,  all  the  while  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the 
enemy,  but  naively  confesses  that  he  could  not  get  them  to 


The  Rising  of  '08  191 

mount  a  ditch  that  separated  them  from  their  far  more  numer- 
ous foes. 

Meantime  General  Jolmson,  who,  with  the  main  body  of 
his  army,  had  been  compelled,  as  we  have  seen,  to  beat  a 
liasty  retreat  from  the  town,  finding  himself  unmolested  in 
his  retreat,  altered  his  previous  determination  of  altogether 
abandoning  the  jDlace  to  the  insurgents,  and  resolved  to  make 
a  final  effort  to  regain  possession  of  it.  The  County  of  Dublin 
Militia,  burning  to  avenge  the  death  of  their  colonel.  Lord 
Mountjoy,  led  the  advance.  The  result  might  have  been  antici- 
pated; they  found  their  enemies  dispersed  through  the  town, 
unprepared  for  the  attack,  and  succeeded  in  driving  them 
out.  The  insurgents,  whom  defeat  had  once  more  united,  soon 
renewed  the  attack  with  marvellous  courage.  Once  more  these 
dauntless  men  rushed  upon  their  disciplined  foes  and,  de- 
sj3ite  the  fearful  carnage  made  in  their  ranks  by  the  terrible 
fire  poured  upon  them,  they  charged,  jDike  in  hand,  to  the  very 
muzzle  of  the  musket  and  the  mouth  of  the  cannon,  and  drove 
the  soldiery  in  precipitate  flight  from  the  town. 

Hay  states  that  on  this  occasion,  as  on  that  of  their  pre- 
vious success,  the  victorious  insurgents  indulged  in  intemper- 
ance. But  this  statement  must  be  regarded  as  at  least  doubt 
ful,  and  the  victory  finally  won  by  the  king's  troops  must  be 
attributed  to  the  havoc  made  in  the  insurgent  ranks  by  the 
long-continued  fire  of  the  artillery  and  musketry. 

Soon  after  this  repulse  the  troops  returned  once  more  to 
the  assault,  and  the  victory  crowned  their  persevering  brav- 
ery. After  an  almost  continuous  fight  of  thirteen  hours'  dura- 
tion, victory  finally  rested  upon  the  royal  standard.  This  con- 
test, though  it  may  be  deemed  inconsiderable  with  regard  to 
the  numbers  therein  engaged,  has  never  been  surpassed  in  the 
annals  of  war  for  the  bravery  and  determination  displayed  by 
the  combatants  on  both  sides.  Clooney,  who  is  a  truthful  and 
impartial  writer,  estimates  the  loss  of  both  contending  hosts 
to  have  been  nearly  equal,  that  is,  about  three  hundred  killed 
and  five  hundred  wounded  on  either  side.  As  for  the  ac- 
counts given  by  such  writers  as  were  professed  partisans  of 
the  government  they  are  utterly  unworthy  of  credit,  as  they 
are  proved  to  have  been  guilty  of  systematic  and  deliberate 
falsehood  and  exaggeration. 

I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  Mr.  Clooney,  in  his  desire  not 
to  exaggerate,  greatly  underrates  the  loss  sustained  in  this 


192  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

action.  Taking  Into  aecoiint  the  fierceness  of  the  struggle  and 
its  duration,  it  is  impossible  to  place  it  so  low.  Sir  Jonah 
Barrington  estimates  the  loss  on  both  sides  to  have  been  far 
greater,  and  is  of  opinion  that  upwards  of  5,000  men  were 
either  killed  or  consumed  by  the  conflagration.  The  same 
author  relates  a  singular  incident  that  occurred  during  the 
battle:  The  insurgents  were  on  the  point  of  being  finally 
repulsed,  when  a  young  gentleman  of  thirteen  years  of  age, 
from  the  town  of  Wexford,  of  the  resi3ectable  family  of  Lett, 
in  that  town,  who  had  stolen  away  from  his  mother  and  joined 
General  Harvey  on  Corbet  Hill,  saw  the  disorder  of  the  men 
and  the  incapacity  of  their  leaders,  and  with  a  boyish  impulse 
he  snatched  up  a  standard,  and,  calling  out,  ' '  Follow  me  who 
dare!"  rushed  down  the  hill,  two  or  three  thousand  pikemen 
rapidly  following  him  in  a  tumultuous  crowd,  and  uttering  the 
most  appalling  cries.  In  a  moment  he  was  at  the  gate,  rallied 
his  party,  and  with  his  reinforcement,  rushed  upon  the  garri- 
son, who,  fatigued  and  astonished  at  the  renewed  vigor  of 
their  enemy,  were  again  borne  down  and  compelled,  with 
much  loss,  fighting  step  by  step,  to  retire  towards  the  bridge. 

This  was,  perhaps,  the  most  important  engagement  of  the 
entire  insurrection,  and  had  the  insurgents  succeeded,  the 
final  event  might  have  been  far  different.  General  Harvey 
now  ordered  a  retreat  to  be  sounded,  and  the  dispirited  in- 
surgents marched  off  to  their  former  encampment  on  Car- 
rickburn,  unmolested  in  their  retreat  by  the  enemy,  who  were 
content  with  the  success  they  had  achieved.  The  intrepid 
woman,  Doyle,  before  mentioned,  seeing  the  insurgents  about 
to  quit  the  scene  of  their  late  combat,  and  leave  a  gun  they 
had  brought  with  them  behind,  seated  herself  upon  it,  and 
spiritedly  declared  that  if  ' '  they  did  not  bring  her  dear  little 
gun  with  them  she  would  remain  behind  also  at  all  risks." 
Ashamed  not  to  comply  with  the  request  of  the  heroine,  some 
of  the  weary  men  gave  her  their  aid  in  conveying  away  her 
strange  favorite. 

AVe  must  now  proceed  unwillingly  to  record  a  deed  of 
savage  cruelty  perpetrated  by  some  of  the  dastardly  runa- 
ways from  the  battle  of  Ross.  That  the  brave  men  who  took 
part  in  that  combat  had  no  share  in  the  savage  deed  is  dis- 
tinctly stated  by  Clooney.  Alas!  that  such  recreants  had 
power  to  stain  the  otherwise  unblemished  laurels  of  the  brave 
insurgents  of  Wexford. 


The  Rising  of  '98  108 

The  burning  of  Scullabogue  has  often  been  cited  as  an  in- 
stance of  fiendish  cruelty.  We  seek  not  to  paint  it  otherwise. 
If  it  proves  anything,  it  is  that  there  were  men  amongst  the 
insurgents  as  cruel  and  cowardly  as  amongst  their  enemies, 
but  their  number  must  have  been  far  smaller  in  proportion, 
nor  do  we  find  that  the  insurgent  leaders  encouraged  their 
followers  to  the  i^erpetration  of  such  excesses,  but  on  the  con- 
trary, that  they  did  all  in  their  power  to  prevent  them.  Can 
the  apologists  or  panegyrists  of  the  English  soldiery  or  of 
their  more  savage  allies  say  with  truth  as  much  in  their  de- 
fense? For  one  black  deed  such  as  the  one  now  referred  to, 
we  can  cite  hundreds  perjDetrated  by  the  partisans  of  English 
rule,  not  in  the  madness  of  passion  but  with  cold-blooded  de- 
liberation. For  instance,  the  insurgent  depot  of  wounded 
men  burned  in  New  Koss  by  the  military,  the  insurgent  hos- 
pital at  Enniscorthy  by  the  yeoman  and  the  murder  by  the  mi- 
litia and  yeomanry  of  the  sick  and  wounded  insurgents  in  the 
hospital  of  Wexford,  when  the  royalists  took  possession  of 
that  town.  An  entire  chapter  might  be  filled  with  instances  of 
similar  ruthless  deeds  perpetrated  by  military,  militia  and 
yeomanry. 

We  must  now  proceed  to  describe  what  occurred  at  Sculla- 
bogue. Before  the  insurgents  marched  to  the  attack  in  Ross, 
they  despatched  their  prisoners,  to  the  number  of  about  one 
hundred,  to  be  confined  in  the  barn  of  Scullabogue  House,  at 
the  foot  of  Carrickburn,  and  there  stationed  a  guard  over 
them.  Of  these  prisoners  we  may  mention  that  some  twenty 
were  Catholics,  and  when  we  say  that  the  remainder  were 
Protestants,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  majority  of  per- 
sons professing  Protestantism  had  manifested  by  every  means 
in  their  power  the  bitterest  hostilit}^  to  their  insurgent  coun- 
trymen in  their  desperate  struggle  for  liberty,  so  that  they 
were  confined,  not  as  Protestants,  but  as  persons  who  in  a  life 
and  death  struggle  had  ranged  themselves  under  a  hostile 
standard.  While  the  battle  was  raging  at  Ross,  runaways 
from  both  armies  filled  the  country  around  with  the  most 
contradictory  rumors.  At  length  it  was  known  that  the  day 
had  gone  against  the  insurgents.  The  minds  of  the  people 
were  much  inflamed  by  the  account  of  the  shooting  of  the 
bearer  of  the  flag  of  truce,  the  burning  of  houses  with  their 
inmates,  and  the  indiscriminate  slaughter  by  the  soldiery. 

Popular  fury  is  wild  and  unreasoning,  and  destructive  in 


104  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

its  course  as  a  hurricane,  and  only  requires  an  object  on 
which  to  wreak  its  vengeance ;  in  this  instance,  unhappily,  the 
object  was  at  hand— the  unfortunate  prisoners  in  the  barn  at 
Scullabogue.  Thither  rushed  an  infuriated  crowd,  composed 
mainly  of  runaways  from  the  battle  of  Ross,  and  others  who 
were  driven  by  a  thirst  for  vengeance  for  their  own  wrongs 
to  take  part  in  the  cruel  deed  which  ensued.  In  vain  Murphy, 
the  captain  of  the  guard,  resisted  at  the  peril  of  his  own  life- 
he  and  his  men  were  fiercely  thrust  aside,  and  fuel  was  im- 
mediately applied  to  the  walls  of  the  barn.  In  vain  did  the 
victims  endeavor  to  escape ;  they  came  forth  from  the  burning 
fabric  but  to  fall  hj  the  pikes  of  the  savage  mob.  Those  who 
remained  within  screamed  and  imjDlored  mercy  in  piteous  ac- 
cents. But  why  prolong  the  description  of  such  a  revolting 
scene  1  The  barn  with  all  the  unfortunate  beings  it  contained, 
was  consumed  in  the  flames.  Their  terrible  revenge  being 
accomplished,  the  murderers  dispersed.  The  brave  men  who 
had  fought  at  Ross  heard  on  their  return  to  Carrickburn  with 
horror  and  regret  of  this  detestable  act  of  cruelty,  and  with- 
out a  doubt  had  they  then  discovered  the  murderers  they 
would  have  inflicted  on  them  such  punishment  as  they  de- 
served. 

Of  this  horrid  transaction  Mr.  Plowden  discourses  as  fol- 
lows: "Bloody  as  was  the  carnage  at  New  Ross,  where  the 
rebels  were  said  to  have  lost  between  two  and  three  thousand 
men,  the  horrors  of  that  scene  vanish  before  the  inhuman  mas- 
sacre of  a  number  of  unfortunate  prisoners,  men,  women  and 
children,  mostly  Protestants,  burned  to  death  in  a  barn  at 
Scullabogue  on  the  evening  of  that  same  day.  Scullabogue 
House,  which  is  the  property  of  a  Mr.  Kind,  was  situated  at 
the  foot  of  Carrickburn  Mountain.  When  the  rebel  army 
marched  to  Corbet  Hill,  their  prisoners  had  been  left  under 
a  guard,  commanded  by  John  Murphy,  of  Longhnaghur.  The 
runaways  declared  that  the  royal  army  in  Ross  were  shooting 
all  the  prisoners,  and  butchering  the  Catholics  who  had  fallen 
into  their  hands,  and  feigned  an  order  from  Harvey  for  the 
execution  of  those  at  Scullabogue.  This  order  which  Harvey, 
himself  a  Protestant,  and  a  man  of  humanity,  was  utterly  in- 
capable of  giving,  Murphy  is  said  to  have  resisted,  but  his 
resistance  was  in  vain.  Thirty-seven  were  shot  and  piked 
at  the  hall-door;  and  the  rest,  one  hundred  and  eighty- four 
in  number,  according  to  report,  crammed  into  a  barn,  were 


The  RisiNfi  of  'OS  195 

burned  alive,  the  roof  being  fired,  and  straw  thrown  into  the 
flames  to  feed  the  conflagration." 

In  tlie  same  year  in  which  the  above  detailed  massacre  was 
enacted,  a  gentleman  named  Frizel,  who  was  amongst  the 
prisoners,  was  examined  at  the  Bar  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons concerning  the  affair.  He  was  asked  every  question  that 
could  be  suggested  relative  to  the  massacre,  to  which  his 
answers  were  substantially  as  follows:  *'That  having  been 
taken  prisoner  by  a  party  of  the  rebels,  he  was  confined  to  a 
room  on  the  ground  floor  in  Scullabogue  House,  with  twenty 
or  thirty  other  persons ;  that  a  rebel  guard  with  a  pike  stood 
near  the  window,  with  whom  he  conversed ;  that  persons  were 
frequently  called  out  of  the  room  in  which  we  was,  by  name, 
and  he  believes  were  soon  after  shot,  as  he  heard  the  report  of 
muskets  shortly  after  they  had  been  called  out;  and  that  he 
understood  that  many  were  burned  in  the  barn,  the  smoke  of 
which  he  could  discover  from  the  window;  that  the  sentinel 
pikeman  assured  him  that  they  would  not  hurt  a  hair  of  his 
head,  as  he  was  always  known  to  have  behaved  well  to  the 
poor;  that  he  did  not  know  of  his  own  knowledge,  but  only 
from  the  reports  current  amongst  the  prisoners  what  the  par- 
ticular cause  was  for  which  the  rebels  had  set  fire  to  the  barn." 
Upon  which  Mr.  Ogle  rose  with  precipitancy  from  his  seat, 
and  put  this  question  to  him  with  great  eagerness :  ' '  Sir,  tell 
us  what  the  cause  was!" 

It  having  been  suggested  that  the  question  would  be  more 
regularly  put  from  the  chair,  it  was  repeated  to  him  in  that 
form,  and  Mr.  Frizel  answered,  that  the  only  cause  he,  or  he 
believed  the  other  prisoners,  ever  understood  induced  the 
rebels  to  this  action  was,  that  they  had  received  intelligence 
that  the  military  were  again  putting  all  the  rebel  prisoners  to 
death  in  the  town  of  Ross  as  they  had  done  at  Dunlavin  and 
Carlow.  Mr.  Ogle  asked  no  more  questions  of  Mr.  Frizel,  and 
he  was  soon  afterwards  dismissed  from  the  bar. 

With  a  view  to  putting  a  stop  to  any  repetition  of  such 
disgraceful  and  barbarous  deeds,  General  Harvey  immedi- 
ately issued  a  proclamation,  in  which  he  threatened  death  to 
all  who  should,  under  any  pretext,  be  guilty  of  outrages  to 
person  or  property.    This  proclamation  was  as  follows : 

''At  a  meeting  of  the  general  and  several  officers  of  the 
united  army  of  the  county  of  Wexford,  the  following  resolu- 
tions were  agreed  upon: 


190  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

"Eesolved,  That  the  commander-in-chief  shall  send  guards 
to  certain  baronies,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  in  all  men 
they  shall  find  loitering  and  delaying  at  home,  or  elsewhere; 
and  that  if  any  resistance  be  given  to  those  guards  so  to  be 
sent  by  the  commanding  officer's  orders,  it  is  our  desire  and 
orders  that  such  persons  so  giving  resistance  shall  be  liable 
to  be  put  to  death  by  the  guards  who  are  to  bear  a  commission 
for  that  purpose;  and  all  such  persons  found  to  be  loitering 
and  delaying  at  home,  when  brought  in  by  the  guards,  shall 
be  tried  by  courtmartial,  appointed  and  chosen  from  among 
the  commanders  of  all  the  different  corps,  and  be  punished 
with  death. 

''Eesolved,  That  all  officers  shall  immediately  repair  to 
their  respective  quarters,  and  remain  with  their  different 
corps,  and  not  depart  therefrom  under  pain  of  death,  unless 
authorized  to  quit  by  written  orders  from  the  commander-in- 
chief  for  that  purpose.  It  is  also  ordered  that  a  guard  shall 
be  kept  in  the  rear  of  the  different  armies,  with  orders  to  shoot 
all  persons  who  shall  fly  or  desert  from  any  engagement,  and 
that  these  orders  shall  be  taken  notice  of  by  all  officers  com- 
manding in  such  engagement.  All  men  refusing  to  obey  their 
superior  officers,  to  be  tried  by  courtmartial  and  punished  ac- 
cording to  their  sentence.  It  is  also  ordered  that  all  men  who 
shall  attempt  to  leave  their  respective  quarters  where  they 
have  been  halted  by  the  commander-in-chief,  shall  suffer 
death,  unless  they  shall  have  leave  from  their  officers  for  so 
doing.  It  is  ordered  by  the  commander-in-chief,  that  all  per- 
sons who  have  stolen  or  taken  away  any  horse  or  horses,  shall 
immediately  bring  in  such  horses  to  the  camp,  at  headquar- 
ters, otherwise  for  any  horse  that  shall  be  seen  or  found  in 
the  possession  of  any  person  to  whom  he  does  not  belong,  that 
person  shall,  on  being  convicted  thereof,  suffer  death.  And 
any  goods  that  shall  have  been  plundered  from  any  house,  if 
not  brought  into  headquarters,  or  returned  immediately  to 
the  houses  or  owners,  that  all  persons  so  plundering  as  afore- 
said, shall,  on  being  convicted  thereof,  suffer  death. 

"It  is  also  resolved,  that  any  person  or  persons  who  shall 
take  upon  them  to  kill  or  murder  any  person  or  persons,  or 
burn  any  house,  or  commit  any  plunder,  without  special  writ- 
ten orders  from  the  commander-in-chief,  shall  suffer  death. 

By  order  of,        ''B.  B.  Harvey,  Commander-in-Chief. 

''Francis  Breen,  Sec.  and  Adj. 

''Headquarters,  Carrickbyrne,  Camp,  June  6,  1798." 


The  Rising  of  '98 


197 


In  Wexford  town  a  similar  proclamation  was  issued  about 
the  same  time. 

The  above  given  proclamation  was  the  last  issued  by 
Bageual  Harvey,  for  there  were  loud  murmurs  against  him 
arising  from  his  conduct  at  the  battle  of  Ross.  He  soon  after 
resigned  his  command  and  was  succeeded  therein  by  the  Rev. 
General  Philip  Roche. 

On  the  third  day  after  the  disastrous  battle  of  Ross,  the 
insurgents  quitted  Carrickburn  Hill,  and  proceeded  to  that  of 
Slieve  Kielter,  near  which  eminence  flows  the  river  Barrow. 
On  the  first  day  of  their  encampment  on  this  hill,  they  captured 
a  gunboat  which,  with  two  others  that  escaped,  was  on  its 
way  to  Waterford.  On  board  they  found,  amongst  other 
things,  despatches  from  military  officers  concerning  various 
engagements  that  had  taken  place  between  the  insurgents  and 
the  King's  troops.  These  reports  were  found,  on  examination, 
exaggerated  and  one-sided  in  the  extreme— the  loss  of  the  in- 
surgents in  every  engagement  was  enormously  exaggerated, 
and  that  of  the  royal  troops  proportionately  diminished.  Our 
readers  may  judge  of  the  value  of  such  histories,  such  as  Mus- 
grave's  and  Maxwell's,  compiled  from  such  truthful  docu- 
ments. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

LACK  OF  PROVISIONS— LEARNING  TO  ACQUIRE  MILITARY  DISCIPLINE 

—THE  PIKE  MEN. 

The  second  division  of  the  insurgent  army,  by  whom  Gen- 
erals Walpole  and  Loftus  had  been  so  signally  defeated,  re- 
mained during  the  5th  and  6th  of  June  in  their  encampment  on 
Gorey  Hill,  employing  this  interval  of  comparative  repose  in 
acquiring  further  knowledge  of  military  movements,  and  in 
sending  out  reconnoitering  parties  to  ascertain  the  move- 
ments of  the  enemy,  or  in  procuring  such  provisions  as  were 
necessary  for  the  sustenance  of  their  numerous  army,  which 
this  time  amounted  to  about  fifteen  thousand  men.  The  lat- 
ter task  they  found  a  rather  arduous  one,  for  the  hordes  of 
Orangemen,  corps  of  yeomanry,  and  bodies  of  regular  troops, 
had  subsisted  at  the  cost  of  the  unfortunate  people  for  months ; 
and  not  content  with  taking  by  force  what  they  required,  they 
wantonly  destroyed  what  they  could  not  use.  Under  these 
circumstances  the  requisitionists  from  the  insurgent  camp 
found  it  extremely  difficult  to  obtain  the  necessary  supplies. 
It  was  in  one  of  these  forays  that  the  house  of  Hunter  Gowan, 
of  infamous  memory,  was  burned— an  inadequate  retaliation, 
indeed,  for  the  fiendish  deeds  of  cruelty  perpetrated  by  the 
inhuman  villain.  At  length  the  insurgent  chiefs  deemed  the 
time  was  come  when  the  attack  on  Carnew  should  be  made, 
and,  accordingly,  they  left  their  camp  on  Gorey  Hill,  and  di- 
rected their  march  toward  that  town  on  the  7th,  about  mid- 
day. 

Towards  evening,  the  insurgents  drew  near  Carnew,  and 
encamped  on  Kilcavan  Hill,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  town.  This 
march  on  Carnew  had  been  made  to  satisfy  the  people  of  that 
town  and  the  surrounding  neighborhood,  who  had  suffered 
extremely  from  the  cruelty  of  their  enemies,  who  had  long 
trampled  on  them  without  mercy,  till,  driven  to  madness  by 
their  unprovoked  wrongs,  they  breathed  nothing  but  a  spirit 
of  revenge  and  retaliation. 

This  spirit  manifested  itself  in  the  burning  of  the  houses 
of  their  persecutors,  and  as  Carnew  was  mainly  inhabited  by 
Orangemen,  it  was  in  a  great  measure  destroyed.    Yet,  ex- 

199 


200  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

traordinary  to  relate,  tliougli  the  oppressed  inhabitants  of 
Carnew  had  now  many  of  their  enemies  completely  in  their 
power,  it  does  not  appear  that  any  of  them  suffered  death  at 
their  hands.  This,  under  the  circumstances,  was  a  marvellous 
instance  of  forbearance,  considering  the  cruel  wrongs  they  had 
sustained.  Some,  however,  of  the  Orange  inhabitants  were 
detained  as  hostages,  with  the  intention  of  exchanging  them 
for  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  yeomanry.  In  the  meantime, 
General  Loftus,  having  heard  of  the  intended  advance  of  the 
insurgents  on  Carnew,  had  marched  out  of  the  town,  and  has- 
tened to  shut  himself  up  in  TuUow,  where  he  thought  himself 
at  a  secure  distance  from  a  foe  he  had  now  been  taught  to 
dread. 

The  English  general  could  well  estimate  the  advantage  of 
fighting  behind  trenches,  where  he  could  use  musket  and  can- 
non against  men  whose  chief  arm  was  the  jiike.  The  unwel- 
come tidings  having  reached  the  camp  on  Kilcavan  Hill  that 
the  town  of  Arklow  had  been  occupied  by  the  royal  troops  in 
great  force,  it  was  forthwith  determined  by  the  insurgents  to 
return  to  their  former  position  on  Gorey  Hill,  and  there  pre- 
pare for  an  attack  on  the  retaken  town. 

The  insurgents  rightly  deemed  that  the  crisis  in  their  for- 
tunes had  arrived,  and  that  to  drive  the  formidable  force  of 
English  troops  out  of  Arklow  would  task  their  utmost  ener- 
gies, sadly  deficient  as  they  were  in  some  of  the  chief  requi- 
sites for  the  undertaking.  They  had  numbers  of  brave  men,  it 
is  true,  but  the  greater  part  of  them  were  armed  with  a  weapon 
that,  though  unequaled  in  close  fight,  was  of  little  use  against 
an  army  who  fought  from  behind  an  entrenched  position.  The 
artillery  of  the  insurgents  was  insignificant,  both  as  to  the 
number  of  pieces  and  their  calibre,  and,  though  useful  against 
an  enemy  in  the  open  field,  proved  inefficient  when  the  latter 
took  refuge  behind  stone  walls  or  earthen  entrenchments.  In 
addition  to  the  serious  disadvantages,  the  amunition  for  the 
few  smaller  firearms  in  the  possession  of  the  insurgents  was 
well-nigh  exhausted,  and  they  had  no  means  of  obtaining  a 
sufficient  supply.  This  was  but  partially  supplied  by  the  ar- 
rival of  a  small  barrel  of  powder  from  Wexford,  sent  witli 
great  reluctance,  the  inhabitants  affirming  that  it  was  needed 
for  the  defence  of  the  town. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  insurgents  were  but  poorly 
provided  with  every  munition  of  war,  and  notwithstanding, 


The  Rising  of  '98  201 

relying  on  their  own  dauntless  courage,  they  resolved  to  con- 
tinue the  contest.  The  continued  success  that  had  hitherto 
attended  their  army  must  be  attributed  in  a  great  measure  to 
the  excellent  qualities  of  the  gallant  men  who  led  them  to 
fight.  Amongst  those  may  be  mentioned  Anthony  Perry,  Es- 
mond Kyan,  together  with  the  heroic  and  faithful  priests, 
Fathers  John  and  Michael  Murphy. 

Father  John  continued  to  be  the  idol  of  the  brave  men 
whom  he  led,  and  who  admired  in  him  the  perfection  of  their 
own  courage— always  fighting  in  the  foremost  ranks,  ever 
ready  to  cheer  and  rally  those  who  wavered  in  the  fight,  skil- 
ful and  cool  after  the  battle  to  improve  the  victory,  kind  to 
console  and  warm  with  his  own  heroic  ardor  the  humblest  of 
his  followers  when  their  spirits,  less  lofty  and  less  firm  than 
his,  drooj^ed  under  the  calamities  of  unequal  war. 

His  matchless  daring  excited  the  admiration  even  of  the 
bravest.  The  men  fought  like  lions  in  his  presence,  and  see- 
ing him  fearlessly  exposing  himself  where  danger  was  most 
rife,  they  were  emulous  of  imitating  a  leader  who  evinced  such 
a  noble  contempt  for  the  perils  of  the  fight. 

But  mere  personal  bravery,  however  great,  either  in  the 
chiefs  or  those  they  led,  could  not  fully  compensate  for  the 
lack  of  military  discipline.  It  is  unity  of  action  and  con- 
centration of  power  that  form  the  strength  of  an  army.  This 
truth  was  keenly  felt  by  the  insurgents.  To  acquire  this  chief 
element  of  power,  they  had  from  the  outset  directed  their  ef- 
forts. To  this  end  they  conducted  as  closely  as  they  could 
the  order  observed  by  regular  troops,  forming  themselves 
into  companies  and  regiments,  appointing  their  captains,  col- 
onels, and  generals,  holding  councils  of  war  before  undertak- 
ing any  important  enterprise,  and  posting  sentinels  around 
their  camps. 

As  the  insurrection  went  on  the  recruits  they  received 
from  the  yeomanry  and  militia  enabled  them  to  make  a  more 
rapid  advance  towards  acquiring  the  discipline  they  sought. 

All  the  time  not  engaged  in  actual  combat  was  devoted  to 
the  practice  of  military  manoeuvres.  The  intelligent  peas- 
antry showed  remarkable  capacity  for  profiting  by  the  instruc- 
tions they  received,  so  that  after  a  short  while  they  were  able 
to  perform,  though  in  an  imperfect  fashion,  the  ordinary  mili- 
tary evolutions. 

In  consequence,  we  find  them  every  day  more  capable  of 
coping  with  their  disciplined  enemies. 


202  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

In  one  instance  we  see  them  maintaining  for  several  hours 
a  fight  with  a  superior  number  of  royal  troops  under  a  brave 
and  able  general,  and  retiring  unpursued  when  their  ammuni- 
tion was  exhausted.  From  these  facts  it  is  plain  that  to  drive 
a  brave  people  into  insurrection  is  a  dangerous  experiment  for 
any  Government  to  make ;  for  every  day  of  continued  warfare 
renders  the  insurgents  more  capable  of  contending  with  regu- 
lar troops,  giving  them  confidence  in  their  own  strength  and 
skill  in  the  use  of  arms. 

This  was  so  evident  during  the  contest  in  Wexford  that 
many  persons  competent  to  form  a  correct  opinion  on  the  mat- 
ter did  not  hesitate  to  afl&rm  that  had  the  rest  of  Ireland  af- 
forded any  assistance  to  the  Wexford  men,  the  Government 
would  have  found  it  impossible  to  quell  the  insurrection.  The 
greatest  obstacle  to  their  success  was  the  lack  of  gunpowder, 
which  they  did  not  manufacture. 

The  greatest  number  of  the  bravest  and  most  efficient 
men  in  the  insurgent  army  were  farmers  or  their  sons,  who, 
being  keen  sportsmen,  were  consequently  good  marksmen. 
Many  of  these  were  provided  with  the  long  guns  used  in 
fowling  upon  the  Slaney,  excellent  weapons,  which  sent  a 
bullet  farther  than  the  muskets  of  the  soldiery.  The  num- 
ber of  insurgents,  however,  who  were  furnished  with  firearms 
of  any  description  was  small  compared  with  that  of  those 
men  whose  only  weapon  was  the  pike.  But  this  weapon, 
though  excellent,  was  useless  save  in  a  close  fight.  Then, 
indeed,  it  was  irresistible.  No  force  of  cavalry  could  break 
a  square  of  embattled  pikemen,  nor  could  anybody  of  horse 
or  foot  long  withstand  the  shock  of  their  headlong  onset. 

A  sharpened  hook  on  one  side  of  the  pike  blade  was  used 
in  cutting  the  bridle  of  the  cavalry  soldier,  and  this  once 
severed,  his  horse  became  unmanageable  and  he  himself  com- 
pletely at  the  mercy  of  his  opponent.  The  author  was  in- 
formed by  an  old  insurgent  who  had  fought  at  Vinegar  Hill, 
Oulart,  and  Arklow,  that  all  the  pikemen  required  was  **to  get 
at  the  soldiery." 

But  this  was  the  difficulty.  To  advance  in  the  face  of  a 
body  of  soldiery  pouring  in  amongst  them  a  destructive  fire, 
to  which  they  could  not  reply,  would  be  wanton  loss  of  life, 
and  was  in  consequence  a  course  rarely  adopted  by  the  in- 
surgents save  when  the  lack  of  ammunition  left  them  no 
alternative. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MORE  ABOUT  THE  ORANGEMEN  AND  THEIR  ATROCITIES— LIBERALITY 
OF  THE  CATHOLICS— SEVERE  MEASURES  AT  VINEGAR  HILL. 

Wexford  county  was  now  the  scene  of  a  war  which,  con- 
sidering the  numbers  engaged,  and  the  fierceness  wherewith 
it  was  waged,  was  altogether  disproportionate  to  its  narrow 
area.  The  royal  troops  within  the  limits  of  this  one  county 
could  not  have  amounted  to  less  than  90,000  men,  including 
the  yeomanry,  whose  large  force  was  being  every  day  aug- 
mented, while  the  peasantry  who  bore  arms  of  any  sort  did 
not  amount  to  more  than  30,000  men.  On  one  side  was  dis- 
cipline and  almost  unlimited  resources,  on  the  other  side  was 
seen  only  the  desperate  bravery  of  the  men  who  fought  for 
life  and  freedom.  It  had  now  become  a  struggle  for  victory, 
or  death— success  or  utter  destruction  between  the  contend- 
ing parties.  Scenes  of  bloodshed  and  cruelty  continually  ex- 
hibited were  beginning  to  work  their  effect  on  the  minds  of 
the  people,  who,  seeing  that  when  vanquished  they  received 
no  mercy  at  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  resolved  on  their  part  to 
show  none. 

In  the  school  of  bloodshed  Orangemen  were  the  principal 
masters,  and  against  them  the  popular  vengeance  was  chiefly 
directed.  From  the  many  deeds  of  cruelty  and  constant  re- 
taliation we  may  cite  the  following,  which  are  well  authenti- 
cated : 

When  the  insurgents  obtained  possession  of  Enniscorthy, 
they  found  the  dead  body  of  a  drummer  of  the  North  Cork 
Militia  hanging  in  the  lodgings  of  a  Mr.  Hancock,  a  Protest- 
tant  minister  and  a  magistrate,  and  having  learned,  on  in- 
quiry, that  he  had  been  put  to  death  by  the  Orangemen  for 
refusing  to  join  in  playing  certain  offensive  party  tunes,  they 
naturally  considered  him  as  a  martyr  to  their  cause,  and 
proceeded  to  avenge  his  death  by  shooting  several  of  the 
most  noted  Orangemen  among  their  prisoners.  Hay  also 
mentioned  that  the  insurgents,  in  revenge  for  the  cruel  mur- 
der of  an  idiot  boy  near  the  bridge  of  Scarawalsh  by  a  party 
of  cavalry,  shot  fourteen  of  their  prisoners.  If  such  cruel 
deeds  were  enacted  occasionally  under  the  impulse  of  ungov- 

203 


204  Ireland's  CroWxN  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ernable  passion  by  the  peasantry,  tliey  were  habitually  prac- 
tised in  cold  blood  and  as  a  matter  of  course  by  their  enemies. 

On  the  departure  of  the  great  body  of  insurgents  on  the 
31st  of  May,  those  of  their  brethren  who  remained,  aided  by 
the  populace  of  the  town,  instituted  a  search  for  such  Orange- 
men as  yet  remained  at  large,  with  the  intention  of  consigning 
them  to  prison. 

The  first  they  went  in  quest  of  was  Mr.  Turner  of  New- 
park,  a  magistrate,  who  had  incurred  their  resentment  by  set- 
ting fire  to  some  houses  at  Oulart  previous  to  the  battle 
fought  at  that  place  on  the  27th.  Having  found  the  gentleman 
in  question  at  Mr.  Harvey's  lodgings  they  seized  upon  him, 
and  forthwith  led  him  down  to  prison,  disregarding  the  en- 
treaties made  by  Messrs.  Harvey,  Hay  and  Fitzgerald  in  his 
favor.  Several  of  the  most  obnoxious  of  the  prisoners  having 
been  previously  liberated  through  the  influence  of  their 
friends,  the  people  now  insisted  that  no  one  should  be  freed 
from  confinement  in  this  irregular  manner,  but  only  on  pro- 
ducing a  certificate  of  their  former  good  conduct,  signed  by  a 
sufficient  number  of  their  neighbors.  On  the  same  day  that 
the  above  detailed  incidents  occurred.  Captain  Keough  was 
chosen  military  governor  of  Wexford.  Under  his  supervision 
the  town  was  divided  into  wards,  each  furnishing  a  company 
of  armed  men,  with  officers  of  their  own  choice.  Every  even- 
ing these  companies  were  paraded  on  the  quay,  while  with 
military  regularity  guards  were  struck  off  and  relieved,  and 
passwords  and  countersigns  given.  In  the  country  parishes 
a  similar  organization  was  soon  after  adopted.  While  the 
insurgent  army  yet  remained  in  deliberation  on  Windmill-hill, 
a  large  body  of  the  men  of  the  barony  of  Forth  marched  into 
the  town,  with  Mr.  Cornelius  Grogan,  of  Johnstown  Castle,  at 
their  head.  This  aged  gentleman,  though  entirely  passive  in 
these  proceedings,  did  not  escape  the  vengeance  that  fell  on  no 
more  guiltless  head,  but  his  fate  was  nobler  than  that  which 
befell  his  brother  Thomas,  who  was  slain  at  Arklow  leading 
the  Castletown  yeomanry  against  the  pikemen. 

We  must  not  forget  to  mention  that  in  the  council  of  war 
held  by  the  insurgents  on  Windmill-Hill,  before  setting  out  on 
their  new  campaign,  Mr.  Bagenal  Harvey  was  chosen  com- 
mander-in-chief. This  selection  was  most  ill-judged,  for  Har- 
vey, though  in  many  respects  an  excellent  man,  was  not  pos- 
sessed of  talents  to  qualify  him  for  such  an  important  com- 


The  Rising  of  '98  205 

mand.  It  must,  however,  be  regarded  by  all  fair-minded  per- 
sons as  a  proof  that  the  Catholics,  who  form  such  a  vast  ma- 
jority of  the  population  of  Ireland,  are  far  too  generous  and 
enlightened  to  entertain  rancour  against  those  who  differ 
from  them  in  their  views  of  religious  truth,  but  on  the  con- 
trary, have  ever  shown  themselves  enthusiastically  grateful 
to  such  Protestants  as  have  been  willing  to  join  them  in  their 
struggle  for  freedom.  As  a  futher  evidence  of  this  truth  we 
may  state  the  fact  that  the  greater  number  of  their  chosen 
chiefs  were  Protestants  or  Presbyterians,  and  no  voice  was 
ever  raised  amongst  their  followers  to  reproach  or  taunt  them 
with  the  fact. 

The  Wexford  insurgents,  fully  sensible  of  the  desperate 
nature  of  the  struggle  upon  which  they  had  entered,  displayed 
the  utmost  energy  in  the  efforts  they  made  to  carry  it  on  suc- 
cessfully. Every  smith  and  carpenter  in  the  town  of  Wex- 
ford and  its  environs  was  now  hard  at  work  in  the  fabrication 
of  blades  and  handles  to  that  "queen  of  weapons,  the  pike.'* 

In  a  short  time  every  insurgent  was  provided  with  one  of 
these  efficient  weapons ;  and  while  every  hand  grasped  a  pike, 
every  hat  displayed  a  green  cockade. 

Four  oyster  boats,  each  manned  with  a  crew  of  thirty-five 
men,  were  fitted  out  to  cruise  in  the  offing,  and  by  boarding 
passing  ships  to  obtain  provisions,  which  were  sorely  needed, 
as  the  usual  markets  were  quite  deserted.  At  the  same  time 
two  pieces  of  cannon  were  mounted  on  the  old  fort  of  Ross- 
lare,  to  fire  on  any  vessel  of  war  that  should  attempt  to  cross 
the  bar;  while,  to  render  still  more  difficult  the  entrance  of 
such  vessels,  two  sloops  were  sunk  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbor. 

As  an  indication  of  the  hopes  the  people  entertained  at  this 
period  of  severing  their  connection  with  England  and  shaking 
off  the  yoke  that  had  galled  them  for  centuries,  bank  notes 
issued  by  establishments  that  had  Government  security  were 
regarded  as  quite  valueless,  specie  alone  being  proffered  or 
accepted  in  buying  or  selling.  Indeed,  so  low  had  paper  money 
fallen  in  the  common  estimation  that  it  was  no  unusual  thing 
to  see  men  lighting  their  pipes  with  them,  or  using  them  as 
gun  wadding.  However,  money  in  any  shape  was  little  need- 
ed, for  every  kind  of  provision  was  supplied  from  the  public 
stores,  on  the  presentation  of  a  ticket  from  the  committee. 
Such  persons  as  preferred  to  purchase  what  they  needed  in 
the  market  could  get  good  meat  at  one  penny  a  pound,  and 


206  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

other  commodities  at  a  proportionately  cheap  rate. 

The  little  fleet  of  armed  oyster  boats  was  meantime  active- 
ly employed  in  cruising  to  and  fro  outside  the  harbor,  and 
boarding  such  vessels  as  were  so  unlucky  as  to  come  within 
their  reach.  Captures  of  this  kind,  made  by  their  exertions, 
were  so  numerous  that  a  fair  supply  of  provisions  was  main- 
tained in  town,  and  the  wants  of  the  inhabitants  supplied. 
But  on  the  20th  one  of  these  little  vessels  alighted  upon  a  prize 
of  a  different  nature  from  any  that  had  been  hitherto  made. 
This  was  a  vessel,  on  board  of  which  they  found  Lord  Kings- 
borough,  Colonel  of  the  North  Cork  Militia,  with  two  of  his 
officers,  who,  unaware  that  Wexford  had  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  the  insurgents,  were  on  their  way  thither  to  join  their  regi- 
ment. These  gentlemen  were  brought  into  town  by  their  cap- 
tors; and  on  arriving  there  were  conducted  first  to  the  resi- 
dence of  Captain  Keough,  whence  they  were  soon  after,  at  the 
urgent  demand  of  the  people,  transferred  to  a  house  in  the 
bull-ring  (an  inn  called  the  Cape  of  Grood  Hope),  around  which 
guards  were  stationed  to  prevent  their  escape.  This  hap- 
pened on  the  2nd  of  June.  On  the  following  day  a  large  body 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  barony  of  Forth,  who  had  procured 
arms,  passed  through  the  town  on  their  way  to  join  the  in- 
surgents at  Carrickbyrne ;  and  a  corps  from  the  Fay  the  (a 
Wexford  suburb  inhabited  chiefly  by  the  families  of  seafaring 
men)  set  off  on  the  evening  of  the  same  day  for  the  camp  at 
Carrigrew. 

During  this  time,  while  the  Catholic  party  in  Wexford  en- 
joyed undisputed  sway,  not  the  slightest  disposition  was  mani- 
fested by  them  to  injure  or  outrage  in  any  way  their  Protest- 
ant fellow-townsmen.  The  resentment  of  the  people  was 
directed  exclusively  against  Orangemen.  This  fact  is,  perhaps 
inadvertently,  acknowledged  even  by  Sir  Richard  Musgrave. 

But  the  Protestants  were  ill  at  ease,  and  evinced  their 
distrust  of  the  sincerity  of  their  fellow-townsmen,  though  so 
unequivocally  expressed,  by  the  constant  importunities  where- 
with they  assailed  the  priests  for  admittance  into  the  Catholic 
Church.  However,  the  Catholic  clergy,  being  well  convinced 
of  the  real  motive  of  this  sudden  change  in  religious  opinions, 
firmly  refused  to  comply  with  their  request.  But  these  strange 
converts  were  not  to  be  put  off.  They  followed  the  priests 
wherever  they  went,  were  constant  in  their  attendance  at  the 
Catholic  church,  and  showed  their  earnestness  while  there  by 


The  Rising  op  '98  207 

sprinkling  lioly  water  copiously  over  their  persons,  and  fre- 

Son  Tt":'  ''V''  1  ""  "-"^^  ■"  «-  -ost'orthodox 
Sous' of  tJr  '''"^™f<^^  "«t-«d  that  some  of  the  most 
zealous  of  these  converts  were  the  most  prompt  is  comine 

fmrl  '":  *',"I  *''^'™''"^  ^^''""^t  «=»-  whose  re  S 
fa.  h  they  pretended  to  adopt.     Thus  it  was  that  cowardice 

and  cruelty  are  generally  to  be  found  in  company  The  pr  n 
cipal  Catholic  nhabitants  in  the  town  used  thei^-  utmos  en- 
deavors to  banish  all  apprehension  from  the  minds  of  heh- 
heterodox  brethren  and  requested  that  the  services  which 
had  been  discontinued  in  the  Protestant  church  should  be  clr 
ned  on  as  usual.  But  to  this  the  Protestants  themselves  would 
by  no  means  give  their  consent.  No  truth,  indeed,  has  been 
more  clearly  sliown  forth  than  that  the  Catholics  of  Wexford 
i^ed  wT^r  ^  ""  P^r^eeuting  spirit.  Traitors  were  pun- 
n  h„  P  H  I  ^^'"«  ""P'»-««l  justice,  whether  they  happened 
to  be  Catholics  or  Protestants. 

that^theirTtf  '";  f "™''''  ^'''  ^'^^  '°  ^"*  detestation 
that  heir  fate  excited  no  compassion  in  any  breast.    In  brina:- 

ng  these  wretches  to  condign  punishment' the  famous,  o    as 

some  may  deem  him,  the  infamous  Captain  Dixon  strenuously 

exerted  himself.     An  informer  named  Thomas  Murphy  t 

III  f  Z^*'""  D'f "'  a  ■■olative  of  the  captain's.     This 

ly   the  Td"  T T  *'"  '""f •,""'  '"''  ""''  ^'''"^^---    On  Sun- 
ass^'stnLtM        ,7"'  ?"  ^^'  ^^*''°''''  inhabitants  were 

he  Ted  out  th!     f'        '"P'"'"  '■'P"'''^'^  *°  ">^  Saol,  from  which 
he  led  out  the  informer,  conveyed  him  straightway  to  the  bull- 
ring, where  he  had  him  shot  by  three  revenue  officers  whom 
he  compelled  by  threats  to  become  his  executioners 
h„/i.   l"?!"  ''"^'''''  '""'  desperate  act  on  the  part  of  Dixon 
but  he  had  been  deeply  injured,  and  his  conduct,  though  cu^: 
pable,  must  be  admitted  to  be  far  less  so  than  that  of  those 
Orange  gentry  who  put  unfortunate  people,  who  had  never 
done  them  any  injury,  to  the  most  cruel  death     Yet  those  wlL 
stigmatize  this  rude  son  Neptune  as  a  monster,  pass  oTer 
lightly  enough  the  diabolic  atrocities  perpetrated  by  theT 
famous  Hunter  Gowan  and  his  compeers,  so  great  is  fhe  influ- 

r  l?minr  ^"  ''  '''''  -  «^  -'^'  -^"=-  -reif^ 

•  7^-!  ^1*V!  **"  ^*™*'  ™°°*  witnessed  the  death  of  another 
individual  of  the  same  detested  class.    The  people  resolved  to 


208  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

extend  no  mercy  to  such  vile  traitors,  regarding  them  as  ene- 
mies to  humanity,  whose  existence  was  a  continual  danger  to 
the  community.  At  this  period  the  frequent  requisitions  made 
for  the  different  camps  pressed  rather  heavily  on  the  resources 
of  the  townspeople,  but  the  majority  of  them  were  not  unwill- 
ing to  suffer  some  loss  of  property  in  providing  for  the  wants 
of  the  brave  men  who  perilled  life  and  liberty  for  the  common 
cause.  To  force  compliance  from  the  more  selfish  and  grip- 
ing, the  threat  of  burning  their  houses  was  made  use  of  by  the 
insurgents,  and  always  with  the  desired  effect.  Things  went 
off  quietly  in  Wexford,  and  were  it  not  for  the  occasional 
arrival  of  parties  of  the  warlike  peasantry,  the  town  would 
have  enjoyed  the  most  undisturbed  tranquillity,  and  no  one 
could  suppose,  from  the  peaceful  aspect  it  presented,  that  a 
fierce  war  was  raging  outside  its  walls.  It  is  not,  however,  to 
be  supposed  that  crimes  and  outrages  of  various  kinds  were 
not  perpetrated  during  this  disturbed  period. 

Individuals  of  vile  and  base  character  are  to  be  found  in 
every  class  and  in  every  country,  and  in  times  of  civil  com- 
motion such  persons  do  not  fail  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
opportunities  then  presented  of  indulging  their  evil  propen- 
sities. 

The  existence  of  the  class  referred  to  in  Wexford  was  but 
too  plainly  shown  by  the  numerous  robberies  and  other  out- 
rages that  became  frequent.  The  insurgent  chiefs  did  their 
utmost  to  check  these  disgraceful  proceedings,  and  such  of 
the  depredators  as  were  caught  suffered  condign  punishment. 
In  extenuation  of  the  offence  of  these  marauders,  it  is  but 
fair  to  say  that  many  of  them  had  been  totally  ruined  by  the 
foraj^s  headed  by  Hunter  Gowan,  Hawtrey  White,  Archibald 
Hamilton  Jacob,  and  other  magistrates  of  the  same  class.  As 
the  latter  still  pursued  their  course  of  crime  and  outrage,  the 
popular  assembly  thought  it  necessary  to  issue  the  following 
proclamation:— 

'' Proclamation  of  the  People  of  the  County  of  Wexford. 

''Whereas,  it  stands  manifestly  notorious  that  James 
Boyd,  Hawtrey  White,  Hunter  Gowan,  and  Archibald  Hamil- 
ton Jacob,  late  magistrates  of  this  county,  have  committed  the 
most  horrid  acts  of  cruelty,  violence,  and  oppression  against 
our  peaceable  and  well-disposed  countrymen.  Now  we,  the 
people,  associated  and  united  for  the  purpose  of  procuring 


The  Rising  of  '98  209 

our  just  rights,  and  being  determined  to  protect  the  persons 
and  properties  of  all  religious  persuasions  who  have  not  op- 
pressed us,  and  are  willing  to  join  with  heart  and  hand  our 
glorious  cause,  as  well  as  to  show  our  marked  disapprobation 
and  horror  of  the  crimes  of  the  above  delinquents,  do  call  on 
our  countrymen  at  large  to  use  every  exertion  in  their  power 
to  apprehend  the  bodies  of  the  aforesaid  James  Boyd,  Haw- 
trey  White,  Hunter  Gowan,  and  Archibald  Hamilton  Jacob, 
and  to  secure  and  convey  them  to  the  gaol  of  Wexford,  to  be 
brought  before  the  tribunal  of  the  people.  Done  at  Wexford 
this  9th  day  of  June,  1798.    'God  save  the  people.'  " 

To  illustrate  the  good  feeling  that  existed  among  the  Cath- 
olic population  of  Wexford  and  their  desire  to  conciliate  their 
Protestant  fellow-townsmen,  we  may  mention  the  following 
event:— The  crowded  state  of  the  gaol  having  caused  the  dis- 
ease Imown  as  gaol  fever  to  break  out  therein,  the  Protestants 
suggested  that  their  own  church  should  be  used  for  the  accom- 
modations of  the  sick;  but  to  this  proposal  the  Catholics 
firmly  refused  to  give  their  assent,  and  eventually  a  sloop  was 
fitted  up  in  the  harbor  for  the  purpose. 

An  incident  now  happily  occurred  to  disturb  for  a  brief 
space  the  calm  which  reigned  in  Wexford,  and  throw  the 
populace  into  a  state  of  violent  excitement.  It  fell  among  the 
slumbering  passions  of  the  people  like  a  lighted  brand  thrown 
into  a  powder  magazine,  and  produced  a  similar  explosion. 
The  occasion  of  this  popular  ferment  was  the  discovery  of  a 
pitch-cap  in  Wexford  barracks,  together  with  a  commission 
for  the  establishment  of  an  Orange  lodge.  This  double  dis- 
covery produced  a  fearful  tumult.  The  horrid  instrument  of 
torture  was  inseparably  united  in  the  minds  of  the  people  with 
Lord  Kingsborough,  who  was  accredited  with  being  its  in- 
ventor. Breathing  vengeance,  a  curious  crowd  hurried  to  his 
lodgings,  with  the  ugly  object  that  recalled  so  many  revolting 
scenes  elevated  on  the  point  of  a  pike,  resolved  to  make  him 
experience  in  his  own  person  the  torture  he  had  designed  for 
others.  But  Kingsborough 's  aristocratic  friends  stepped  be- 
tween him  and  the  enraged  populace.  It  shocked  the  genteely- 
constituted  minds  of  these  persons  that  the  head  which  was 
destined  to  wear  a  coronet  should  be  crowned  with  such  an 
ungraceful  head-dress  as  a  pitch-cap.  So  persuasively  did 
the  gentlemen  in  question  plead  in  favor  of  the  prisoner,  that 
the   people,   whose   anger   rarely  proved  unappeasable,   at 


^10  Ibelaxd's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

length  relented  in  their  purpose  of  putting  him  to  the  torture. 
They,  however,  insisted  that  he  should  be  convej^ed  without 
delay  to  the  sloop  and  kept  prisoner  there.  This  demand  be- 
ing complied  with,  they  dispersed.  Next  day  Kingsborough's 
friends  had  the  sloop  condemned  as  unfit  for  the  purpose  to 
which  it  had  been  designed,  and  the  prisoner  was  brought  back 
to  his  former  lodging.  There  is  little  doubt  that  Lord  Kings- 
borough  would  have  been  put  to  death  by  the  people  could  they 
have  procured  evidence  of  the  cruelties  he  had  practised  else- 
where; but,  luckily  for  him,  his  crimes  were  committed  at  a 
distance  from  Wexford,  and  in  the  absence  of  witnesses,  the 
justice  of  the  people  refused  to  inflict  upon  him  the  death  he 
undoubtedly  deserved. 

Meantime,  affairs  in  the  county  were  hastening  towards  a 
crisis.  On  the  5th  of  June  a  messenger  arrived  in  town  from 
the  camp  at  Gorey  Hill,  for  the  purj^ose  of  obtaining  from  the 
townspeople  a  supply  of  ammunition  for  their  intended  at- 
tack on  Arklow.  The  latter  gave,  though  not  without  great 
reluctance,  one  barrel  out  of  three  they  had  captured  shortlj^ 
before. 

Soon  after  this  event  a  despatch  came  from  Vinegar  Hill, 
urgently  demanding  a  reinforcement  of  men  from  the  town, 
as  an  attack  of  the  royalists  was  apprehended  on  that  camp. 
In  compliance  with  this  request  a  force  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  gunsmen,  under  Captain  Murphy,  marched  out  of  the 
town  on  the  10th  of  June,  and  arrived  the  same  night  at  the 
''Hill,"  where  they  remained  till  the  20th. 

These  men  were  distinguished  for  their  good  conduct,  and 
their  interposition  put  a  stop  to  the  executions  that  had  been 
too  frequent  before  their  arrival;  for  lately  the  insurgents 
had  adopted  severe  measures  of  retaliation,  and  for  every 
one  of  their  party  put  to  death  by  the  Orangemen,  sacrificed 
one  of  their  prisoners.  It  was,  indeed,  verging  towards  a  war 
of  extermination  on  both  sides ;  on  the  Orange  side  it  had,  in 
truth,  been  such  from  the  very  outset ;  they  had  been  but  too 
faithful  to  their  wicked  oath.  The  rumors  of  excesses  com- 
mitted by  the  partisans  of  the  Government  reached  Wexford, 
and  excited  no  slight  apprehension  amongst  the  loyalist  pris- 
oners. They  considered  themselves  in  imminent  danger  of 
falling  victims  to  the  vengeful  feeling  such  reports  aroused 
among  the  people  in  whose  power  they  were  at  present  placed. 

Popular  hatred  still  burned  against  Lord  Kingsborough 


The  Rising  of  '08  211 

as  the  representative  of  Orangeism  (a  system  that  in  the 
minds  of  the  peojole  embodied  everything  that  is  hateful  and 
detestable  in  principle  and  practice),  and  manifested  itself  in 
such  a  way  as  to  put  that  young  nobleman  in  terror  of  his 
life.  To  arrest  the  evil  that  he  feared  from  some  sudden  out- 
burst of  popular  anger,  Kingsborough  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
Lord  Lieutenant,  in  the  name  of  his  fellow-prisoners,  in  which 
he  besought  him  to  endeavor  to  procure  better  treatment  for 
such  insurgents  as  might  be  captured  by  the  King's  troops,  as 
otherwise  he  and  his  fellow-captives  had  good  reason  to  fear 
certain  destruction. 

However,  this  epistle  did  not  reach  its  destination,  for 
Captain  Dixon,  aware  of  its  being  despatched,  rode  on  before 
the  bearer.  Lieutenant  Burke,  and  induced  the  Enniscorthy 
insurgents  to  seize  the  messenger,  and  intercept  the  letter. 
The  captain  put  no  trust  in  the  faith  of  Kingsborough,  and 
suspected  this  messenger  of  being  the  bearer  of  more  than  the 
contents  of  the  letter,  viz.,  important  information  of  the  plans 
of  his  fellow-insurgents.  Were  it  not  for  the  emeutes  evoked 
by  the  captain  the  town  would  have  enjoyed  almost  complete 
tranquillity. 

This  rough  sailor  seems  to  have  sworn  undying  enmity 
to  the  Orangemen,  since  magistrates  of  that  faction  unjustly 
(upon  the  evidence  of  a  perjured  informer)  sentenced  his  rela- 
tive, Rev.  Mr.  Dixon,  to  transportation.  From  that  time  forth 
he  allowed  no  opportunity  to  pass  of  exciting  against  them  the 
angry  feelings  of  his  followers. 

During  his  brief  reign  as  king  of  the  mob  the  captain  was 
wont  almost  daily  to  sally  forth  from  the  town  at  the  head  of 
an  armed  band,  and  pay  domiciliary  visits  to  the  dwellings 
of  the  neighboring  Orange  gentry,  with  a  view,  as  he  alleged, 
of  seeing  that  they  were  plotting  nothing  against  the  people 
—in  fact,  using  against  them  their  own  tactics.  In  one  of 
these  excursions  he  entered  the  house  of  a  certain  Colonel  Le 
Hunt,  near  the  village  of  Castlebridge,  where  he  alighted  upon 
an  object  of  whose  use  he  was  ignorant,  or  at  least  feigned 
to  be  so,  and  to  which  his  excited  imagination  attributed  a 
terrible  significance.  This  object  was  nothing  more  or  less 
than  a  fire-screen,  bordered  with  orange-colored  fringe,  and 
painted  with  a  grotesque  representation  of  the  heathen  gods. 
The  captain  hastened  back  to  town,  which  he  entered  on  horse- 
back, accompanied  by  his  wife,  Madge,  likewise  mounted,  bear- 


212  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ing  aloft  the  yet  mysterious  prize,  whose  nature  and  purpose 
he  began  to  descant  upon  to  the  mob,  that,  as  usual,  thronged 
around  him.  He  declared  that  the  aforesaid  grotesque  fig- 
ures signified  nothing  less  than  the  tortures  to  be  inflicted  by 
Le  Hunt  and  his  fellow-Orangemen  on  the  Catholics.  This, 
and  other  appeals  of  the  worthy  captain,  roused  the  multi- 
tude to  a  desire  for  instant  vengeance  on  foes  whose  crimes 
were  black  enough  to  dispense  with  the  addition  of  imaginary 
horrors. 

The  populace,  inflamed  by  Dixon's  address,  rushed  to  the 
house  where  the  unlucky  owner  of  the  fire-screen  lodged, 
seized  and  marched  him  down  to  jail,  preparatory  to  holding 
a  trial  on  him  and  other  obnoxious  persons.  The  tumult  was, 
however,  at  length  appeased  by  some  gifted  speaker  of  the 
committee,  who  explained  to  the  excited  crowd  the  harmless 
nature  of  the  object  that  had  aroused  their  anger. 

But  the  insurgents  at  Vinegar  Hill  were  of  fiercer  and  less 
relenting  temper  than  those  who  abode  in  Wexford,  and  many 
unfortunates  were  there  put  to  death  as  enemies  to  the  pop- 
ular cause.  Nor  did  their  vengeance  confine  itself  within  the 
limits  of  their  own  camp ;  for,  on  the  16th,  they  desiDatched  a 
party  of  pikemen  to  the  town,  who,  having  seized  upon  four 
of  the  prisoners  confined  in  jail,  led  them  off  with  them  to 
the  ''Hill,"  where  they  soon  after  suffered  death. 

Leaving  the  town  of  Wexford  for  a  time,  we  now  proceed 
to  visit  other  sceues  where  events  far  more  important  are  in 
progress. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   BATTLE   OF   ARKLOW— DEATH    OF   FATHER   MICHAEL   MURPHY. 

The  leaders  of  the  insurgent  army  on  Gorey  Hill  having 
decided  to  march  forthwith  to  attack  the  royal  troops,  who 
had  possessed  themselves  of  Arklow,  and  having  made  every 
possible  arrangement  to  carry  their  enterprise  to  a  successful 
termination,  issued  orders  to  those  who  followed  their  stand- 
ard to  be  ready  to  set  out  on  the  expedition.    At  about  ten 
o'clock  on  the  7th  of  June  they  were  in  readiness  to  march. 
Of  the  twenty  thousand  men  who  composed  the  insurgent 
force  on  Gorey  Hill,  not  more  than  two  thousand  were  armed 
with  firearms,  many  of  which  were  out  of  order  and  of  little 
use,  gunsmiths  not  being  at  hand  to  repair  them.    Three  thou- 
sand of  their  number,  at  the  utmost,  had  pikes ;  the  rest  were 
forced  to  be  content  with  scythes,  pitchforks,  and  whatever 
rustic  implements  they  could  use  as  weapons  of  offence.  How- 
ever, the  spirit  that  animated  these  men  seemed  to  counter- 
balance their  lack  of  the  ordinary  weapons  used  in  waging 
war.    They  directed  their  march  through  the  village  of  Cool- 
greney,  where  they  halted  for  a  short  time  to  take  some  slight 
refreshment,  and,  after  a  march  of  about  fourteen  English 
miles,  arrived  in  front  of  the  enemy's  position,  whom  they 
found  well  entrenched  in  preparation  to  receive  them.    The 
insurgents  perceived  a  number  of  field-officers  riding  in  front 
of  their  enemy's  line  of  battle,  but  a  volley  from  their  sharp- 
shooters soon  compelled  these  gentlemen  to  retire  behind  their 
line.    One  of  them  having  fallen  under  the  fire,  was  carried 
off  the  field  either  killed  or  severely  wounded. 

The  insurgent  artillery,  under  Esmond  Kyan,  commenced 
the  battle,  and  by  the  first  well-directed  volley  dismounted  one 
of  the  enemy's  cannon.  ^Hiile  Kyan  kept  up  an  effective  fire 
from  his  few  pieces  of  artillery,  one  division  of  the  insurgent 
army  corps  filed  to  the  right,  and  commenced  a  vigorous  at- 
tack on  the  Fishery,  where  the  royal  troops  were  in  great 
force,  and  having  to  cross  an  open  field  in  front  of  the  hostile 
entrenchment,  suffered  considerable  loss  from  the  enemy's 
fire.  Being  reinforced,  however,  by  another  corps,  they  made 
a  determined  assault  on  the  position  of  their  foes.    The  main 

213 


214  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

body  of  the  insurgents  had  by  this  time  arrived,  and  the  battle 
became  general ;  and  after  an  obstinate  defence,  during  which 
the  insurgents  were  repeatedly  charged  by  the  regular  troops 
and  yeomanry,  who  on  this  occasion  manifested  unusual 
spirit,  the  latter  were  finally  driven  with  great  loss  from  their 
position.  Nothing  could  withstand  the  terrible  onset  of  the 
pikemen,  who,  regardless  of  the  loss  inflicted  on  them  by  their 
trained  adversaries,  continued  the  combat  with  the  utmost 
bravery.  Their  chiefs  proved  themselves  worthy  to  command 
such  gallant  men,  and  charged  with  dauntless  courage  at  their 
head.  Numbers  of  the  insurgents  fell,  but  the  rest  still  pushed 
forward  with  dauntless  determination,  heroically  resolved  to 
conquer  or  perish. 

General  Needham,  seeing  his  troops  beginning  to  quail 
before  the  repeated  and  fierce  onsets  of  their  undisciplined 
foes,  deemed  it  prudent  to  retreat  before  the  mass  of  the  pike- 
men  came  to  aid  their  comrades,  whose  determined  onslaught 
had  already  made  such  havoc  in  his  ranks.  He  feared  lest 
his  troops  might  become  utterly  panic-stricken  and  imitate 
the  disgraceful  flight  of  Walpole's,  the  remnants  of  which 
corps,  cowed  by  their  recent  defeat,  now  began  to  waver. 

In  vain  the  various  corps  of  yeoman  cavalry,  who,  as  we 
have  intimated,  showed  more  spirit  on  this  day  than  hereto- 
fore, charged  furiously  down  upon  the  firm  ranks  of  the  pike- 
men.  They  were  scattered  like  chaff  before  the  wind,  and 
finally  retired  utterly  broken  and  discomfited.  The  first  of  the 
yeoman  corps  to  charge  the  insurgent  ranks  was  that  called 
the  Castletown;  at  their  head  rode  Captain  Thomas  Knox 
Crogan,  of  Castletown  House.  This  corps  was  also  routed 
and  its  captain  slain.  Nor  did  the  cavalry  regiment  of  An- 
cient Britons,  so  infamously  notorious  for  their  cruelty,  fare 
better— they  also  being  forced  to  retire  with  severe  loss.  It 
was  in  repelling  one  of  the  cavalry  charges  that  the  insurgents 
lost  one  of  their  leaders,  the  Eev.  Michael  Murphy,  who  fell 
by  a  mortal  wound  in  the  fury  of  the  strife. 

While  the  battle  continued  to  rage  with  such  fierceness 
between  the  insurgent  pikemen  and  the  cavalry  of  the  royal- 
ists, to  the  increasing  disadvantage  of  the  latter,  Esmond 
Kyan  maintained  an  artilleiy  fight  with  his  few  pieces  of 
ordnance  against  Skerret,  the  colonel  of  the  Durham  Fenci- 
bles,  a  cautious  officer,  who  kept  his  men  behind  their  entrench- 


The  Rising  of  '98  215 

ments,  and  was  content  to  return  the  rather  feeble  fire  directed 
against  his  position  by  Kyan. 

At  last  Kyan  succeeded  in  driving  the  colonel  from  his 
position,  and  was  proceeding  to  complete  his  success  by  a 
further  effort,  when,  unfortunately,  he  was  wounded  severely 
by  a  cannon  ball,  which  carried  off  a  cork  arm  he  wore,  to- 
gether with  a  piece  of  the  stump  to  which  it  was  attached. 
This  most  untimely  accident  to  poor  Kyan  gave  his  opponent 
time  to  choose  a  new  and  better  position,  and  strengthen  him- 
self therein.  Thus  Kyan  lost  his  arm,  and  Skerret  gained  a 
reputation  to  which  in  truth  he  had  little  claim. 

The  position  might  have  been  easily  taken  by  a  vigorous 
charge  of  pikemen,  but  the  simple,  though  valiant,  peasants 
had  formed  altogether  too  high  an  estimate  of  the  value  of 
their  artillery,  and  many  of  them  were  satisfied  to  stand 
idly  by,  absorbed  in  admiration  of  its  thundering  discharges. 
This  battle  in  which  such  gallantry  had  been  displayed  by 
both  sides  had  now  lasted  for  four  hours,  with  great  slaugh- 
ter, till,  at  length,  the  royalists  began  to  give  ground,  and 
victory  crowned  the  unparalleled  bravery  and  determination 
of  the  insurgents.  Their  opponents  gave  way  on  all  sides— 
completely  beaten  and  borne  down  by  the  successive  and  re^ 
sistless  onsets  of  the  pikemen. 

It  is  true  the  Durham  Fencibles  still  defended  the  second 
position,  behind  which  they  had  securely  ensconced  them- 
selves, and  in  comparative  security  beheld  their  routed  com- 
rades scattered  far  and  wide  over  the  field  so  long  and  so 
fiercely  contested. 

This  victory  so  glorious  for  the  insurgents  was,  however, 
dearly  bought,  for  many  of  their  most  valued  and  trusted 
chiefs  and  hundreds  of  their  gallant  brethren  lay  stretched 
on  the  field,  dead  or  severely  wounded.  Amongst  those  brave 
chiefs  who  were  slain  in  the  conflict  was,  as  we  have  already 
mentioned,  the  Rev.  Michael  Murphy— a  sad  loss  to  the  in- 
surgent cause,  for,  in  addition  to  the  qualities  that  form  a 
gallant  chief,  his  priestly  character  made  the  people  follow 
him  with  more  courage  into  danger. 

Michael  Redmond,  the  leader  of  the  men  of  Little  Lim- 
brick  (a  Wexford  village),  also  received  a  mortal  wound 
whilst  leading  his  men  into  the  town  after  driving  the  royal- 
ists out  of  the  Fishery. 

Now  that  victory  had  rewarded  the  efforts  of  the  insur- 


216  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

gents,  and  their  routed  enemies  were  in  full  retreat,  it  seems 
almost  incredible  that  the  victors  should  have  neglected  to 
secure  for  themselves  the  fruits  of  their  dearly-bought  suc- 
cess, and  retire  without  pursuing  the  enemy,  whom  they 
might  easily  have  made  prisoners,  and  have  obtained  posses- 
sion of  their  arms  and  ammunition,  of  which  they  stood  in 
such  great  need.  Yet  such  was  unhappily  the  fact.  The  in- 
surgent army  received  orders  to  march  back  to  Gorey  Hill, 
leaving  their  routed  foe  to  pursue  his  flight  unmolested.  Had 
the  English  soldiers  been  pursued  as  they  retreated  in  panic 
and  disorder,  their  total  rout  would  have  been  inevitable; 
but  the  occasion  was  lost,  and  with  it  the  fruits  of  a  victory 
that  cost  the  lives  of  so  many  brave  men. 

The  insurgents  on  their  march  to  Gorey  carried  some 
hundreds  of  their  wounded  comrades  with  them,  leaving,  un- 
fortunately, many  others  on  the  field,  who  were  slaughtered 
without  mercy  by  the  enemy  on  their  return.  Not  only  did 
these  wretches  murder  the  unhappy  and  defenceless  wounded, 
but  they  mangled  the  senseless  remains  of  those  whom  death 
might  have  protected  from  all  but  the  vengeance  of  fiends. 

Imagination  sickens  at  the  contemplation  of  the  horrible 
deeds  perpetrated  by  the  Ancient  Britons,  who,  having  fear- 
fully mangled  the  remains  of  the  Rev.  Michael  Murphy,  tore 
out  his  heart,  roasted  it  and  ate  it. 

Does  history  record  another  so  fiendish  deed  of  the  sol- 
diers of  any  country? 

Thus  ended  the  battle  of  Arklow,  glorious  for  the  bravery 
displayed  therein,  but  unfortunate  for  the  unaccountable 
neglect  by  which  its  fruits  were  lost. 

The  following  is  the  shamelessly  mendacious  account  given 
of  this  action  in  the  '^ Official  Bulletin,"  Dublin,  June  10, 1798: 
** Accounts  were  received  early  this  morning  by  Lieu- 
tenant-General  Lake,  from  Major-General  Needham  at  Ark- 
low, stating  that  the  rebels  had  in  great  force  attacked  his 
position  in  Arklow  at  six  o'clock  yesterday  evening.  They 
advanced  in  an  irregular  manner,  and  extending  themselves 
for  the  purpose  of  turning  his  left  flank,  his  rear  and  right 
flanks  being  strongly  defended  by  the  town  and  barrack  of 
Arklow.  Upon  their  endeavoring  to  enter  the  lower  end  of 
the  town,  they  were  attacked  by  the  Fourth  Dragoon  Guards, 
Fifth  Dragoons,  and  Ancient  Britons,  and  completely  de- 
feated.   All  round  the  other  points  of  the  position  they  were 


TiiE  Rising  of  '98  217 

defeated  with  mucK  slaughter.  The  loss  of  his  Majesty's 
troops  was  trifling,  and  their  behaviour  highly  gallant." 

The  substance  of  this  despatch  was  furnished  by  General 
Necdham  to  his  military  superior,  Lake.  Needhain  knew  the 
art  of  forging  despatches  better  than  he  did  that  of  fighting 
insurgents ;  his  brother  officers  esteemed  him  little  better  than 
a  coward,  and  his  retreat  at  Arklow  would  have  been  con- 
verted into  a  flight  but  for  the  firmness  with  which  Skerret 
stood  his  ground. 

To  refute  the  false  assertions  contained  in  the  above-given 
despatch,  we  need  only  cite  the  authors  who  have  made  men- 
tion of  the  affair  in  question.  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  says:— 
"The  insurgents,  dispirited  by  the  fall  of  Father  Murphy, 
advanced  no  further;— they  began  to  retreat,  but  without  pre- 
cipitation ;  the  royal  army  did  not  think  it  prudent  to  pursue. '  * 
''The  rebels  ceased  from  combat  as  soon  as  darkness  came,  and 
retired  unpursued  towards  Gorey."— Rev.  Mr.  Gordon.  ''The 
insurgents  retreated  when  their  ammunition  was  expended.'* 
Hay.       • 

The  insurgent  army,  on  their  return  from  Arklow,  once 
more  encamped  on  Gorey  Hill,  where  they  remained  till  the 
10th,  when  they  returned  to  Limbrick  Hill.  Meantime  the 
country  where  the  various  battles  we  have  attempted  to  de- 
scribe were  fought,  continued  to  be  the  theatre  where  innu- 
merable scenes  of  cruelty  and  bloodshed  were  exhibited.  The 
yeomanry  and  military  yet  infested  the  country  in  small 
bands,  taking  care  to  avoid  any  place  where  the  dreaded  pike- 
men  were  in  force,  and  wherever  they  went  the  shrieks  of 
the  tortured  victims  or  the  death-cry  of  some  hapless  wretch 
too  surely  announced  their  presence.  Old  men  were  slain, 
whose  nerveless  arms  could  not  defend  them,  and  whose  white 
hairs  might  have  moved  the  pity  of  less  ruthless  foes;  and 
the  wives,  sisters,  and  daughters  of  the  people  far-famed  for 
their  purity,  fell  victims  to  the  brutal  lust  of  England's  vile 
soldiery  and  foreign  mercenaries. 

The  sons,  brothers,  and  fathers  of  those  unhappy  victims 
stood  on  the  hill-side  or  slept  in  the  rude  camp  under  the  free 
air  of  heaven;  but  the  patriot's  sleep  was  haunted  by  the 
woeful  vision  of  a  desolated  home,  and  the  suffering  of  those 
who  were  dear  to  his  heart ;  and  can  we  wonder  that,  with  a 
sense  of  these  wrongs  ever  present  in  his  mind,  he  swore  the 
direst  revenge  on  those  who  had  wrought  them? 


218  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Had  the  insurgents  borne  calmly  such  injuries  and  for- 
borne all  retaliation,  they  had  been  more  or  less  than  human. 
They  did  in  some  instances  retaliate;  but  we  venture  to  af- 
firm that  never  did  a  people  so  foully  wronged,  so  ruthlessly 
trampled  under  the  iron  heel  of  military  despotism,  exhibit 
so  many  instances  of  merciful  forgiveness  to  those  they  knew 
to  be  their  mortal  foes. 

Ow^ens,  a  Protestant  minister,  an  Orangeman,  and  a  magis- 
trate, had  long  exercised  his  power  in  a  most  cruel  way. 
This  man  fell  into  the  power  of  the  people,  and  though  it  was 
proved  that  he  had  put  many  innocent  men  to  death,  his  life 
was  spared,  and  his  captors  decided  that  as  he  had  inflicted 
the  torture  of  the  pitch-cap  on  so  many,  it  was  just  that  he 
should  have  an  opportunity  of  proving  it  himself— to  this 
punishment  he  was  accordingly  subjected.  The  chivalrous 
spirit  of  the  insurgent  peasantry  manifested  itself  by  giving 
women  an  entire  immunity  from  even  the  slightest  injury. 
As  an  instance  of  this  we  may  relate  what  occurred  to  the 
daughters  of  Hunter  Gowan.  These  young  ladies,  who  were 
so  numerous  as  fifteen,  being  encountered  on  the  road  by  a 
band  of  armed  insurgents,  were  stopped  and  questioned  as  to 
who  they  were  and  whither  they  were  going.  They  told  both, 
and  were  dismissed  unharmed,  to  appreciate,  if  they  could,  the 
chivalrous  generosity  of  the  brave  peasants.  It  is,  moreover, 
admitted  even  by  the  bitterest  enemies  of  the  gallant  insur- 
gents that  during  all  the  time  they  were  masters  of  the  coun- 
ty, no  insult  or  injury  was  offered  by  them  to  any  female, 
even  the  relatives  of  their  most  merciless  foes— a  fact  that 
forms  an  admirable  contrast  to  the  brutal  war  waged  against 
female  honor  by  those  who  fought  under  the  standards  of  a 
nation  which  boasts  itself  pre-eminently  civilized  and  Chris- 
tian. 

Concerning  this  admirable  trait  in  the  character  of  the 
insurgent  peasantry,  as  contrasted  with  the  infamous  conduct 
of  the  soldiery,  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  remarks:— *'It  is  a 
singular  fact  that  in  all  the  ferocity  of  the  conflict,  the  storm- 
ing of  towns  and  villages,  women  were  uniformly  respected 
by  the  insurgents.  Though  numerous  ladies  fell  into  their 
power,  they  never  experienced  any  incivility  or  misconduct. 
But  the  foreign  troops  in  our  service  (Hompesch's)  not  only 
brutally  ill-treated,  but  occasionally  shot  gentlewomen.  A 
very    respectable    married    woman    in    Enniscorthy    (Mrs. 


The  Risixg  of  '98 


219 


Stringer,  the  wife  of  an  attorney)  was  wantonly  shot  at  her 
window  by  a  yeoman  in  cold  blood.  The  rebels  (though  her 
husband  was  a  loyalist),  a  short  time  after,  took  some  of  those 
foreign  soldiers  prisoners  and  piked  them  all,  as  they  told 
them,  'just  to  show  them  how  to  shoot  ladies.'  " 

Nor  were  the  officers,  English  or  Irish,  in  the  royal  army 
a  single  pace  behind  those  vile  foreign  mercenaries  in  the 
pursuit  of  such  beast-like  brutality.  We  cannot  here  more 
than  allude  to  such  infamy,  of  which  abundant  historical  proof 
already  exists.  But  it  would  scarcely  be  credited  that  so 
fearfully  had  the  minds  of  the  people  been  perverted  by  the 
frenzy  of  religious  hatred,  that  a  lady  of  fashion,  on  being 
told  of  the  respect  shown  by  the  insurgents  to  the  fair  sex, 
merely  remarked  with  an  air  of  disgust,  that  it  was  owing 
to  a  want  of  gallantry  in  the  ''croppies." 


il!ia'll|llilMlllliiilllt;lffiWBii!!ii;i||iiyili|:illBiiiiiiiilii;iAyiU 


CHAPTER  X. 

POSITION  OF  INSURGENTS  AND  ROYAI.ISTS— BATTLE  OF  ^OOKES 

MILL. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  Saturday,  the  16th,  news  was 
brought  to  the  insurgent  camp  on  Limbrick  Hill  that  Generals 
Loftus  and  Dundas  had  quitted  their  camps  at  Tullow  and 
Hacketstown,  and  were  on  their  march  from  these  places  with 
the  intention  of  making  a  combined  attack  on  their  position. 
On  the  receipt  of  this  welcome  news  the  camp  on  Limbrick 
Hill  was  broken  up,  and  the  insurgents  were  once  more  on 
their  march  to  meet  their  foes.  They  reached  Carnew  with- 
out encountering  an  enemy;  and  thence  they  continued  their 
march  to  Tinahely,  where  their  advance  guard  came  in  view 
of  a  like  body  from  the  hostile  army,  whom  they  jDut  to  flight, 
making  many  prisoners.  They  also  captured  a  great  num- 
ber of  cattle  which  were  in  the  possession  of  the  enemy.  The 
insurgents  reached  Mount  Pleasant  that  night,  where  they 
encamped. 

At  an  early  hour  next  morning  the  united  forces  of  Dundas 
and  Loftus  came  in  sight  of  the  insurgents,  drawn  up  in 
formidable  array  on  Mount  Pleasant.  The  good  position  oc- 
cupied by  the  insurgents,  and  the  appearance  of  military 
discipline  they  exhibited,  considerably  cooled  the  ardor  the 
royalist  officers  had  the  day  before  manifested  to  encounter 
the  *' rebels."  They  had  openly  boasted  that  the  *' bloody 
croppy  rebels"  would  fly  on  the  appearance  of  such  a  formi- 
dable force  as  they  commanded.  But  no  sign  of  fear  or  in- 
clination to  fly  was  shown  by  the  fierce  array  of  warlike 
peasants.  On  the  other  hand,  these  pot-valiant  generals,  so 
ready  to  put  rebels  to  flight  over  their  cups,  now  that  they 
had  them  present,  did  not  seem  over  anxious  to  come  to  close 
quarters  with  them. 

The  English  force  came  to  a  halt  at  a  safe  distance;  and 
no  doubt  they  then  deemed  it  would  be  much  safer  to  be  out 
of  sight  altogether.  The  insurgents,  burning  to  meet  those 
despised  foes,  received  with  war-like  ardor  the  command  to 
advance,  and  charged  at  a  quick  pace  down  the  hill  in  the 
direction  of  their  enemy. 

221 


222  Ireland's  Crown  or  Thorns  and  Roses 

The  latter  did  not  choose  to  withstand  their  onset,  but 
retired  with  great  precipitation,  leaving  a  large  herd  of  cattle 
and  a  considerable  quantity  of  provisions  to  be  seized  by  their 
courageous  foes.  The  cavalry  of  the  royal  army  attempted 
to  cover  the  rear  of  the  retreating  forces,  but  were  unable  to 
prevent  the  insurgents  from  making  a  number  of  prisoners. 
The  royalist  army  continued  to  retreat  before  the  insurgents 
till  they  reached  a  hill  at  a  considerable  distance,  where  they 
halted.  "While  the  main  body  of  the  royal  troops  was  thus 
retreating  from  their  dangerous  proximity  to  their  enemy's 
line,  detached  bodies  from  the  insurgent  army  hung  upon 
their  rear,  and  gave  occupation  to  the  numerous  corps  of 
cavalry  engaged  in  covering  the  retreat.  Among  the  skir- 
mishing parties  from  the  insurgent  forces,  a  force  of  two 
hundred  Arklow  men,  under  the  command  of  Dennis  Doyle, 
made  a  great  figure;  for,  in  addition  to  their  possession  of 
that  brave  spirit  which  animated  the  entire  insurgent  army, 
they  had,  by  constant  training,  acquired  a  great  promptitude 
in  the  execution  of  military  manoeuvres,  and  bore  themselves 
as  steadily  as  veteran  soldiers.  Night  at  length  fell  over  both 
armies  and  put  an  end  to  the  pursuit.  The  tumult  of  the  fight 
was  succeeded  by  silence,  and  the  triumphant  insurgents  re- 
tired to  their  camp  on  Mount  Pleasant  to  seek  the  repose 
they  so  much  needed.  During  the  ensuing  day  the  insurgents 
remained  on  Mount  Pleasant,  where  intelligence  reached  them 
of  the  utter  failure  of  the  insurrection  in  Dublin  and  Kildare, 
and  of  the  supposed  immediate  invasion  of  the  country  by 
Bonaparte.  On  the  same  day  the  chiefs  held  a  council,  in 
which  the  next  steps  to  be  taken  were  discussed.  It  was  fin- 
ally decided  to  endeavor  to  force  the  enemy  to  give  battle. 
This  they  sought  to  do,  as  it  was  then  known  that  the  various 
English  forces  in  the  country  were  about  to  be  concentrated 
for  a  combined  attack  on  the  great  rendezvous  and  rallying 
place  of  the  insurgents  on  Vinegar  Hill.  Accordingly,  the 
insurgent  army  quitted  their  camp  on  Mount  Pleasant,  and 
took  up  a  position  on  Kilcavan  Hill,  thus  drawing  near  to  the 
headquarters  of  Lieutenant-General  Lake,  at  Gorey.  But  the 
English  generals,  with  a  large  body  of  regular  troops  and 
yeomanry,  remained  stationed  behind  their  barricades  at 
Gorey,  and  refused  to  accept  the  challenge  of  the  gallant  band 
of  "Wexford  and  "Wicklow  peasants,  who,  seeing  the  evident 
reluctance  of  their  enemy  to  engage  them,  advanced  boldly 


The  Rising  of  'OS  223 

to  the  very  walls  of  Gorey,  where  they  found  the  King's 
troops  drawn  up  in  preparation  for  an  attack.  The  few  pieces 
of  artillery  the  insurgents  possessed  were  now  brought  to  the 
front,  and  eonnnenced  to  play  on  the  enemy's  lines. 

The  royal  artillery  replied  with  spirit  to  the  insurgent's 
fire,  and  many  men  fell  on  both  sides.  The  pikemen,  who  had 
hitherto  been  kept  in  reserve,  now  received  orders  to  advance. 
This  eomiiiand  they  obeyed  with  their  usual  alacrity,  an«l 
pushed  rapidly  forward  to  encounter  the  redcoats.  The  latter 
retreated  slowly  before  the  impetuous  advance  of  the  insur- 
gents, who  continued  to  pursue  them  till  night  put  an  end  to 
the  conflict.  This  engagement  took  place  between  the  ad- 
vance guards  of  both  armies;  for  the  main  body  of  the  in- 
surgents 5''et  remained  on  the  hill,  while  that  of  the  royalists 
kept  behind  their  entrenchments  at  Gorey.  AVliile  a  part  of 
the  insurgent  army  was  thus  engaged,  their  comrades  on  the 
hill  were  busily  discussing  the  contents  of  despatches  which 
in  the  interim  had  arrived  from  the  geueral-in-chief,  which 
were  to  this  effect :— that  being  unable  to  maintain  his  position 
before  Ross,  he  was  forced  to  fall  back  with  his  division  to 
cover  "Wexford,  and  that  he  considered  it  expedient  that  the 
forces  now  on  Kilcavan  Hill  should  forthwith  set  out  for  Vine- 
gar Hill,  in  order  to  act  in  concert  with  his  army.  The  wisdom 
of  the  proposed  step  being  discussed  among  the  chiefs,  it  was 
decided  by  the  majority  to  abandon  their  present  position,  on 
the  very  evening  that  had  witnessed  the  glorious  success  of 
a  portion  of  their  army  in  combat  with  a  far  more  numerous 
force  of  the  King's  troops.  That  night  the  insurgents  set  out 
for  Vinegar  Hill,  halting  to  repose  at  Ferns,  well-night  ex- 
hausted from  excessive  fatigue  and  want  of  food.  On  the 
next  morning  they  resumed  their  march,  proceeding  slowly, 
in  order  to  give  time  to  some  who  had  gone  in  quest  of  food 
to  rejoin  their  corps.  Great  was  the  rejoicing  in  the  English 
camp  at  Gorey  when  it  was  known  that  their  dreaded  foe  had 
quitted  their  encampment  and  were  retreating  toward  Vine- 
gar Hill.  Soon  those  English  troops,  whose  cautious  generals 
had  hitherto  kept  them  cooped  behind  intrenchments,  which 
they  had  hardly  hoped  would  protect  them,  issued  from  their 
shelter  and  forthwith  commenced  a  vigorous  pursuit.  It 
would  be  vain  to  attempt  a  description  of  the  enormities  per- 
petrated by  those  worse  than  savage  troops  as  they  hung  on 
the  rear  of  the  weary  pikemen.    Suffice  it  to  say  that  in  their 


224  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

progress  througli  the  eonntry  everything  of  value  they  could 
lay  hands  on  they  jDlundered,  every  woman  that  fell  into  their 
hands  they  brutally  violated,  and  every  man  they  put  to  death. 
The  insurgents,  meantime,  continued  their  retreat  in  good 
order,  a  rear-guard  keeping  the  enemy  at  a  distance.  Their 
movements  were,  however,  considerably  impeded  by  the  vast 
multitude  of  helpless  women  and  children,  who,  flying  in 
terror  before  the  advance  of  the  royal  army,  sought  protec- 
tion of  their  armed  countrymen.  Weary  and  exhausted, 
the  latter  at  length  arrived  at  the  foot  of  Vinegar  Hill  just 
at  nightfall,  and  encamped  around  it.  A  hundred  fires,  light- 
ing up  the  dark  night,  made  visible  the  great  numbers  that 
had  sought  protection  in  the  vicinity  of  the  army  of  the  people. 

The  division  of  the  insurgents  under  the  command  of 
Father  Philip  Eoche  was  now  encamped  on  Lacken  Hill,  an 
eminence  situated  between  Koss  and  Enniscorthy,  with  the 
intention  of  making  another  attack  on  the  former  town.  But 
to  carry  this  intention  into  effect,  the  insurgents  were  sadly 
in  need  of  arms  and  ammunition. 

To  obtain  a  supply  of  these  they  resolved  to  attack  Borris 
House,  the  residence  of  Mr.  Kavangh,  which  was  known  to 
contain  a  large  quantity  of  the  material  of  war.  In  this  attack 
they  failed,  as  they  did  in  most  others  in  which  they  had  to 
fight  enemxies  sheltered  behind  stone  walls.  The  house  in  ques- 
tion was  so  strongly  built  that  the  fire  of  the  howitzer  the  in- 
surgents brought  with  them  had  no  effect  on  its  walls.  This 
fortress-like  mansion  was  defended  by  a  party  of  the  Donegal 
Militia.  The  attacking  party  carried  on  the  assault  with 
great  determination  till  evening,  when  they  desisted  from  it 
on  perceiving  the  approach  of  Charles  Asgil,  at  the  head  of 
*  an  overpowering  force.  The  baffled  insurgents  then  returned 
to  their  encamiDment  at  Lacken  Hill.  There,  on  the  morning 
of  the  19th,  one  of  the  chiefs  descried,  by  the  aid  of  a  glass,  a 
considerable  force  of  horse,  foot  and  artillery  marching 
towards  them.  When  their  general,  the  Eev.  Philip  Roche, 
was  apprised  of  this,  he  gave  orders  to  the  small  force  under 
his  command  (then  diminished  to  some  four  hundred  men)  to 
prepare  for  battle. 

This  command  was,  however,  prevented  from  being  carried 
into  effect  by  Colonel  T.  Clooney,  who  considered  it  would  be 
decidedly  rash  to  hazard  a  battle  with  such  inferior  force  as 
the  insurgents  possessed.    **  Acting  on  this  opinion,  he  desired 


The  Rising  of  '98  225 

the  men  to  draw  up  two  deep  on  the  hill-side,  fronting  their 
enemy,  and,  at  the  same  time,  i:)lacing  their  hats  at  the  end  of 
their  pikes,  to  raise  them  above  their  heads,  so  as  to  deceive 
the  enemy,  by  making  their  small  force  seem  more  numerous 
than  in  reality  it  was."  They  were,  at  the  same  moment,  to 
raise  a  shout  as  if  about  to  charge  the  advancing  enemy.  These 
orders  were  obeyed,  and  the  stratagem  succeeded.  The  ad- 
vancing royalists  halted,  seemed  to  be  thrown  into  confusion, 
extending  their  line,  as  if  to  prevent  themselves  from  being 
outflanked  by  the  insurgents,  whom  they  supposed  about  to 
attack  them  in  great  force.  While  this  confusion  prevailed 
amongst  the  King's  troops,  the  insurgents  made  a  hasty  re- 
treat in  the  direction  of  Wexford,  and,  before  the  enemy  were 
in  readiness  to  pursue  them,  were  at  a  safe  distance. 

Mr.  Clooney  admits  that  the  number  of  the  royal  troops  did 
not  exceed  that  of  the  insurgents,  but  considered  that  as  the 
latter  had  but  a  few  rounds  of  ammunition  for  their  muskets, 
and  no  cannon,  an  engagement  could  only  end  in  defeat.  He 
affirms  that  Father  Roche,  on  being  told  of  the  enemy's  ap- 
proach, immediately  issued  orders  for  battle,  without  even 
inquiring  what  force  he  had  to  encounter. 

At  a  late  hour  that  night  the  insurgents  arrived  at  the  en- 
campment on  the  Three  Rocks,  considerably  augmented  in 
numbers  on  the  way  thither.  They  heard  on  their  arrival  that 
Sir  John  Moore,  at  the  head  of  a  large  force,  was  encamped 
at  Longraig,  a  village  midway  between  Ross  and  Wexford. 
In  consequence  of  this  intelligence,  a  council  of  war  was  held  to 
deliberate  concerning  the  steps  to  be  taken.  Some  officers  sug- 
gested a  night  attack,  but  this  was  opposed  by  the  majority, 
and  it  was  finally  resolved  to  set  out  at  an  early  hour  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning.  According,  at  daybreak  next  morning,  the 
insurgents,  being  reinforced  by  a  body  of  guusmen,  who  had 
been  summoned  by  express  during  the  night  from  Vinegar 
Hill,  set  out  to  give  battle  to  fifteen  hundred  chosen  troops 
under  the  command  of  one  of  the  bravest  and  most  skillful 
generals  in  the  English  service.  When  the  insurgents  ar- 
rived at  Goff 's  Bridge,  within  sight  of  the  enemy,  they  halted, 
and  the  gunsmen,  who  had  been  mingling  with  pikemen  during 
their  hurried  march,  were  now  arrayed  into  a  separate  body— 
forming  a  line  four  deep,  and  amounting  to  about  six  hundred 
and  fifty  men.  At  this  critical  juncture,  when  the  insurgents 
were  about  to  engage  their  enemy,  the  chief,  who  has  been  al- 


220  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ready  mentioned  as  having  betrayed  the  cause  at  Ross,  left 
the  field  at  the  head  of  his  detachment,  under  pretence  of 
taking  up  a  position  as  would  enable  him  to  cut  off  the  enemy's 
retreat  in  case  of  their  being  defeated.  While  Colonel  Clooney 
was  engaged  in  remonstrating  with  this  recreant,  General 
Roche,  with  his  usual  promptitude,  issued  orders  to  his  men 
to  advance  towards  the  enemy,  who  were  drawn  up  in  a  line 
of  battle  at  Fooke's  Mill. 

During  the  battle  which  ensued  the  pikemen  were  forced 
to  remain  inactive,  the  nature  of  the  ground  chosen  by  the 
English  generals  rendering  their  advance  impossible,  and 
consequently  the  combat  had  to  be  maintained  by  the  gunsmen. 
The  latter  continued  to  pour  their  fire  upon  the  English  line 
till  their  ammunition  was  exhausted ;  then  perceiving  two  cav- 
alry regiments,  under  Lord  Dalhousie,  approaching  to  rein- 
force the  enemy,  the  insurgent  general  unwillingly  ordered  a 
retreat. 

No  attempt  was  made  to  molest  the  insurgents,  who  retired 
from  the  contest  slowly  and  in  good  order,  bringing  with 
them  five  out  of  the  six  small  pieces  of  cannon  they  had  con- 
veyed with  them.  There  is  little  doubt  that  the  failure  of  the 
insurgents '  ammunition  saved  the  English  force  from  destruc- 
tion, as  in  case  of  a  retreat,  they  would  have  been  charged  by 
the  resistless  pikemen.  The  great  loss,  amounting  to  about 
five  hundred  men  in  killed  and  wounded  on  the  side  of  the 
English,  sufficiently  accounts  for  the  unmolested  retreat  of 
their  enemy.  In  this  action  the  loss  of  the  insurgents  did  not 
amount  to  half  that  sustained  by  the  royalists.  The  main 
body  of  the  insurgents  encamped  on  the  Three  Rocks,  while 
a  party  belonging  to  the  town  took  up  their  quarters  there 
for  the  night. 


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CHAPTER  XL 

ALARM  OP  THE  ENGLISH  GOVERNMENT-FAMOUS  BATTLE  OF  VINE- 
GAR HILL. 

The  English  government,  to  render  effectual  whose  vile 
design  upon  the  legislative  independence  of  Ireland  the  people 
had  been  goaded  into  this  insurrection,  now  beginning  to  fear 
lest  the  continued  and  stubborn  resistance  of  the  Wexfordmen 
might  arouse  the  rest  of  the  country  from  their  unaccountable 
apathy,  resolved  to  crush  the  rebellion  at  once  by  pouring 
into  the  country  such  a  force  as  would  render  resistance  im- 
possible. It  seemed,  in  truth,  from  the  vastness  of  England's 
military  preparation,  as  if  she  were  waging  war  against  the 
umted  forces  of  some  powerful  and  rival  nation,  not  merely 
against  the  half-armed  peasantry  of  but  one,  and  that  not 
the  largest,  of  the  thirty-two  counties  of  Ireland. 

''When  we  consider,"  says  Mr.  Teeling,  -the  number  of 
troops  engaged,  the  rank  and  distinction  of  the  commanders 
and  the  immense  preparations  for  reducing  a  single  county' 
we  may  form  some  idea  of  the  importance  that  Government 
attached  to  the  Wexford  campaign.    After  so  many  severe 
conflicts  between  the  British  and  the  united  troops,  it  was 
now  evident  that  Wexford  could  only  be  reduced  by  an  over- 
whelming force;  and  we  find  with  others  the  followino-  Brit- 
ish officers  employed  in  this   service:     Lieutenants-General 
Lake  and  Dundas,  Majors-General  Needham,  Duff    Hunter 
Loftus,  Eustace,  Johnson,  Gasco>Tie,  and  Brigadiers-General 
Moore,  Grose,  etc.    The  opposition  which  this  force  encount- 
ered was  evident  proof  that  the  Government  had  not  over- 
rated the  courage  of  the  foe." 

From  all  quarters  regiments  were  on  the  march  to  take 
part  ma  combined  attack  on  the  insurgent  encampment 

In  obedience  to  orders  from  the  commander-in-chief  Gen- 
eral Lake,  the  following  generals  put  the  troops  under  their 
command  in  motion,  and  hastened  to  occupy  the  positions 
assig-ned  to  them :  General  Dundas  marched  from  Baltinglas 
to  Hacketstown,  there  to  form  a  junction  with  Major-General 
Lottus,  who  was  to  proceed  thither  from  Tallow;  both  gen- 
erals were  then  to  advance  with  their  combined  forces  to  at- 

227 


228  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

tack  the  insurgents  posted  on  Mount  Pleasant.  By  orders 
from  the  general-in-cliief  they  halted  at  Hackettstown  to  await 
the  signal  for  attack.  Wliile  the  above-mentioned  command- 
ers halted  at  Hacketstown,  Major-General  Needham  moved, 
on  the  19th  of  June,  from  Arklow  to  Gorey,  and  on  the  ensu- 
ing day  encamped  on  Oulart  Hill.  On  the  19th,  Major  General 
Johnson  and  General  Eustace,  having  driven  the  insurgents 
from  Lacken  Hill,  proceeded  to  Bloomfield,  where  they  en- 
camjDed  on  the  evening  of  the  20th.  On  the  same  evening 
Brigadier-General  Moore  took  up  position  at  Fooke's  Mill, 
and  Major-General  Sir  James  Duff  had  marched  from  New- 
townbarry,  and  joined  General  Loftus  at  Scarawalsh. 

It  would  be  utterly  impossible  to  describe  the  devastation 
caused  by  these  various  divisions  of  the  English  army  as  they 
marched  to  take  up  their  different  positions.  Corps  of  auxil- 
iary yeomen  followed  each  of  these  divisions  to  render  the 
ruin  of  the  country  more  complete.  On  the  20th  all  the  above- 
named  generals  had  arrived  at  their  appointed  stations,  where 
they  remained  to  await  further  orders  from  Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral  Lake,  who,  with  General  Dundas,  was  posted  at  Sols- 
borough.  To  aid  the  concentration  of  troojDS  on  land  several 
men-of-war  appeared  oif  the  coast,  while  gunboats  blocked  up 
the  entrance  of  Wexford  Harbor.  As  these  troops,  strong 
in  num])er  and  discipline,  and  amply  provided  with  every 
munition  of  war,  pursued  their  way  of  blood  and  fire  through 
the  devastated  country,  the  unfortunate  inhabitants,  old  men, 
women,  and  children,  who  had  hitherto  sought  an  anxious  and 
trembling  refuge  amidst  their  native  fields,  now  driven  even 
from  this  shelter,  were  forced  to  seek  protection  at  the  en- 
campments where  the  national  flag  still  waved  in  defiance  to 
the  foe.  Many  of  these  helpless  and  terrified  fugitives  directed 
their  steps  to  the  town  of  Wexford,  of  which  their  countrymen 
still  held  possession.  Among  the  English  generals  at  the  time 
in  Wexford,  one  alone  is  recorded  to  have  shown  that  gra- 
cious qualitj^  of  mercy,  without  which  the  soldier  becomes  a 
mere  mercenary  butcher;  he  endeavored  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
executions  and  half  hangings,  and  the  various  tortures  that 
had  caused  such  unparalleled  misery  in  Wexford. 

The  deep  slumbers  of  the  brave  men  who  lay  around  Vine- 
gar Hill  were  early  broken  by  the  random  shots  that  announced 
the  ai)proach  of  the  royal  army. 

The  men  who  were  aroused  by  such  a  stern  call  from  their 


The  Rising  of  '98  229 

much-noedcd  rest  and  reminded  of  tlie  perilous  struggle  be- 
fore them,  had  proved  themselves  in  many  a  hard  fought  com- 
bat the  bravest  of  the  brave,  and  now,  in  the  crisis  of  their 
career  there  was  no  sign  of  dismay  among  them.  They  an- 
swered promptly  to  the  call  of  their  leaders,  and  each  man 
betook  himself  without  delay  to  the  place  assigned  for  the 
assemblage  of  the  particular  corps  to  which  he  belonged.  The 
cheerful  and  inspiring  summons  of  the  drum  and  fife  was,  in 
the  insurgent  army,  supplied  by  the  human  voice,  and  on  hear- 
ing the  name  of  his  native  parish  shouted  aloud,  the  rustic  sol- 
died  quickly  proceeded  to  poin  his  comrades.  The  armies  about 
to  engage  were  nearly  equal  in  numbers,  but  here  all  parity 
ceases.  Twenty  thousand  brave  peasants  shouldered  pike  or 
musket  around  Vinegar  Hill,  while  as  many  trained  English 
soldiery  were  drawn  up  in  a  circle  that  nearly  enclosed  their 
line,  prepared  to  give  them  battle. 

Twenty  thousand  English  troops,  led  by  six  chosen  gen- 
erals, and  practiced  in  every  military  manoeuvre,  furnished 
with  the  great  arm  of  war,  a  formidable  artillery,  and  aided 
by  many  corps  of  yeoman  cavalry,  might  promise  themselves 
an  easy  victory  over  enemies  so  unskillfully  led  and  so  poorly 
armed  as  the  insurgents.  Moreover,  the  royal  troops  were 
fresh  from  the  repose  of  the  camp,  and  vigorous  as  men 
should  be  who  never  suffered  from  the-want  of  fitting  food 
or  drink. 

At  early  dawn  the  English  troops  began  to  approach  the 
insurgent  position,  and  gradually  to  form  a  kind  of  circle 
around  their  foes  encamped  on  the  hill  and  its  immediate 
vicinity.  This  circle  was  not,  however,  complete,  for  on  the 
AVexford  side  of  the  hill  it  was  open,  and  General  Needham, 
whose  division,  it  was  afterwards  affirmed,  should  have  occu- 
pied the  vacant  space,  was  stationed  in  the  rear  to  cover  a 
possible  retreat,  for  former  defeats  had  made  this  at  least 
possible  to  General-in-Chief  Lake.  The  rattle  of  musketry 
that  had  roused  the  slumbering  peasants  to  resume  their  arms 
became  more  frequent  as  the  morning  advanced,  and  soon  the 
cannon  was  heard  thundering  from  the  various  advancing 
bodies  of  the  British  army.  When  the  powerful  English  artil- 
lery came  within  range  its  concentrated  fire  was  directed 
against  the  summit  of  the  hill,  whereon  the  greater  part  of 
the  insurgent  force  was  massed,  amongst  whom  it  did  consid- 
erable execution.    To  this  destructive  fire  from  so  many  large 


230  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

pieces  of  artillery  the  few  small  guns,  but  two,  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  insurgents  made  a  feeble  response  of  defiance,  but 
lacked  the  skill  of  Esmond  Kyan  to  direct  its  fire,  which  soon 
ceased  altogether  on  the  ammunition  becoming  exhausted. 

'^Even  on  Vinegar  Hill,"  remarks  Mr.  Hay,  "there  were 
but  two  charges  for  cannon— one  of  which  was  fired  against 
the  army  approaching  from  Solsborough,  and  the  other  a  dis- 
mounted cannon  posted  at  the  Duffery  Gate  at  Enniscorthy." 

The  ammunition  for  the  smaller  arms  soon  after  failed, 
and  the  pike  w^as  now  the  only  hope.  All  this  while  the  insur- 
gents had  sustained  a  murderous  fire  from  the  English  rifle- 
men, who,  finding  a  convenient  shelter  behind  the  various 
hedges  and  ditches  in  the  vicinity  of  the  hill,  poured  thence  a 
terrible  fire  on  their  exposed  enemies.  Though  their  ammuni- 
tion was  all  expended,  the  brave  insurgents  still  continued  the 
fight,  and  endeavored  to  drive  their  foes  from  behind  their 
natural  entrenchments.  It  was  a  fearful  sight  to  behold 
the  gallant  pikemen  charging  up  to  the  very  mouths  of  the 
cannon  with  a  desperate  bravery  that  has  never  been  sur- 
passed, while  their  ranks  were  being  terribly  thinned  by  suc- 
cessive discharges  of  every  species  of  deadly  firearm.  Con- 
cerning the  position  occupied,  and  the  bravery  displayed  by 
the  insurgents  during  this  action.  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  makes 
the  following  observations : 

''The  peasantry  had  dug  a  slight  ditch  around  the  extent 
of  the  base  of  Vinegar  Hill;  they  had  a  very  few  pieces  of 
small,  half-disabled  cannon,  some  swivels,  and  not  above  two 
thousand  firearms  of  all  descriptions.  But  their  situation 
was  desperate,  and  General  Lake  considered  that  two  thou- 
sand firearms  in  the  hands  of  infuriated  and  courageous  men, 
supported  by  a  multitude  of  pikemen,  might  be  equal  to  ten 
times  the  number  under  other  circumstances. 

"A  great  many  women  mingled  with  their  relatives,  and 
fought  with  fury ;  several  Avere  found  dead  amongst  the  men, 
who  had  fallen  in  crowds  by  the  bursting  of  shells.  .  .  . 
It  was  astonishing  with  w^liat  fortitude  the  peasantry,  uncov- 
ered, stood  the  tremendous  fire  upon  the  four  sides  of  their 
position;  a  stream  of  shells  and  grape  was  poured  on  the 
multitude;  the  leader  encouraged  them  by  exhortations,  the 
women,  by  their  cries,  and  every  shell  that  broke  amongst 
the  crowd  was  followed  by  shouts  of  defiance.  General  Lake's 
horse  was  shot,  many  officers  wounded,  some  killed,  and  a  few 


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'   - The  Rising  of  '98  231 

gentlemen  became  visible  during  the  heat  of  the  battle.  The 
troops  advanced  gradually  but  steadily  up  the  hill ;  the  peas- 
antry kept  up  their  fire,  and  maintained  their  ground;  their 
cannon  were  nearly  useless,  their  powder  deficient,  but  they 
died  fighting  at  their  post. ' ' 

It  was  a  slaughter,  not  a  fight,  for  to  the  ceaseless  beat- 
ing of  the  iron  storm  the  hapless  insurgents  could  not  reply 
with  even  one  defiant  shot.  While  the  body  of  insurgents  on 
the  hill  carried  on  the  contest  with  such  heroic  perseverance 
against  such  fearful  odds,  the  division  that  obeyed  the  joint 
command  of  Mr.  Barker  and  Father  Kearns  had  likewise  been 
hotly  engaged  with  the  enemy.  Their  position  was  at  some 
distance  beyond  the  Duffery  Gate,  and  this  they  had  suc- 
cessfully defended  against  the  English,  under  General  John- 
son, on  the  preceding  day.  The  attack  on  this  position  was 
renewed  in  the  morning  and  continued  till  the  retreat  of  their 
comrades  from  Vinegar  Hill.  Barker,  whose  experience  in 
the  French  service  we  have  already  mentioned,  showed  in  this 
action  that  he  had  profited  by  his  past  lessons  in  military  art. 
He  first  posted  a  body  of  reserve  on  the  bridge,  where  he  also 
placed  the  only  cannon  he  possessed,  which  was  of  small  size, 
and  mounted  on  a  car. 

He  then  formed  the  main  body  of  his  brave  pikemen,  sta- 
tioning the  gunsmen  on  either  flank.  Having  made  this  dis- 
position of  his  force,  he  charged  desperately  down  on  the 
enemy's  line,  and  continued  to  hold  them  in  check  until  they 
were  too  strongly  reinforced,  when  he  retreated  to  the  bridge, 
which  he  held  with  dauntless  determination,  till  the  loss  of  his 
arm  comj^elled  him  to  quit  the  field.  Father  Kearns  took  his 
place,  but  was  soon  after  severely  wounded  and  carried  from 
the  fight. 

Another  priest  named  Clinch  was  slain  in  this  action.  He 
was  engaged  in  an  encounter  with  Lord  Roden,  whom  he  had 
wounded,  when  a  trooper,  coming  up  to  the  assistance  of  his 
officer,  shot  down  his  opponent. 

This  unequal  struggle,  which  the  insurgents  maintained 
during  so  many  hours  against  such  terrible  odds  at  length 
came  to  an  end.  Orders  were  issued  by  the  insurgent  leaders 
for  a  retreat  in  the  direction  of  Wexford ;  the  road  to  which 
town,  as  we  have  seen,  was  left  open  to  them  by  the  cautious 
policy  of  the  English  generals,  who  feared  to  drive  their  stub- 
born foes  to  desperation.  The  barbarous  cruelties  perpetrated 


232  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

by  the  command  of  General  Lake  sufficiently  evinced  that  pru- 
dence, and  not  mercy  or  any  nobler  motive,  prompted  him  thus 
to  leave  retreat  open  to  his  hard-fighting  foes.  To  the  eternal 
disgrace  of  the  army  to  which  such  a  miscreant  belonged,  he 
caused  the  hospital  that  sheltered  the  sick  and  wounded  to 
the  insurgent  army  to  be  set  on  fire,  and,  horrible  to  relate, 
all  the  unfortunate  inmates  were  burned  to  death  in  the  flames 
that  consumed  the  building.  Moreover,  he  issued  orders  that 
all  the  wounded  on  the  field  of  battle,  as  well  as  those  dis- 
covered in  the  houses,  would  be  put  to  immediate  death.  In- 
delibly branded  is  the  nation  whose  flag  is  upheld  by  such 
merciless  butchers  as  this  disgrace  to  the  noble  profession  of 
a  soldier  1 

Barker,  the  wounded  leader,  was  saved  from  the  fate  of 
the  others  in  the  same  case,  through  the  interference  of  some 
staff-officers  who  quartered  themselves  at  his  house;  how- 
ever, he  was  arrested  by  order  of  the  general-in-chief,  and 
conveyed  to  Wexford  jail,  there  to  wait  his  trial.  He  was 
soon  after  released  from  prison  on  account  of  ill  health,  at 
the  intercession  of  his  brother,  and  pending  his  trial  managed 
to  escape  to  France.  The  insurgent  army,  thus  forced  to  re- 
treat, were  enabled  to  continue  their  march  towards  Wexford 
almost  unmolested.  The  cavalry,  as  usual,  being  upon  their 
rear,  occasionally  showed  an  inclination  to  assail  their  re- 
treating enemy,  but  the  rear-guard  kept  them  in  effectual 
check.  But  it  fared  far  otherwise  with  the  defenceless  multi- 
tude, who  had  gathered  round  the  insurgent  camp  on  the  fatal 
hill.  To  these  no  mercy  was  shown;  they  were  inhumanly 
butchered  by  the  pursuing  yeomanry.  These  wretches  dis- 
played on  this  occasion,  their  usual  thirst  for  blood,  and  their 
swords,  so  seldom  reddened  in  fight,  were  now  deeply  dyed  in 
the  blood  of  unarmed  fugitives.  The  number  slain  in  battle 
on  that  day  was  small  in  comparison  with  the  multitude  of 
unarmed  who  fell  by  the  swords  of  the  victors. 

With  respect  to  the  number  who  were  slain  on  the  insur- 
gent side  during  the  battle.  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  says : '  *  Cav- 
alry and  mortars  were  brought  to  force  their  line,  and  even 
against  such  an  attack  they  made  a  long  and  desperate  re- 
sistance, and  retreated  from  that  large  and  disciplined  army 
witli  very  little  comparative  loss."  Surely,  such  a  retreat 
w*f)  more  glorious  than  many  a  victory. 

When  the  insurgents  arrived  at  Wexford  they  found  it 


The  Kiwing  of  '98  233 

already  occupied  by  the  division  of  their  army  which  had 
retreated  from  Ross;  and  thus,  after  three  weeks  of  almost 
incessant  fighting,  wherein  thousands  of  brave  men  had  fallen, 
the  renmants  of  both  divisions  again  met,  less  sanguine,  in- 
deed, than  when  first  they  Darted,  but  still  not  hopeless  for 
the  future. 

The  insurgents  were  greatly  aided  in  their  retreat  by  a 
large  force  under  General  Edward  Roche,  who  arrived  too  late 
to  join  in  the  combat  at  the  hill,  but  in  time  to  render  his  de- 
feated comrades  this  important  service.  It  was  his  force  that 
covered  the  retreat.  While  the  battle  was  yet  raging  at  Vine- 
gar Hill,  the  reports  of  the  distant  artillery  were  borne  omin- 
ously to  the  ears  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Wexford. 
At  length  they  ceased,  and  soon  after  the  news  was  brought 
that  the  roj^al  forces  had  won  the  day,  and  were  already  on 
their  march  towards  the  town. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

BUMOES  OF  FRENCH  INVASION  — GREAT  EXCITEMENT  IN  WEXFORD— 
EXECUTION  OF  PRISONERS  ON  THE  BRIDGE. 

The  rumors  now  rife  of  a  French  invasion  increased  the 
anxiety  of  the  British  Government  in  no  small  degree,  for 
could  the  Wexford  men  prolong  the  contest  till  the  arrival  of  a 
Gallic  force  to  their  aid,  the  result  of  their  combined  efforts 
might  prove  fatal  to  British  dominion  in  Ireland. 

To  quell  the  insurrection  before  the  arrival  of  such  formi- 
dable auxiliaries  was  now  the  object  towards  the  accomplish- 
ment of  which  all  the  vast  resources  of  England  were  em- 
ployed. Eegiment  after  regiment  came  pouring  into  Wexford 
till  the  insurgents  found  themselves  confronted  with  an  over- 
whelming power. 

It  is  computed  that  previous  to  the  action  at  Vinegar  Hill 
there  was  a  force  of  fully  90,000  men  collected  in  the  county 
of  Wexford,  so  that  there  were  at  the  least  three  soldiers  to 
every  insurgent.  These  were  fearful  odds  against  the  pa- 
triots, who,  though  entertaining  but  small  hopes  of  ultimate 
success,  determined,  nevertheless,  to  maintain  the  struggle 
to  the  last  extremity.  Around  Vinegar  Hill  they  decided  to 
assemble  their  dispersed  forces,  and  accordingly  from  that 
post  messengers  were  despatched  in  all  directions  to  summon 
thither  the  insurgents  who  were  still  in  arms.  In  this  emer- 
gency the  dismayed  and  perplexed  inhabitants  of  Wexford  as- 
sembled together  to  consult  concerning  what  measures  they 
should  adopt,  but  while  they  were  yet  engaged  in  delibera- 
tion, an  imperious  summons  arrived  from  Vinegar  Hill,  com- 
manding all  the  fighting  men  to  be  there  at  daybreak.  Many 
of  the  townsmen  set  off  that  evening  to  join  the  chief  rendez- 
vous, w^hile,  to  appease  the  insurgents  in  their  vicinity,  a 
party  of  sailers  employed  themselves  in  conveying  to  the 
Three  Rocks  the  six  small  cannon  taken  from  the  Guinea  cut- 
ter. On  the  evening  of  the  19th  a  band  of  AVexford  gunsmen 
returned  to  town  from  Vinegar  Hill  with  imperative  orders 
to  bring  out  reinforcements  to  that  camp.  At  daybreak  on  the 
ensuing  day  the  drums  beat,  and  all  the  armed  inhabitants 
marched  out,  leaving  none  behind  save  those  who  formed  the 
guard. 

235 


236  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

On  the  niglit  preceding  the  departure  of  these  men  a 
band  of  seventy  j^ikemen  from  the  northern  parts  of  the 
county  had  arrived  in  town,  and  were  lodged  in  the  barracks 
by  Captain  Dixon.  Mr.  Hay,  who  seemed  the  good  angel  of 
the  Orangemen— while  the  captain  might  be  termed  their  evil 
genius— suspected  that  the  latter  entertained  sinister  designs 
with  regard  to  his  proteges,  resolved,  if  possible,  to  thwart 
him  in  their  accomplishment. 

With  seventy  pikemen  at  his  back  Daxon  might  act  the 
dictator  in  the  town,  and  sacrifice  those  he  deemed  the  enemies 
of  his  county.  To  prevent  him  from  putting  into  execution 
such  a  sanguinary  scheme,  Mr.  Hay  mounted  his  horse,  and 
rode  off  on  the  spur  to  the  eamp  at  the  Three  Rocks,  to  repre- 
sent the  matter  to  the  chiefs  of  the  insurgent  army. 

He  succeeded,  though  not  without  great  difficulty,  in  obtain- 
ing the  aid  he  sought,  in  the  shape  of  a  party  of  120  of  his 
fellow-townsmen,  who  had  a  few  days  before  joined  the  camp. 
However,  four  days  elapsed  before  Mr.  Hay  could  gain  what 
he  sought,  and  on  his  return  found,  to  his  dismay,  the  town 
thronged  with  armed  insurgents. 

This  force  had  been  collected  in  the  country  and  brought 
in  by  General  Edward  Roche,  preparatory  to  their  proceed- 
ing to  reinforce  the  camp  at  Vinegar  Hill. 

On  the  morning  of  the  20th,  when  General  Roche  desired 
to  lead  his  body  to  the  Hill,  he  found,  to  his  great  mortifica- 
tion, that  they  were  unwilling  to  accompany  him  thither. 
They  were  led  to  adopt  this  course  by  the  advice  of  Captain 
Dixon,  who,  having  first  aroused  the  spirit  of  vengeance  in 
their  breasts  by  a  recital  of  their  wrongs,  represented  to  them 
that  a  fortunate  chance  being  placed  iu  their  power,  the  chief 
inflictors  of  these  evils,  it  would  be  folly  to  permit  them  to 
escape  unpunished.  Dixon  urged  this  point  with  such  artful 
eloquence  that  they  determined  to  aid  him  in  the  execution  of 
the  sanguinary  scheme  he  had  long  meditated.  Mr.  Hay  thus 
describes  the  excitement  of  the  multiude:  ^^When  the  peo- 
ple were  assembled,  and  when  General  Roche  thought  to  lead 
them  to  an  Enniscorthy,  they  peremptorily  refused  to  pro- 
ceed, representing  Wexford,  from  the  suggestions  of  Cap- 
tain Dixon,  as  more  vunerable;  wherefore,  the  General  him- 
self thought  it  more  advisable  to  continue  with  this  body  of 
the  people,  now  consisting  chiefly  of  fugitives  from  the  north- 
ern parts  of  the  county. 


The  Risino  of  '98  237 

''These  wore  continually  relating  tlieir  misfortunes,  the 
cruelties  they  suffered  and  the  hardships  they  endured,  to 
those  with  whom  they  took  refuge ;  which  roused  and  irritated 
the  populace  to  such  a  pitch  of  fury  as  admits  not  of  a  de- 
scription and  of  which  none  but  an  eye-witness  can  have  an 
adequate  idea. 

"All  entreaties  and  remonstrances  to  soothe  or  calm  the 
exasperated  multitude  were  in  vain.  However,  continuing  still 
on  horseback,  I  endeavored  to  address,  explain,  excuse  and 
expostulate,  and  in  the  course  of  these  attempts  many  pikes 
were  raised  against  me,  and  several  guns  and  pistols  cocked 
and  pointed  at  me  and  vengeance  vowed  against  me  as  an 
Orangeman;  that  I  had  never  attended  their  camps  or  I 
would  be  a  judge  of  their  miseries  bj^  a  view  of  general  deso- 
lation. One  man  would  roar  out  that  I  had  not  been  flogged 
as  he  had  been;  another  pathetically  related  that  his  house 
had  been  burned ;  and  that  he  had  been  driven  to  beggary  with 
his  whole  family,  and  that  he  would  have  the  death  of  the 
person  that  injured  him;  a  third  lamented  the  death  of  his 
father;  another  that  of  a  brother;  others  of  their  children; 
and  the  appeal  was  made  to  me  to  decide  on  all  their  various 
sufferings  and  misfortunes,  while  they  perseveringly  declared 
they  only  wanted  to  be  avenged  of  those  who  had  actually 
done  them  wrong,  and  I  was  asked,  if  similarly  circumstanced, 
would  I  not  take  revenge  for  such  injuries  as  theirs." 

Mr.  Hay  then  implored  them  to  grant  the  Orangemen  at 
least  a  trial,  but  was  answered  by  the  universal  cry,  "What 
trial  did  we  or  our  friends  and  relations  obtain  when  some 
were  hanged  or  shot  and  others  whipped  or  otherwise  tor- 
tured, our  houses  and  property  burned  and  destroyed  and  our- 
selves hunted  like  mad  dogs?" 

At  lengih  the  people  yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  Mr.  Hay 
and  others  and  consented  to  grant  the  prisoners  a  trial.  A 
tribunal  of  seven  men  was  constituted  to  determine  their 
sentence.  Of  this  number  four  proved  favorable  to  mercy 
and  could  not  be  brought  to  alter  their  decision  hj  the  argu- 
ments or  threats  of  Captain  Dixon.  The  latter  in  despair  of 
gaining  their  acquiescence,  was  on  the  point  of  yielding  when 
aid  came  to  him  from  an  unexpected  quarter. 

Two  Orangemen  named  Jackson  and  O'Connor  came  for- 
ward and  proffered  their  testimony  as  informers  against  the 
prisoners. 


23S  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Dixon  was  now  triumphant.  The  news  of  an  event  which 
favored  their  views  was  soon  spread  abroad  among  the  angry 
multitude,  and  a  demand  was  heard  for  the  instant  execution 
of  such  as  should  be  found  guilty  on  the  strength  of  the  lately- 
found  testimony. 

Mr.  Hay  and  his  fellow-intercessors  retired  from  the  scene, 
and  the  bloody  tragedy  began.  The  first  who  suffered  was  a 
man  named  Matthewson,  who  was  shot  outside  the  prison 
door.  A  batch  of  eighteen  unfortunates  was  then  conducted 
to  the  bridge  at  the  request  of  Dixon,  he  himself  flanked  on 
either  side  by  an  informer,  heading  the  horrid  procession. 
The  manner  of  their  trial  was  as  follows:  Placed  on  their 
knees  on  the  bridge,  they  were  confronted  with  the  two  in- 
formers, who  gave  their  evidence  against  them ;  if  the  alleged 
crime  was  considered  deserving  of  death,  before  the  sentence 
was  pronounced  by  Dixon,  it  was  asked  of  the  people  who 
thronged  around  did  they  know  of  any  good  action  that  might 
be  thought  sufficient  to  counterbalance  their  crimes  and  entitle 
them  to  mercy. 

Several  of  the  prisoners  found  an  intercessor  among  the 
spectators,  and  were  thus  snatched  from  death.  But  in  case 
no  such  intercessor  came  forward,  the  death-signal  was  given 
by  the  judge,  and  the  condemned  was  instantly  piked. 

The  bodies  were  then  thrown  over  the  railing  of  the  bridge 
into  the  river,  nothing  being  taken  off  the  person,  for  the 
object  of  the  insurgents  was  vengeance,  not  robbery.  This 
terrible  tragedy  went  on  for  some  time  uninterrupted,  till  a 
Mr.  Kellet,  on  being  brought  before  the  summary  tribunal, 
bethought  him  in  his  extremity  of  summoning  to  his  aid  the 
parish  priest  of  the  town.  Rev.  Father  Currin.  This  was  the 
first  intimation  the  reverend  gentleman  had  of  what  was  go- 
ing on.  He  came  running  to  the  bridge  in  time  to  interpose 
between  the  person  who  had  summoned  him  and  a  bloody 
death.  The  pikes  of  the  executioners  were  uplifted  to  be 
again  reddened  with  the  blood  of  another  victim,  when  the 
minister  of  peace  came  upon  the  scene,  where  angry  and  re- 
vengeful passions  had  full  sway,  and  Christian  men  had  for- 
gotten, in  the  remembrance  of  their  dreadful  wrongs,  the 
most  sublime  of  the  Redeemer's  precepts— forgiveness  of  in- 
juries. The  good  priest  threw  himself  upon  his  knees  beside 
the  intended  victim,  and  implored  the  people  who  stood  around 
to  join  in  prayer.    Many  of  them  yielded  to  this  entreaty,  and 


The  Rising  of  '08  239 

knelt  down.  Then  in  solemn  and  fervent  tones  he  prayed 
the  Almighty  Judge  to  show  hereafter  the  same  mercy  to  the 
people  as  they  would  show  to  the  prisoners.  This  produced 
a  deep  impression  on  many  of  them.  Mr.  Kellet's  life  was 
spared,  but  the  trials  were  resumed,  and  others  whose  guilt 
was  more  evident  were  put  to  death.  A  new  intercessor  soon 
after  appeared.  This  was  Mr.  Esmond  Kyan,  who,  though 
suffering  from  a  severe  wound  received  at  the  battle  of  New 
Ross,  had  risen  from  his  sick  bed,  and  caused  himself  to  be 
borne  on  a  litter  to  the  spot.  He  added  his  entreaties  to  those 
of  Father  Currin,  and  at  length  the  slaughter  ceased.  In  all 
thirty-six  persons  fell  victims  to  popular  vengeance.  Refer- 
ring to  the  humane  exertions  of  Father  Currin  and  Mr.  Kyan 
on  this  occasion,  a  Protestant  gentleman  afterwards  re- 
marked :  ' '  I  have  heard  of  hundreds  of  Catholics  who  risked 
their  lives  to  save  those  of  Protestants,  but  not  of  one  Prot- 
estant who  encountered  any  danger  to  save  the  lives  of  Catho- 
lics.'^ 

On  the  save  evening,  about  eight  o'clock.  General  Roche 
marched  off  with  his  men  towards  Vinegar  Hill,  but  too  late 
to  form  a  junction  with  the  insurgents  assembled  there,  for 
the  hill  was  already  surrounded  by  the  English  troops.  On 
the  21st  the  engagement  at  Vinegar  Hill  took  place,  and  the 
thunder  of  the  English  artillery  was  distinctly  heard  in  Wex- 
ford, warning  the  inhabitants  to  provide  for  their  safety, 
for  little  hope  was  entertained  by  them  that  the  scale  of  vic- 
tory would  incline  in  favor  of  the  insurgents.  At  an  early 
hour  on  the  same  day  Lord  Kingsborough  sent  for  Mr.  Hay 
to  concert  measures  for  the  safety  of  the  town. 

The  drums  were  beaten  to  assemble  the  inhabitants.  They 
met  at  the  house  of  Captain  Keough,  and  there  decided  to 
send  a  deputation  to  each  of  the  three  royal  generals,  who, 
with  their  divisions,  were  now  approaching  Wexford. 

One  of  these  had  arrived  at  Oulart,  another  was  posted  at 
Enniscorthy,  while  a  third  had  arrived  at  the  Three  Rocks. 
It  was  also  decided  at  the  meeting  in  question  to  appoint  Lord 
Kingsborough  military  governor  of  the  town,  and  to  reinstate 
Dr.  Jacob  as  mayor.  Lord  Kingsborough  having  received  the 
sword  which  Captain  Keough  reluctantly  resigned,  proceeded 
to  write  off  despatches  to  the  different  British  commanders. 
These  despatches  ran  as  follows : 

''That  the  town  of  Wexford  had  surrendered  to  him,  and 


240  Ireland's  Crowx  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

in  consequence  of  the  behavior  of  those  in  the  town  during 
the  rebellion,  they  should  all  be  protected  in  person  and  prop- 
erty, murderers  exceiJted,  and  those  who  instigated  others  to 
commit  murder;  hoping  that  these  terms  might  be  ratified, 
as  he  had  pledged  his  honor  in  the  most  solemn  manner  to 
have  these  terms  fulfilled  on  the  town  being  surrendered  to 
him,  the  Wexford  men  not  being  concerned  in  the  massacre, 
which  was  perpetrated  by  country  people  in  their  absence." 

With  the  foregoing  document  another  was  forwarded  from 
the  people  of  AVexf ord.    It  was  as  follows : 

''That  Captain  McManus  shall  proceed  from  Wexford 
towards  Oulart,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Edward  Hay,  appointed 
by  the  inhabitants  of  all  religious  persuasions,  to  inform  the 
officer  commanding  the  king's  troops  tliat  they  are  ready  to 
deliver  up  the  town  of  Wexford  without  opposition, to  lay  down 
their  arms,  and  to  return  to  their  allegiance,  provided  that 
their  persons  and  properties  are  guaranteed  by  the  command- 
ing officer;  and  that  they  will  use  every  influence  in  their 
power  to  induce  the  people  of  the  country  at  large  to  return 
to  their  allegiance;  and  these  terms  it  is  hoped  Captain  Mc- 
Manus will  be  able  to  procure. 

' '  Signed  by  order  of  the  inhabitants  of  Wexford. 

' '  Matthew  Keough. 

"Wexford,  June  21,  1798." 

Captain  Dixon  and  his  friends  were  strongly  opposed  to 
the  capitulation,  but  their  opposition  was  overruled  by  the 
majority  of  the  townspeople. 

Mr.  Hay  and  Captain  McManus,  who  bore  the  despatch 
sent  to  Lieutenant-General  Lake,  were  well  received  by  that 
commander,  who,  however,  declared  that  he  did  not  consider 
himself  bound  by  any  promises  made  by  Lord  Kingsborough. 
He  sent  Mr.  Hay  back  to  the  town  with  his  answer  to  their 
request.  This  reply  was  couched  in  the  following  severe 
terms : 

"Lieutenant-General  Lake  cannot  attend  to  any  terms  by 
rebels  in  arms  against  their  sovereign.  While  they  continue 
so  he  must  use  the  force  entrusted  to  him  with  the  utmost 
energy  for  their  destruction.  To  the  deluded  multitude  he 
promises  pardon  on  their  delivering  into  his  hands  their  lead- 
ers, surrendering  their  arms,  and  returning  with  sincerity  to 
their  allegiance.  Signed,  G.  Lake. 

"Enniscorthy,  June  22,  1798." 


The  Risixr,  of  '98  241 

Meantime  the  insurgents  who  had  been  defeated  at  Ennis- 
corthy  took  their  route  along  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Slaney 
crossing  the  bridge  at  Ferry-Carrig,  and  halting  near  the 
Three  Rocks.  The  majority  of  them  were  unwilling  that  the 
town  should  be  surrendered  without  having  first  obtained  the 
same  terms  for  themselves  as  had  been  conceded  to  the  towns- 
people. 

To  obtain  such  terms  they  despatched  three  of  their  offi- 
cers to  bring  Lord  Kingsborough  to  their  camp  with  the  pur- 
pose of  detaining  him  there  as  a  hostage  till  what  they  re- 
quired was  granted,  and  it  was  not  till  the  latter  had  made  the 
most  solemn  promises  of  the  terms  in  question  being  conceded 
that  the  insurgent  officers  quitted  the  town  and  returned  to 
their  camp.    The  solemn  promises  made  by  Lord  Kingsbor- 
ough induced  many  of  the  insurgent  chiefs  to  remain  in  Wex- 
ford-an  ill-judged  step,  as  the  sequel  proved.     To  prevent 
the    capitulation    being    affected,    and    to    put    an    end    to 
all   negotiations,   a   man   of   Dixon's   party,   named    Timo- 
thy Whelan,  shot  Ensign  Harman  while  on  his  way  with  a 
despatch  to  General  Moore.    The  same  person  also  attempted 
to  shoot  Lord  Kingsborough,  but  his  pistol  missed  fire,  and 
Kingsborough  had  the  good  fortune  to  escape  on  this  occa- 
sion from  the  fury  of  an  individual,  as  he  had  on  the  former 
the  vengeance  of  an  angry  multitude.  Dreading  the  well-known 
severity  of  General  Lake,  the  inhabitants  of  Wexford   while 
he  was  yet  on  his  way  thither,  surrendered  the  town  to  Gen- 
eral Moore.    It  was  fortunate  they  did  so,  for  the  latter,  like 
most  really  brave  men,  was  of  a  merciful  disposition,  and 
averse  to  shedding  blood  save  in  the  field  of  battle.    The  gal- 
lant and  humane  officer  in  question  proved  himself  at  this 
juncture  not  undeserving  of  his  high  reputation. 

He  issued  orders  that  none  of  the  inhabitants  should  be 
put  to  death  or  in  any  way  injured;  and  fearing  lest  his 
troops,  m  the  excitement  of  their  triumphant  entrv,  might  pro- 
ceed to  sack  the  town,  which  they  had  threatened  to  do,  he 
detained  them  on  Windmill-Hill  till  their  fury  had  abated. 
But  he  could  not  restrain  the  treacherous  and  sanguinary 
yeomen  parties  of  whom  stole  into  the  town,  and  proceeding 
to  the  hospital,  wherein  lay  one  hundred  and  sixty  wounded 
insurgents  set  it  on  fire,  the  unfortunate  and  helpless  imnates 
perishing  m  the  flames. 

On  the  22nd  General  Lake  marched  out  from  Enniscorthy 


242 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


for  Wexford,  but,  on  arriving  near  the  town,  had  the  mortifi- 
cation of  finding  that  it  had  been  already  surrendered  to  Gen- 
eral Moore. 

Lake  was  a  second  Cromwell  in  his  relentless  cruelty 
towards  the  vanquished,  but  without  a  spark  of  the  military 
genius  which  crowned  that  renowned  regicide  with  unfading 
though  blood-dyed  laurels. 


Sculpture  on  Window:  Cathedral  Church,  Glendalough:  Beranger,  1779. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    RETREAT    FROM    VINEGAR    HILL  — FATHER    ROCHE    GOES    ON    A 
FATAL  MISSION  — THE  BRUTAL  HESSIANS. 

We  have  hitherto  seen  the  insurgents  victorious  in  almost 
every  encounter,  but  we  must  now  follow  them  in  their  more 
unpropitious  fortunes,  and  behold  how  these  brave  men  strug- 
gled, amidst  ever  accumulating  difficulties,  to  prolong  the 
unequal  contest.  While  negotiations  were  being  still  carried 
on  between  the  people  of  Wexford  town  and  the  English  com- 
manders, the  insurgent  forces,  greatly  lessened  in  numbers, 
marched  out  in  two  divisions,  taking  different  routes.  The 
Three  Rocks  were  once  more  the  scene  of  the  insurgent  en- 
campment. On  these  heights  were  assembled  some  two  thou- 
sand men,  under  the  command  of  Father  John  Murphy,  who 
still,  with  dauntless  courage,  upheld  the  flag  he  had  first  un- 
furled in  the  name  of  his  oppressed  country. 

Thus  while  the  timid  sued  for  terms,  and  even  brave  men 
deserted  the  insurgent  standard,  under  which  they  had  so 
often  marched  to  victory,  thousands  of  true  men  and  trusty 
leaders  still  kept  the  field,  resolved  never  more  to  place  their 
necks  under  the  yoke  of  their  English  taslanasters. 

The  second  division  of  the  insurgent  army,  under  their 
leaders,  Kyan  and  Garret  Byrne,  had,  on  the  same  day,  moved 
in  the  direction  of  Gorey.  This  division  was  considerably 
augmented  by  five  thousand  men  under  Edward  Roche,  who, 
having  arrived  too  late  to  take  part  in  the  battle  of  Vinegar 
Hill,  now  bravely  resolved  to  repair,  if  possible,  the  loss  occa- 
sioned by  his  absence.  To  Father  J.  Murphy  and  Edward 
Roche,  must  be  given  the  credit  of  rallying  the  insurgents  dis- 
persed through  the  town,  and  leading  them  forth  once  more 
to  renew  the  contest.  The  di\asion  of  the  insurgent  army  that 
set  out  from  Wexford  on  the  evening  of  the  21st,  halted  but 
a  short  time  at  the  Three  Rocks,  and  then  resumed  their 
march  in  the  direction  of  Sleedah,  a  small  ^^llage  in  the  barony 
of  Bantry.  This  force  numbered  in  all  about  3,000  men,  who 
were  chiefly  from  the  northern  parts  of  the  county  of  Wex- 
ford, together  with  the  brave  Wicklow  men,  who  had  followed 
the  national  flag  from  the  very  outset.    On  the  arrival  of  this 

243 


244  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

small  force  at  Sleedah,  the  place  chosen  for  the  night's 
bivouac,  a  council  of  war  was  held  to  deliberate  on  their  fur- 
ther proceedings.  At  this  council  were  present  Father  John 
Murphy,  Father  P.  Roche,  Anthony  Perry,  and  Edward  Fitz- 
gerald, with  other  leaders  of  less  note.  Here  it  was  that  the 
Rev.  P.  Roche  declared  his  intention  of  proceeding  to  Wex- 
ford in  the  hope  of  obtaining  terms  from  General  Lake  for 
himself  and  his  comrades.  He  further  proposed  that  they 
(the  insurgents)  should  remain  in  their  present  position  until 
they  should  hear  of  the  terms  he  confidently  hoped  to  obtain. 
His  brother  chiefs,  however,  did  not  share  in  these  delusive 
expectations,  and  endeavored  to  dissuade  him  from  this  fatal 
project.  Father  John,  who,  with  his  usual  keen  perception, 
divined  the  probable  result,  did  his  utmost  to  prevail  on  his 
friend  to  remain,  and  not  thus  uselessly  endanger  his  life 
in  seeking  mercy  from  men  who  had  never  shown  it.  But  the 
arguments  and  entreaties  of  Father  John  and  the  rest  were 
of  no  avail. 

Before  the  day  had  dawned  the  unfortunate  gentleman  rode 
off  alone  toward  Wexford,  hoj^eful  of  finding  in  the  breasts  of 
the  English  generals  that  generous  spirit  of  mercy  to  which  his 
own  manly  heart  had  never  been  a  stranger.  As  his  friends 
foretold,  he  failed  to  accomplish  his  purpose,  and  fell  a  sacri- 
fice to  his  fatal  error. 

On  entering  Wexford  he  was  seized,  dragged  from  his 
horse,  kicked  and  buffeted  in  the  most  brutal  manner,  and 
thrown  into  prison,  which  he  did  not  quit  till  he  was  led  to 
execution.  Of  this  clergyman,  Mr.  Gordon  says:  ''Many 
Protestants  owed  their  lives  to  his  intercession."  The  same 
may  be  said  with  perfect  truth  of  all  the  other  priests  who 
took  an  active  part  in  the  insurrection. 

Father  Philip  Roche,  who  thus  fell  a  victim  to  the  spirit 
of  the  time,  was  a  man  of  commanding  stature  and  fine  pres- 
ence. His  manners  were  bland  and  courteous,  and  he  evinced 
during  his  short  career  as  a  military  leader  considerable 
talent.  He  was  much  lamented,  and  his  death  threw  addi- 
tional gloom  over  the  cause  in  which  he  had  been  so  conspicu- 
ous a  leader.  Hardly  had  poor  Father  Roche  set  out  alone 
for  Wexford  than  Father  John  gave  orders  to  break  up  in 
the  bivouac  at  Sleedah,  and  prepared  to  march  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Fooke's  Mill  and  Longraig.  At  the  latter  place  the 
insurgents  passed  over  the  ground  whereon  the  battle  had 


The  Rising  of  '98  245 

been  recently  fought  between  the  force  under  Sir  John  Moore 
and  that  commanded  by  Father  Roche.  The  unburied  bodies 
of  the  slam  still  strewed  the  ground  and  made  a  ghastly  scene 
for  the  eyes  of  the  passing  insurgents,  who,  however,  did  not 
halt,  but  pursued  their  march  with  unwearied  activity  They 
encountered  but  little  opposition  on  their  way,  the  yeomen 
cavalry  behaving  with  their  usual  cowardice,  appearing  at  a 
distance,  firing  at  the  advancing  column,  and  then  betakin- 
themselves  to  instant  flight.  * 

The  insurgents  were  now  marching  by  circuitous  routs, 
with  the  intention  of  penetrating  into  the  neighboring  counties 
of  Carlow  and  Kilkenny,  and  thus  drawing  the  troops  from 
Wexford  in  pursuit,  and  affording  to  their  scattered  and  dis- 
heartened, but  as  yet,  unsubdued  comrades  there,  an  opportu- 
nity of  rallying  for  another  and  more  successful  effort     As 
they  approached  the  boundary  of  the  county,  the  opposition 
ottered  to  their  advance  increased.    The  yeomanry  appeared 
m  larger  bodies,  and  seemed  more  inclined  to  come  to  close 
quarters.     At  the  village  of  Killane,  the  birth-place  of  the 
gallant  Kelly,  they  opposed  the  further  progress  of  the  in- 
surgents, but  were  soon  put  to  flight  and  pursued  till  they 
reached  the  village  of  Kiledmond.      At    this    place,    being 
strongly  reinforced,  the  yeoman  resolved  to  make  a  stand 
and,  with  a  considerable  force  of  infantry  and  cavalrv,  essayed 
to  oppose  the  passage  of  the  insurgents  through  the  town  sta- 
tioning themselves  in  the  principal  street.     But  they  were 
unable  to  withstand  the  charge  of  the  fierce  pikemen,  and  fled 
after  a  brief  resistance,  setting  fire  beforehand  to  the  village 
The  insurgents,  by  command  of  Father  John,  set  fire  to  the 
barracks  they  had  occupied.    Having  thus  once  more  obtained 
a  signal  triumph  over  their  enemies,  the  small  force  of  in- 
surgents proceeded  a  short  distance  bevond  the  village   and 
there  bivouacked  for  the  night.     These  brave  men  had 'been 
on  the  march  since  early  morning,  and  during  that  time  had 
travei-sed  the  entire  county  of  Wexford,  and  crowned  the 
day  s  labor  by  a  successful  battle. 

On  the  following  morning  the  insurgents  were  early  astir 
and  received  with  warlike  joy  the  intelligence  that  a  regular 
torce  of  cavalry  and  infantry  was  stationed  at  Goresbridge  to 
oppose  the  passage  of  the  Barrow.  After  such  a  meal  as 
their  scanty  store  could  furnish,  the  men,  at  the  command  of 
their  leaders,  fell  into  marching  order  and  set  out  in  the  direc- 


246  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

tion  of  those  new  enemies.  When  they  arrived  within  sight 
of  the  town,  they  were  furiously  charged  by  the  Fourth  Dra- 
goon Guards,  but  they  sustained  the  fierce  onset  of  their  assail- 
ants without  flinching,  and  forced  them  to  beat  a  hasty  retreat. 
The  defeated  dragoons  fell  back  on  their  infantry,  the  Wex- 
ford Militia,  which  corj^s  received  their  insurgent  countrymen 
with  a  volley  of  musketry,  which,  however,  did  not  prove  fatal 
to  any.  It  is  probable  that  the  men  w^ere  unwilling  instru- 
ments in  the  hands  of  their  taskmasters,  and  did  not  wish  to 
take  the  lives  of  their  own  brethren.  The  conduct  of  their 
officer  seems  to  confirm  this  view  of  their  inclinations;  for, 
while  the  force  under  his  command  maintained  a  feeble  and 
apj)arently  harmless  fire,  he  seized  the  opportunity  of  mount- 
ing behind  a  dragoon  and  galloped  off  in  the  direction  of  Kil- 
kenny without  waiting  the  issue  of  the  contest.  Upon  this  his 
men  ceased  to  fire,  were  surrounded,  and  made  prisoners.  The 
result  of  this  affair  gives  us  an  idea  of  the  feeling  by  which 
a  great  many  of  the  militia  regiments  were  animated,  and 
how  little  reliance  the  British  Government  could  place  on 
them  to  serve  as  executioners  of  their  fellow-countrymen. 
The  majority,  however,  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Wexford 
Militia  were  Catholics,  whose  sympathies  were  naturally  with 
their  fellow-countrymen  and  co-religionists.  The  insurgents 
having  achieved  this  signal  success,  took  possession  of  Gores- 
bridge,  where  they  obtained  a  quantity  of  flour.  Thence  they 
proceeded  towards  the  ridge  of  Leinster,  where  they  pitched 
their  camp  for  the  night.  We  regret  to  have  to  record  a  cruel 
deed  of  revenge  perpetrated  in  the  insurgent  camp  during 
the  night,  not,  indeed,  by  the  insurgents,  but  by  some  of  the 
militia  captured  in  the  fight  of  the  preceding  day.  It  seems 
that  amongst  the  prisoners  taken  were  some  Orangemen  who 
had  formely  treated  with  great  cruelty  their  Catholic  com- 
rades, on  the  supposition  of  their  being  United  Irishmen. 
These  injured  men,  yielding  to  the  fell  spirit  of  revenge  en- 
gendered by  the  memory  of  their  wrongs,  rose  during  the 
night  and  murdered  their  former  tyrants.  It  was  a  cruel  deed, 
and  a  lamentable  instance  of  the  sad  fruits  of  the  hateful 
Orange  system.  Before  we  further  pursue  the  fortunes  of 
these  brave  men,  we  will,  for  a  brief  while,  retrace  our  steps 
to  consider  the  condition  of  the  inhabitants  of  Wexford.  The 
regular  troops  and  yeomanry  emulated  each  other  in  diabol- 
ical cruelty;  and,  to  deepen  the  horrors  of  the  period,  a  brutal 


The  Rising  of  '98  247 

horde  of  German  mercenaries,  called  Hessians,  were  let  loose 
on  the  people.  Tradition  has  handed  down  amongst  the  peo- 
ple the  name  and  deeds  of  this  demon  crew,  and,  for  years 
after,  the  mere  mention  of  these  loathed  and  accursed  Hes- 
sians was  sufficient  to  call  the  indignant  blood  to  the  cheek  of 
manhood,  and  to  cast  a  pallor  over  that  of  a  woman.  In  fact, 
so  desolate  had  the  country  become  that  none  save  the  old,  de- 
crepit, or  the  idiotic  were  to  be  encountered  on  the  roads,  in 
the  houses,  or  fields.  But  neither  the  decrepitude  of  age,  nor 
the  deprivation  of  reason,  that  even  amongst  the  fiercest  and 
most  savage  children  of  nature  throws  a  shield  over  utter 
helplessness,  afforded  any  protection  from  the  indiscriminate 
fury  of  England's  swordsmen.  We  would  fain  pass  over  in 
silence  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  helpless  women.  More  merci- 
ful had  it  been  for  these  vile  mercenaries  to  have  plunged  their 
swords  into  the  bosoms  of  those  Irish  maids  and  matrons  than 
to  have  subjected  them  to  their  brutal  appetites. 


Sculpture  on  a  Capital:  Priest's  House,  GlendalouRh:  Beranger,  i779. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

ATTACK    ON    CASTLE    COMER— TREACHERY    OF    THE    COLLIERS  — CAP- 
TURE OF  FATHER  JOHN. 

Before  dawn  the  insurgents  set  out  for  the  village  of 
Duuain,  where  tliey  arrived  about  five  in  the  morning.  Here 
they  were  joined  by  a  large  body  of  colliers  (from  an  extensive 
coal  mine  in  the  vicinity)  armed  with  swords  and  pistols  of 
an  indifferent  description.  On  arriving  at  Dunain  they  heard 
that  four  hundred  men  of  the  Waterford  Militia  had  just 
quitted  the  village,  and  had  gone  in  the  direction  of  Castle- 
comer.  Father  John,  whose  energetic  spirit  ever  urged  him 
on  to  some  new  and  perilous  undertaking,  now  set  out  with  a 
part  of  his  force,  including  the  lately-joined  colliers,  by  a  short 
route  across  the  fields,  to  attack  the  English  force  at  Castle- 
comer,  leaving  the  rest,  under  another  leader,  to  proceed  to 
the  same  place  by  the  less  direct  route  of  the  high  road.  When 
the  leader  of  the  second  division  arrived  within  a  short  dis- 
tance of  the  above-named  town,  he  descried  a  body  of  about 
200  English  soldiers  drawn  up  on  the  road  along  which  his 
advance  was  directed.  On  seeing  the  approach  of  the  insur- 
gents, who  came  on  at  a  running  pace,  these  men  raised  aloft 
a  white  flag  on  the  end  of  a  bayonet,  and  appeared  to  desire 
a  parley,  evidently  with  the  intention  of  surrendering.  The 
insurgent  chief,  having  halted  his  men,  urged  his  horse  on 
before  them  to  ascertain  the  intention  of  the  military,  and  on 
drawing  nearer  found  they  were  a  part  of  the  Waterford 
Militia,  cut  off,  by  the  unexpected  and  rapid  advance  of  the 
insurgents,  from  their  regiment,  and  desirous,  on  receiving 
suitable  terms,  of  surrendering.  The  terms  they  sought  were 
willingly  granted  by  the  insurgent  leader,  who  returned 
toward  his  own  men,  riding  at  the  head  of  the  militia,  one  of 
whom  held  his  horse's  bridle. 

But  this  pacific  arrangement  was  unfortunately  discon- 
certed by  an  untoward  occurrence.  One  of  the  insurgents, 
who  happened  to  be  absent  during  the  negotiation,  suddenly 
emerged  from  the  field  upon  the  road,  and  seeing  the  strange 
position  of  his  captain,  naturally  supposed  him  to  be  a  pris- 
oner, and  without  further  reflection  drove  his  pike  into  the 

249 


250  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

body  of  the  soldier  who  held  his  rein,  whereupon  one  of  the 
militia  officers,  supposing  this  to  be  a  part  of  a  preconcerted 
plan,  discharged  the  contents  of  his  pistol  at  the  insurgent 
chief,  while  another  ordered  his  men  to  fire  upon  his  fol- 
lowers. The  leader's  horse  received  the  missile  intended  for 
his  master,  and  fell.  But  the  body  of  the  insurgents  advanc- 
ing swiftly  toward  them,  the  soldiers  threw  away  their  arms 
and  accountrements,  and  betook  themselves  to  a  hasty  flight. 

Many  of  them  were  captured  in  the  pursuit  that  ensued, 
and  the  few  that  reached  Castlecomer,  and  rejoined  their 
comrades  there,  found  that  they  had  fared  but  little  better 
than  themselves  in  the  contest  with  the  insurgents  under 
Father  John.  "When  the  second  division  arrived  in  Castle- 
comer, at  the  heels  of  the  flying  soldiery,  they  found  the  town 
already  in  possession  of  their  comrades,  with  the  exception  of 
a  large  house,  the  mansion  of  Lady  Anne  Butler,  into  which 
the  defeated  troops  had  retreated,  and  from  the  numerous 
windows  of  which  they  now  poured  out  a  hot  and  deadly  fire 
on  those  who  were  engaged  in  its  siege. 

The  house,  which  had  proved  so  fortunate  a  refuge  for 
the  king's  troops,  was  lofty  and  very  strongly  built,  and  ad- 
mirably adapted  to  the  purpose  which  it  at  present  served, 
and,  indeed,  could  hardly  be  taken  without  the  aid  of  bat- 
tering cannon.  In  vain  did  the  insurgents  attempt  to  ap- 
proach the  house  under  the  imperfect  shelter  of  loads  of  hay 
and  straw;  the  vigilant  besieged  shot  the  men  who  impelled 
the  carts,  and  thus  rendered  their  efforts  futile.  Finding 
their  efforts  unavailing  to  force  an  entrance  under  such  a 
heavy  fire,  the  insurgents  at  length  resolved  to  drive  the  de- 
fenders from  the  house  by  setting  it  on  fire,  placing  quantities 
of  dried  wood  and  other  combustible  matter  at  its  rear.  The 
house  was  soon  on  fire,  and  the  insurgent  chiefs,  desirous  to 
save  the  lives  of  the  besieged,  sent  from  amongst  their  prison- 
ers a  black  servant,  bearing  terms  to  be  granted  in  case  they 
surrendered.  The  messenger  in  question,  carrying  a  flag  of 
truce,  was  admitted,  and  presently  returned  with  the  answer 
of  the  garrison,  that  they  were  willing  to  surrender,  but  only 
on  condition  of  receiving  a  written  protection  from  the  chiefs. 
This  protection  was  immediately  despatched,  but  the  black 
soon  returned  to  say  that  the  besieged  now  refused  to  sur- 
render, as  they  had  descried  a  large  force  of  royal  troops  has- 
tening to  their  assistance.     This  unexpected  news  received 


The  Rising  of  '98  251 

immediate  confirmation.  Loud  volleys  of  musketry,  now  heard 
coming  from  a  liili  outside  the  town,  announced  the  approach 
of  a  new  enemy.  The  force  from  which  this  firing  proceeded 
being  as  yet  at  some  distance,  the  insurgents  found  time  to 
collect  their  scattered  forces,  and  take  up  a  favorable  position 
on  a  rising  ground  that  fronted  the  advancing  enemy.  This 
newly  arrived  foe  proved  to  be  General  Sir  Charles  Asgill, 
who  had  marched  with  his  division  from  Kilkenny  to  the  aid 
of  the  royal  troops  in  Castlecomer.  The  insurgents  proceeded 
some  distance  outside  the  town,  before  coming  in  sight  of  the 
English  force. 

At  length,  having  passed  a  large  grove  that  lay  on  their 
right  flank,  they  came  in  full  view  of  AskilPs  force  drawn  up 
in  a  line  of  battle  at  no  great  distance.  Strange  to  say,  the 
insurgents  were  allowed  to  gain  the  position  they  desired, 
marching  all  the  while  with  their  right  flank  exposed  to  the 
enemy.  While  the  insurgents  were  pushing  rapidly  onwards 
to  gain  their  intended  position  in  front  of  Asgill 's  force,  a 
soldier  was  observed  running  at  full  speed  towards  them  from 
the  hostile  ranks.  He  was  fired  on  by  those  he  had  deserted, 
but  had  the  good  fortune  to  escape  unhurt,  and  joined  the 
insurgents  with  the  welcome  intelligence  that  many  of  his 
comrades  but  awaited  an  opportunity  to  desert  the  English 
standard.  The  insurgents  at  length  attained  the  desired  posi- 
tion, and  awaited  with  their  usual  ardor  the  signal  for  attack. 
However,  no  sign  of  hostility  was  shown  by  their  red-coated 
foes,  from  whom  they  had  expected  a  very  different  recep- 
tion. Great  was  their  astonishment  on  beholding,  a  few  mo- 
ments later,  the  entire  division  of  the  English  general— horse, 
foot,  and  artillery— wheel  about  and  commence  a  rapid  re- 
treat toward  Kilkenny,  from  whence  they  came  on  their  abor- 
tive expedition.  The  tired  insurgents  continued  their  march 
through  the  apathetic  population  of  Kilkenny,  and  encamped 
for  the  night  in  Queen's  County,  whose  inhabitants  seemed 
equally  indifferent  with  those  of  Kilkenny,  with  unaccountable 
folly  neglecting  this  grand  opportunity,  afforded  the  first  time 
during  centuries  of  slavery,  of  shaking  off  the  yoke  of  their 
English  masters.  Seeing  the  unwillingness  of  these  miserable 
people  to  join  their  ranks,  the  gallant  Wexford  men  directed 
their  march  towards  their  native  county,  with  the  design  of  re- 
uniting their  force  to  that  which  had  left  the  county  town  on 
the  21st  of  June  to  proceed  in  the  direction  of  Wicklow.  During 


252  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

all  this  day  they  pursued  their  homeward  march  without  en- 
countering an  enemy,  and  at  a  late  hour  in  the  evening  arrived 
at  the  hill  of  Kilcommey,  where  they  pitched  their  camp  for  the 
night.  When  the  insurgents  awoke  on  the  ensuing  morning 
from  their  sorely  needed  repose,  they  discovered  that  an  act  of 
unparalleled  treachery  had  been  perpetrated  by  the  villainous 
colliers  upon  whose  assistance  they  had  so  much  relied.  These 
treacherous  allies  foully  deceived  the  brave  men  who  had  so 
confidently  trusted  them,  and,  while  the  latter  were  buried  in 
sleep,  had  arisen  and  deserted  them,  plundering  them  of  al- 
most all  their  firearms,  and  leaving  them,  as  far  as  was  in 
their  power,  at  the  mercy  of  their  numerous  foes.  Detestable 
treachery,  the  thought  of  which  fills  the  heart  with  indignation 
that  words  fail  to  express !  Surrounded  on  all  sides  by  their 
cruel  and  merciless  foes,  foully  plundered  and  betrayed  by  the 
infamous  colliers,  wearied  and  travel-worn,  the  grand  spirit 
that  had  animated  these  heroic  men  from  the  outset  still  up- 
held them  under  their  accumulating  misfortune.  But  a  fresh 
trial  now  awaited  their  courage  and  endurance.  They  ascer- 
tained from  one  of  their  scouts  that  the  king's  troops  were 
gathering  around  them,  advancing  from  different  quarters. 

This  intelligence  determined  their  leaders  to  lose  no  time 
in  making  a  vigorous  onset  on  some  one  or  other  of  the  ap- 
proaching forces.  They  resolved  to  direct  their  attack 
against  a  body  of  troops  stationed  to  defend  the  pass  of 
Scollagh  Gap.  Accordingly,  the  insurgents,  to  the  number  of 
4,000  men,  the  pikemen  forming  the  main  body,  marching  in 
columns,  with  as  many  gunsmen  as  they  could  muster  on 
either  flank,  and  in  the  rear,  advanced  up  the  pass.  The  sol- 
diery stationed  in  the  defile  made  but  slight  resistance  to  the 
furious  onslaught  of  the  pikemen,  while  the  few  insurgent 
gunsmen,  sheltering  themselves  behind  the  rocks  that  project 
on  either  side,  picked  down  every  officer  that  was  exposed  to 
their  deadly  aim.  Thus  did  the  insurgents  once  more  put  to  a 
disgraceful  flight  the  trained  mercenaries  who  marched  under 
the  proud  flag  of  England.  General  Asgill,  though  in  the  vi- 
cinity with  4,000  regular  troops,  prudently  shunned  an  en- 
counter with  the  insurgents,  finding,  doubtless,  far  more  con- 
genial occupation  in  the  cold-blooded  butchery  of  the  unfortu- 
nate and  defenseless  people  of  the  district  around  Kilcomney. 
In  this,  as  in  the  other  battles  fought  by  the  insurgents  of 
this  division,  they  were  possessed  of  no  artillery.    Now,  alas ! 


The  Rising  of  '98  253 

to  use  the  words  of  Miles  Byrne,  ''a  dismal  cloud  overcast  all 
the  hopes  of  the  insurgents."    Their  most  beloved  and  trust- 
ing chief  was  missing.    He  had  planned  the  successful  passage 
of  Scollagh  Gap,  had  been  seen  in  the  combat  that  ensued, 
but  soon  after  mysteriously  disappeared.    The  loss  of  Father 
John  was  irreparable,  for  he  had  been  the  soul  of  the  enter- 
prise.   Wise  to  plan,  and  full  of  energy  to  execute,  he  had 
ever  led  his  brave  and  devoted  men  to  certain  victory.    But 
now,  alas !  he  was  to  be  seen  no  more  at  their  head.    This  was 
the  severest  blow  that  adverse  fortune  had  inflicted  on  these 
gallant  patriots,  who  had  hitherto  continued  to  struggle  with 
invincible  courage  against  the  most  fearful  odds.    It  was  com- 
monly believed  amongst  those  who  with  such  deep  sorrow  de- 
plored his  loss  that,  having  ridden  out  to  reconnoitre,  he  had 
been  surprised  by  a  party  of  the  enemy,  and  slain  while  re- 
sisting capture.    In  whatever  way  he  may  have  met  his  death, 
his  loss  inflicted  a  severe  blow  on  the  insurgent  cause.    Hav- 
ing, as  we  have  seen,  effected  so  gallantly  the  passage  of  Scol- 
lagh Gap,  the  insurgents  halted  to  consult  together  on  wha't 
steps  were  next  to  be  taken.     But  the  voice  of  their  wisest 
and  bravest  leader  was  now  unheard  in  their  council.    A  dif- 
ference of  opinion  as  to  their  future  route  arose  amongst 
them.    Many  were  of  opinion  that  the  wood  of  Kilaughrim, 
some  five  miles  distant,  would  be  the  best  position,  whilst 
others  were  desirous  of  proceeding  in  the  direction  of  Wick- 
low,  to  join  the  division  from  which  they  had  separated  at 
Wexford  town.    They  finally  separated,  to  form  two  bodies, 
one  party  taking  the  direction  of  the  Wicklow  mountainsj 
while  the  other  sought  the  cover  of  Kilaughrim  wood. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

VENGEANCE    FOR   THE    MURDER    OF    WOMEN    AND    CHILDREN  —  ROUT 
OF  THE  ORANGEMEN  AT  BALLYRACKEEN. 

Monaseed,  the  birthplace  of  so  many  brave  insurgents,  lay 
directly  on  the  route  of  those  who  moved  in  the  direction  of 
Wicklow;  and  there  they  made  a  brief  stay,  and  heard  with 
joy  of  the  many  splendid  achievements  of  the  gallant  band 
they  were  in  quest  of.  There,  too,  with  feelings  of  anger  and 
indignation  too  deep  for  utterance,  they  heard  of  the  number- 
less deeds  of  inhuman  cruelty  perpetrated  by  the  yeoman 
and  the  regular  soldiery  on  the  wounded  and  defenceless  who 
had  the  misfortune  to  fall  into  their  power.  One  authentic  in- 
stance, selected  from  hundreds  equally  so,  may  suffice  to  af- 
ford some  idea  of  the  conduct  of  the  loyalists  of  the  period. 
Hunter  Gowan,  that  incarnation  of  fiendish  cruelty,  being  his 
Majesty's  Justice  of  the  Peace,  and  likewise  captain  of  yeoman 
cavalry  (consequently  enjoj-ing  complete  dominion  over  the 
property  and  lives  of  the  mere  Irish  of  the  day),  entered  the 
house  of  a  neighbor  of  his,  named  Patrick  Bruslan— one  of  the 
bravest  men  in  the  insurgent  army,  and  then  lying  ill  of  a 
wound— and  inquired  in  the  kindest  terms  about  his  health. 
The  wife  of  the  wounded  man,  of  whom  he  had  made  these 
apparently  friendly  inquiries,  conducted  him,  at  his  request, 
to  her  husband's  bedside,  that  he  might,  as  he  said,  ''enjoy 
the  pleasure  of  a  chat  with  his  old  neighbor."  Gowan  stood 
at  the  bedside  of  the  wounded  insurgent,  and  stretched  out 
his  hand,  as  if  in  friendly  greeting ;  but  when  the  unsuspecting 
Bruslin  grasped  it,  Gowan  drew  a  pistol  from  his  pocket  with 
the  disengaged  hand,  and  shot  him  through  the  heart.  Then, 
turning  to  depart,  he  said  to  the  unfortunate  widow  he  had 
just  made,  "You  will  now  be  saved  the  trouble  of  nursing 
your  d— d  Popish  rebel  husband."  The  insurgents  soon 
quitted  Monaseed,  and,  pursuing  their  march,  had  the  good 
fortune  to  encounter  at  the  White  Heaps  the  division  of  their 
army  with  which  they  desired  to  affect  a  union.  The  chiefs 
of  this  division  were  Garret  Byrne,  Esmond  Kyan,  Edward 
Roche,  and  Nicholas  Murphy.  Many  others,  however,  had 
fallen  in  the  different  combats  that  had  taken  place  since  their 

255 


256  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

departure  from  Wexford.  The  united  force  bivouacked  for 
the  night  at  Ballyfad,  where  their  number  was  augmented  by 
the  arrival  of  many  who  had  quitted  them  to  visit  their  fam- 
ilies. Having  now  to  narrate  the  history  of  that  division  of 
the  insurgent  force  which  quitted  Wexford  on  the  21st  to  pro- 
ceed in  the  direction  of  Wicklow,  we  must  go  back  to  the  day 
of  their  departure.  This  division,  as  well  as  that  which  left 
the  town  about  the  same  time  under  the  command  of  Father 
J.  Murphy,  was  considerably  thinned  by  the  delusive  hopes 
created  by  the  negotiations  for  peace  at  Wexford.  However, 
at  setting  out  on  their  march,  they  mustered  about  7,000  men, 
armed  in  the  usual  way,  and,  as  commonly  happened,  very 
much  in  want  of  ammunition  for  the  few  firearms  they  pos- 
sessed. They  proceeded  on  the  first  day  as  far  as  Peppard's 
Castle,  where  they  rested  for  the  night.  On  the  ensuing  morn- 
ing the  chiefs  agreed  to  march  towards  the  Wicklow  moun- 
tains, and  with  their  usual  promptitude  set  out  at  once  on 
their  way  thither.  When  in  the  vicinity  of  Gorey  they  alighted 
upon  a  horrible  spectacle.  The  road  along  which  they 
marched  was  strewn  with  the  dead  and  horribly  mangled 
bodies  of  women  and  children.  Many  of  these  victims  lay 
with  their  bowels  stripped  open,  and  presented  to  the  eyes  of 
their  countrjTuen  a  ghastly  spectacle,  well  calculated  to  fill 
them  with  mingled  feeling  of  horror  and  compassion,  and 
to  rouse  them  to  a  determination  to  take  the  direst  revenge 
on  the  cowardly  perpetrators  of  such  worse  than  savage  bar- 
barities. This  massacre  was  occasioned  by  the  insurgent's 
retreat  from  Vinegar  Hill;  for  the  English  regular  soldiery 
and  their  blood-thirsty  associates,  the  Orangemen  or  yeo- 
manry—the terms  are  synonymous— who  had  taken  shelter 
within  their  entrenchments  from  the  furious  storm  of  insur- 
gent warfare,  on  hearing  of  this  unexpected  step  on  the  part  of 
the  insurgents,  sailed  out  from  their  lurking-places,  and  imme- 
diately overran  the  country,  flooding  it  with  the  blood  of  its 
unfortunate  inhabitants,  and  practising  every  vile  and  in- 
human cruelty  that  their  inventive  malice  could  suggest. 
Against  this  horde  of  murderous  villains  the  vengeful  insur- 
gents now  directed  their  arms.  Changing  for  a  time  their 
route,  they  began  to  search  for  their  scattered  foes  in  the 
vicinity  of  Gorey.  Many  of  the  marauders  were  surprised  in 
the  houses  of  the  peasantry  in  the  very  act  of  perpetrating 
their  unspeakable  villainies.    Being  caught  red-handed,  they 


The  HiSTNfj  of  '98  257 

were  slain  on  the  spot.  The  alarm  being  spread  through  their 
dispersed  forces,  they  rallied  together  in  considerable  num- 
bers. They  were  routed  after  a  brief  resistance,  and  pursued 
to  Gorey,  where,  attempting  to  make  a  stand,  they  were 
again  signally  defeated,  and  pursued  with  severe  loss 
toward  Arklow.  Such  of  the  insurgents  as  were  mounted  pur- 
sued the  flying  foe  as  far  as  Coolgreny,  where  many  of  them 
fell  by  the  hands  of  the  victorious  avengers.  While  this  pur- 
suit was  maintained  by  some  detached  parties  of  the  insur- 
gents, their  main  body  halted  at  Gorey,  awaiting  the  return 
of  their  absent  comrades.  On  the  return  of  these  the  entire 
column  set  out  for  Crogan  Hill,  at  the  foot  of  which  they  en- 
camped for  the  night.  The  day  on  which  the  gallant  insur- 
gents so  well  avenged  the  terrible  wrongs  inflicted  on  their 
wives,  mothers,  and  children  has  been  called  the  "blood  Fri- 
day," on  account  of  the  blood  that  was  shed  so  abundantly, 
thereon. 

The  forces  engaged  in  this  massacre  of  the  defenceless 
and  unresisting  were  the  ancient  Britons— a  Welsh  regiment 
—in  conjunction  with  many  of  the  yeomanry  corps  of  the 
county,  whose  chiefs  were  Hunter  Gowan,  Beaumont  of  Hyde 
Park,  Ram  of  Gorey,  the  Earl  of  Mountnorres— names  to  be 
met  with  in  the  different  narratives  of  those  fearful  times, 
when  the  demons  of  cruelty  and  bloodshed  reigned  supreme. 
Notwithstanding  all  these  dreadful  deeds  of  cruelty,  of  which 
their  friends  and  relatives  were  the  victims,  be  it  here  re- 
corded to  the  honor  of  the  valiant  peasantry,  so  foully  as- 
persed by  the  Orange  historians,  that  though  they  had  taken 
numbers  of  prisoners,  none  suffered  death  at  their  hands,  for 
which  humanity  they  got  little  credit.  The  insurgent  army 
remained  encamped  on  Croghan  Mountain  during  this  day, 
and  employed  themselves  in  gathering  provisions  and  collect- 
ing amunition,  in  both  of  which  emplojinents  their  success 
was  but  limited. 

On  the  morning  of  the  25th  of  June  the  insurgents 
marched  to  Hacketstown,  encountering  on  their  way  some 
corps  of  yeoman  cavalry,  whom  they  put  to  immediate  flight. 
On  drawing  near  the  town,  they  found  the  English  infantry- 
drawn  up  in  a  field  outside  it,  prepared  to  dispute  their  en- 
trance. Upon  this  force,  numbering  about  200  men,  the  pike- 
men  fell  furiously,  soon  routing  them,  and  leaving  their  cap- 
tain (Hardy)  dead  upon  the  field,  together  with  thirty  of 


258  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

his  men.  The  insurgents  now  entered  the  town,  and  proceeded 
to  attack  the  barracks,  in  which  their  discomfited  foes  had 
found  refuge.  Adjoining  this  building,  but  projecting  farther 
into  the  street,  stood  a  large  malt-house,  in  which  a  party  of 
armed  loyalists  had  taken  post  for  the  pur^DOse  of  aiding  the 
royal  troops.  The  front  of  the  barracks  and  one  side  of  the 
malt-house  met  and  formed  an  angle,  so  that  from  one  build- 
ing a  direct,  and  from  the  other  a  flanking  fire  could  be  poured 
upon  the  attacking  party. 

Both  these  buildings  were  of  great  strength,  and  in  fact 
well  nigh  impregnable  to  assailants  unprovided  with  artillery. 
The  roof  of  the  barracks  was  surrounded  by  a  parapet,  from 
behind  which  the  besieged  could  take  aim  with  almost  perfect 
security.  To  obtain  possession  of  them  was  the  object  to 
which  the  insurgents  now  bent  all  their  energies.  A  low  wall, 
running  parallel  to  the  front  wall  of  the  barracks,  afforded 
a  partial  and  insufficient  shelter  to  the  insurgent  gunsmen, 
from  behind  which  they  could  take  aim  at  such  of  the  loyal- 
ists as  showed  themselves  at  the  windows  of  the  malt-house, 
or  over  the  parapet  of  the  barracks.  The  insurgents,  indeed, 
fought  at  great  disadvantage,  and  under  the  galling  fire  of 
their  well-sheltered  foes  numbers  of  them  fell.  But  nothing 
could  excel  the  heroic  resolution  and  rare  intrepidity  they 
displayed  in  the  course  of  this  unwise  attempt  to  take  a  forti- 
fied house  without  the  aid  of  even  a  single  piece  of  artillery. 
Their  leaders  in  this  affair  were  Garrett  Byrne,  Edward  Fitz- 
gerald, and  Michael  Reynolds.  The  latter  gentleman  signally 
distinguished  himself  during  the  action.  The  Wexfordians, 
accustomed  as  they  were  to  see  men  bear  themselves  bravely 
in  battle,  were  struck  with  admiration  at  the  extraordinary 
coolness  displayed  by  Reynolds,  who  exposed  his  person  fear- 
lessly on  all  occasions  when  it  was  necessary  to  direct  the 
efforts  of  the  assailants,  not  seeming  to  regard  in  the  least 
the  bullets  that  showered  around  him  thick  as  hail.  While 
the  unequal  contest  was  maintained  by  the  gunsmen  on  both 
sides,  a  party  of  the  insurgents  endeavored  to  drive  the 
enemy  from  their  retreat  by  setting  it  on  fire.  This  daring 
attempt  they  persevered  in  for  several  hours,  one  party 
after  another  advancing  to  the  assault  under  such  cover  as 
feather  beds  and  loads  of  straw  fastened  upon  carts  afforded. 
Many  gallant  men  lost  their  lives  in  these  useless  efforts,  for 
the  bullets  of  the  defenders  reached  them  through  and  under 


The  Risinc.  of  '98  259 

their  insufficient  cover.  But  undeterred  by  their  heavy  losses, 
they  still  carried  on  the  desperate  conflict,  wreckless  of  life, 
and  resolved  to  prevail  or  perish. 

And,  in  truth,  could  the  most  persevering  and  dauntless 
resolution  have  effected  the  object  they  aimed  at,  it  would 
have  accomplished  it.  It  was  in  advancing  to  one  of  the  as- 
saults referred  to  that  young  James  Murphy,  a  nephew  of 
Father  Machael,  lost  his  life.  He  was  shot  by  one  of  the  sol- 
diers posted  in  the  barracks,  an  excellent  marksman,  who  had 
already  slain  several  of  the  insurgents.  But  the  death  of  this 
young  man  was  soon  after  avenged  by  his  friend  Myles 
Doran,  of  Cloughmore,  who  brought  down  the  sharp-shooting 
red-coat,  with  a  well  directed  bullet. 

Towards  evening  partial  success  seemed  to  reward  the 
persevering  intrepidity  of  the  insurgents.  The  malt-house 
was  abandoned  by  its  loyalist  defenders;  but  the  fire  from 
that  building  had  scarce  ceased  when  a  fresh  one  was  opened 
upon  them  from  the  house  of  the  Eev.  Mr.  McGee,  a  Protestant 
clergyman,  within  which  he,  with  several  of  his  friends,  had 
barricaded  themselves,  resolved  to  assist,  with  all  their  power, 
the  besieged  soldiery,  and  inflict  a  crushing  defeat  upon  a 
common  enemy. 

But  still  the  latter  maintained  the  conflict  with  unabated 
fierceness,  although  the  bodies  of  their  dead  and  wounded 
comrades  strewed  the  ground  even  more  thickly  as  the  hours 
passed  on ;  nor  did  they  desist  from  an  enterprise  they  should 
never  have  attempted  till  darkness  began  to  gather  round  the 
scene  of  desperate  strife,  and  rendered  its  continuance  im- 
possible. During  the  night  the  insurgents  withdrew  from  the 
place  where  so  many  precious  lives  had  been  unavailingly 
sacrified,  carrying  with  them  their  numerous  wounded,  but 
leaving  upon  the  field  of  conflict  the  dead  bodies  of  upwards 
of  two  hundred  men.  The  total  loss,  in  killed  and  wounded, 
on  the  side  of  the  loyalists,  did  not  amount  to  more  than  fifty 
of  their  entire  number. 

Next  day  the  Irish  army  marched  towards  Croghan  Hill 
—one  of  the  Wicklow  mountains.  Here  they  remained  unmo- 
lested by  the  enemy  during  the  27th  and  28th  of  June.  On 
the  morning  of  the  29th,  having  resolved  to  attack  the  town  of 
Carnew,  they  set  out  at  an  early  hour  on  their  march  thither, 
halting  for  a  short  space  at  Monaseed,  to  obtain  whatever  re- 
freshments the  little  village  afforded.    The  insurgents  had 


260  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

quitted  the  village  but  a  sliort  time  when  it  was  entered  by 
the  celebrated  cavalry  regiment  of  Ancient  Britons,  followed 
by  several  corps  of  mounted  yeomen— the  latter  desiring  to 
act  as  executioners  on  the  insurgents,  whom  they  hoped  soon 
to  see  defeated  by  their  more  warlike  comrades.     Amongst 

these  infamous  villains  were  the  Earls  of  C and  M , 

who  were  not  ashamed  to  be  the  leaders  of  such  a  vile  crew 
of  cowardly  cutthroats.  These  royalist  forces,  having  learned 
at  Monaseed  that  the  insurgents  complained  of  being  extreme- 
ly fatigued  by  their  incessant  marching,  and,  moreover,  that 
their  ammunition  was  quite  exhausted,  considered  them  a  sure 
prey ;  and,  elated  by  the  hope  of  a  complete  victory,  and  sup- 
plied with  such  an  amount  of  Dutch  courage  as  their  abundant 
potations  at  Monaseed  could  inspire,  they  rode  on  in  pursuit 
of  an  enemy  they  had  already,  in  imagination,  vanquished. 
The  regular  cavalry  led  the  advance,  while  their  numerous 
yeomen  allies  followed,  as  was  their  wont,  in  the  rear.  They 
were  now  about  a  mile  from  Carnew,  and  were  come  to  a  place 
where  the  road  was  bounded  by  an  old  deerpark  wall  on  the 
right,  and  on  the  left  by  a  huge  ditch,  which  ran  in  the  midst 
of  swampy  ground.  "While  riding  at  a  hand  gallop  along  the 
part  of  the  road  thus  enclosed,  they  found  that  their  further 
advance  was  arrested  by  a  barricade  formed  of  carts  thrown 
across  the  road.  This  unexpected  obstacle  of  course  brought 
them  to  a  dead  halt.  Before  they  had  time  to  advance  or 
retreat,  their  hitherto  concealed  foes  rose  suddenly  from  be- 
hind the  ditch  and  wall  we  have  described,  and  while  the  guns- 
men  poured  a  deliberate  fire,  every  shot  of  which  told,  into 
their  surprised  and  dismayed  ranks,  the  more  dreadful  pike- 
men  sprang  forth  from  the  same  ambush,  and  were  in  an  in- 
stant in  their  midst.  We  might  pity  these  unfortunate  dra- 
goons had  not  the  ferocious  character  of  their  crimes  closed 
our  hearts  to  all  softer  feelings.  After  a  fight  that  lasted 
about  half  an  hour,  every  man  of  the  regiment  that  rode  from 
Monaseed  in  all  the  pride  of  anticipated  conquest,  lay  on  the 
road  either  dead  or  dying.  Thus  perished  the  infamous  cav- 
alry regiment  called  Ancient  Britons,  receiving  the  retribu- 
ion  that  falls  on  such  red-handed  sons  of  Cain  sooner  or  later. 
But  where  were  the  burly  yeomen  who  rode  so  gladly  in  their 
train  to  aid  in  an  enterprise  that  promised  such  an  abundant 
harvest  of  blood  ?  These  heroes  remained  on  a  rising  ground 
at  some  distance  to  the  right,  while  their  accomplices  in  crime 


The  Rising  of  '98  261 

underwent  their  bloody  ordeal,  without  offering  them  the 
slightest  aid,  and  when  they  saw  that  all  was  over  gave  spurs 
to  their  horses,  and  rode  off  in  the  greatest  terror  and  dismay. 
The  intelligence  of  the  defeat  and  total  destruction  of  the 
Ancient  Britons  at  Ballyellis  was  carried  rapidly  over  the 
entire  country,  causing  great  joy  to  the  defenders  of  liberty, 
and  striking  terror  into  the  hearts  of  tyrants  and  their  instru- 
ments. It  reached  the  English  infantry  on  their  way  from 
Carnew  to  the  scene  of  action,  and  caused  them  to  retreat. 
They  took  refuge  in  a  large  malt-house,  where  they  fortified 
themselves  as  best  they  could,  and  awaited  the  attack  of  their 
rapidly  advancing  foes.  Here  the  scene  that  occurred  at 
Hacketstown  was  re-enacted— insurgents'  bravery  wasting 
itself  vainly  on  stone  walls,  and  many  brave  men  losing  their 
lines  in  a  fruitless  essay  to  take  a  strongly-built,  well-gar- 
risoned house  without  artillery.  The  insurgent  leaders,  deem- 
ing it  a  useless  sacrifice  of  life  to  continue  the  attack  on  the 
malt-house,  drew  their  men  off,  and  marched  to  Kilcavan 
Hill,  where  they  remained  for  the  night,  greatly  elated  by  the 
victory  they  had  achieved.  On  this  morning  the  insurgents 
shook  off  slumber  at  an  early  hour,  and,  before  the  sun  had 
risen,  were  on  their  way  to  Shillelah,  and,  passing  by  that 
village,  took  post  on  Ballyrakeen  Hill  where  they  remained 
for  the  night. 

July  1st.— This  being  a  great  day  of  anniversary  with  the 
Orangemen,  these  miserable  traitors,  whose  dastardly 
triumphs  are  all  founded  on  the  humiliation  of  their  country, 
whose  curse  and  ruin  they  have  ever  been,  resolved  to  signal- 
ize it  by  a  furious  and  decisive  onslaught  on  the  few  brave  men 
who  held  aloft  the  national  flag  on  Ballyrakeen  Hill.  Towards 
the  hill  in  question  came  troops  of  the  various  corps  of  yeo- 
man cavalry,  while  their  infantry  showed  an  unusual  deter- 
mination to  come  to  close  quarters  with  their  ancient  enemies. 
With  equal  ardor  the  Irish  troops— for  though  the  Orange- 
men were  born  in  Ireland  their  constant  and  unnatural  hatred 
of  her  cause  deprives  them  of  all  right  to  be  called  Irishmen- 
rushed  to  meet  their  treacherous  foes,  charging  down  the 
slope  of  the  hill  in  a  firm  phalanx  of  pikemen,  intermingled 
and  flanked  by  gunsmen,  on  their  enemy's  lines.  In  vain  the 
hostile  cavalry  essayed  to  check  by  their  furious  charge  that 
unyielding  cohort  of  brothers  who  fought  in  the  sacred  cause 
of  country;  in  vain  the  infantry  poured  the  leaden  hail  into 


262  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

their  ranks.  Every  man  in  tlie  insurgent  ranks  was  a  hero  re- 
solved to  conquer  or  perish  in  the  sacred  cause.  The  insur- 
gent force  was  now  assailed  on  all  sides  by  the  cavalry,  who, 
confiding  in  their  numbers,  and,  perhaps  anxious  to  retrieve 
their  characters  from  the  too  well-merited  stigma  of  cowar- 
dice, continued  to  attack  with  unwonted  spirit.  But  this  could 
make  no  impression  on  the  ranks  of  their  opponents,  and  they 
retired  from  each  unsuccessful  charge  with  diminished  num- 
bers. The  gunsmen  attached  to  the  insurgent  force  remained 
to  protect  the  flanks,  answering  with  well-directed  volleys  the 
fire  of  the  enemy's  infantry.  At  length,  after  nearly  an 
hour's  fighting,  victory  again  favored  the  brave  insurgents. 
Hundreds  of  their  foeman  lay  stretched  upon  the  ground  dead 
or  severely  wounded,  while  their  comrades,  cavalry  and  in- 
fantry, unable  to  maintain  any  longer  the  combat  against  such 
determined  foes,  took  to  flight  in  diiferent  directions— the  cav- 
alry galloping  away  at  foxhunting  speed,  leaving  their  in- 
fantry to  make  the  best  retreat  they  could.  The  latter,  being 
closely  pursued  by  the  pikemen,  took  refuge  within  the  man- 
sion of  Captain  Chamney,  which  stood  at  the  foot  of  the  hill, 
and  from  its  safe  shelter  defied  their  victorious  foes.  Here 
again  bravery  that  proved  invincible  in  the  field  in  fair  fight 
was  foiled  when  opposed  by  stone  walls  that  sheltered  a  beaten 
foe.  Seeing  the  uselessness  of  j^rolonging  such  an  attack,  the 
men  at  the  command  of  their  leaders  desisted  from  it,  and 
marched  off  in  the  direction  of  Wicklow  Gaj),  having  obtained 
by  the  day 's  victory  a  fair  supply  of  firearms  and  ammunition. 
The  fruits  of  many  hard  fought  engagements  having  been  lost 
to  the  insurgents  by  reason  of  their  enemies  taking  refuge  in 
large  isolated,  strongly-built  mansions,  it  became  evident  to 
the  leaders  that  to  pursue  their  enterprise  with  any  chance 
of  success  all  such  buildings  must  necessarily  be  destroyed. 
They  came  to  this  resolution  with  regret,  but  it  was  with  them 
a  question  of  life  or  death,  and  half -measures  in  such  a  posi- 
tion were  simply  madness.  The  insurgents  pursued  their 
route  towards  Wicklow  Gap,  marching  all  night,  and,  having 
arrived  there  on  the  following  morning,  pitched  their  camps, 
remaining  during  that  day  and  the  ensuing  night. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

PURNING  AN  ENGLISH  CAMP— ACCOUNT  OF  THE  BATTLE  OF  BALLY- 
GULLEN— LAST  STAND  OF  THE  GALLANT  WEXFORDMEN 

On  this  day,  July  2nd,  at  their  usual  early  hour,  the  insur- 
gents set  out  for  Wicklow  Gold  Mines,  with  the  design  of 
burning  the  English  camp,  which  was  erected  there  in  1795. 
Having  accomplished  the  desired  feat,  they  returned  by  way 
of  White  Heaps,  and  took  up  a  position  at  Ballyfad.  The  in- 
surgents, notwithstanding  their  great  losses,  both  in  men  and 
leaders,  were  still  a  numerous  force,  and  fairly  armed  with 
the  spoils  of  their  many  victories.  At  the  same  time,  also, 
they  were  augmented  by  the  force  under  Father  Kearns,  who 
had  marched  from  Killaughrim  Wood  to  join  them.  While 
the  insurgent  camp  was  pitched  at  Ballyfad,  small  parties 
were  despatched  in  several  directions  to  reconnoitre  and 
bring  back  whatever  intelligence  they  could  obtain  of  the 
motions  of  the  enemy.  Towards  dawn  of  the  day  some  of 
the  men  who  had  been  despatched  on  the  previous  evening 
on  this  important  commission  returned  to  report  the  advance 
of  a  formidable  English  force  on  their  position.  On  the  re- 
ceipt of  this  intelligence  orders  were  at  once  issued  to  quit 
their  present  position  and  take  up  a  better  one  on  one  of  the 
hills  in  their  vicinity.  While  the  chiefs  of  the  Irish  army 
were  choosing  this  position  the  near  approach  of  the  English 
force  was  announced  by  a  volley  from  their  advanced  guard, 
which  passed  over  the  heads  of  a  similar  detachment  of  the 
insurgents.  A  dense  fog,  which  since  dawn  had  covered  all 
the  country  around,  occasioned  some  confusion  amongst 
them,  preventing  them  from  ascertaining  the  position  of  the 
enemy  they  knew  to  be  near,  and  even  causing  some  detach- 
ments to  stray  from  the  main  body.  The  rising  sun  at  length 
dispersed  the  fog,  and  shining  forth  in  unobscured  splendor 
on  the  insurgent  army  revealed  to  them,  as  they  marched  from 
the  hill  in  the  direction  of  Gorey,  a  large  force  of  English 
horse,  foot,  and  artillery  following  in  their  rear  at  about  the 
distance  of  a  mile.  The  force  was  commanded  by  Sir  James 
Duff,  who  had  followed  in  the  track  of  his  enemy,  but  was 
unwilling  to  begin  the  contest  till  he  had  received  reinforce- 

263 


264  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ments  he  expected  from  General  Needliam.  The  insurgents, 
however,  seeing  that  Sir  James  evinced  no  inclination  of 
attack,  rightly  concluded  that  he  waited  reinforcements,  and 
in  consequence  judged  it  better  to  give  him  battle  before  they 
arrived.  With  this  resolve,  they  advanced  some  two  miles 
along  the  Gorey  road,  their  cautious  enemy  all  the  while  hang- 
ing on  their  rear.  The  insurgents  now  left  the  high  road, 
along  which  they  had  hitherto  directed  their  march,  and  pro- 
ceeded by  a  narrow  cross  road  that  opened  on  their  right  and 
stretched  towards  the  town  of  Ballygullen.  When  they  had 
proceeded  some  distance  along  this  new  route,  their  gunsmen, 
in  obedience  to  their  leader's  orders,  left  the  ranks  and  sta- 
tioned themselves  in  ambush  behind  the  fences  that  bounded 
the  narrow  road,  while  the  main  body  fell  into  fighting  order 
and  moved  steadily  onward  towards  Ballygullen,  as  if  they 
intended  to  pursue  their  march.  It  was  designed  by  this 
movement  to  draw  the  enemy's  cavalry,  who  had  not  seen 
the  execution  of  the  stratagem,  and  were  unaware  of  the 
position  of  the  ambushed  gunsmen,  under  the  fire  of  the  latter. 
This  skilled  plan  succeeded.  The  English  cavalry,  seeing  the 
main  body  of  the  pikemen  pursuing  their  march,  continued 
to  follow  them  until  they  came  to  where  the  concealed  guns- 
men lay.  Then  the  latter  poured  a  close  and  destructive  fire 
amongst  them,  killing  a  considerable  number  and  causing  the 
survivors  to  seek  safety  in  instant  flight.  Had  not  the  im- 
patience of  the  insurgents  caused  them  to  deliver  their  fire 
rather  prematurely,  this  great  body  of  cavalry  might  have 
been  utterly  destroyed ;  as  it  was,  their  loss  was  so  heavy  that 
they  made  no  appearance  in  the  engagement  that  ensued. 
General  Duif,  on  beholding  the  surprise  and  defeat  of  his 
cavalry,  ordered  his  infantry  to  deploy  into  line  and  advance 
to  meet  their  foes.  A  most  sanguinary  and  fiercely-fought 
battle  now  ensued,  in  which  both  sides  displayed  the  greatest 
bravery.  The  insurgent  gunsmen  maintained  a  deadly  fire 
on  the  English  ranks  till  their  small  supply  of  ammunition 
was  entirely  exhausted.  It  only  then  remained  for  the  in- 
surgent leaders  to  bring  their  redoubted  pikemen  into  action. 
This  they  did  with  their  usual  gallant  promptitude,  directing 
their  attack  on  the  right  flank  of  the  opposing  force.  General 
Duff,  seeing  this  manoeuvre  and  believing  that  his  men  had 
got  quite  enough  from  the  gunsmen  without  encountering 
those  fearful  pikemen,  gave  orders  to  retreat  in  the  direction 


The  Rising  of  '98  265 

of  Gorey.  The  insurgents,  though  victorious  in  this  hard- 
fought  engagement,  which  lasted  two  hours,  lost  great  num- 
bers of  their  men,  and  the  regret  caused  by  the  loss  of  so 
many  brave  comrades  was  hardly  counterbalanced  by  the 
knowledge  that  they  had  inflicted  a  far  greater  loss  on  their 
routed  enemies.  As  soon  as  Duff's  shattered  forces  had  dis- 
appeared, they  set  out  about  collecting  their  wounded,  and 
then  quitted  the  scene  of  action  and  marched  off  towards  a 
hill  some  half-mile  distant  therefrom.  A  council  of  war  was 
held,  to  deliberate  on  their  future  course  of  action.  At  this 
council  it  was  decided  to  divide  their  force  rather  than  await 
united  the  combined  and  overpowering  attack  of  the  large 
English  army  at  that  time  assembling  in  the  county  of  Wex- 
ford from  all  parts  of  the  three  kingdoms. 

Of  this  action  Mr.  Plowden  says:  ''Upon  the  arrival  of 
the  insurgents  at  a  place  called  Cranford,  by  others  Bally- 
guUen,  they  resolved  to  make  resistance  and  await  the  ap- 
proach of  the  troops,  however  numerous  they  might  be, 
although  their  own  force  was  then  very  considerably  reduced. 
They  resolutely  maintained  the  conflict  for  an  hour  and  a 
half  with  the  utmost  intrepidity ;  having  repulsed  the  cavalry, 
and  driven  the  artillerymen  three  times  from  their  cannon, 
all  performed  by  the  gunsmen ;  for  the  pikemen,  as  on  former 
occasions,  never  came  into  action;  but  fresh  reinforcements 
of  the  army  pouring  in  on  all  sides,  they  were  obliged  to  give 
way,  quitting  the  field  of  battle  with  little  loss  to  themselves, 
and  notwithstanding  all  their  fatigue  retreating  with  their 
usual  agility  and  swiftness  in  different  directions." 

Mr.  Plowden  here  admits  that  they  defeated  the  force 
under  General  Duff,  and  only  retreated  on  the  approach  of 
overwhelming  reinforcements,  which  coincides  with  the  ac- 
counts given  by  other  authors. 

The  Wicklow  men  resolved  to  seek  the  shelter  of  their 
native  mountains ;  some  of  them,  however,  choosing  to  remain 
with  the  Wexford  men,  who  marched  that  same  night  for  their 
former  camping  ground  on  the  hill  of  Carrigrew.  Though  the 
battle  of  Ballygullen,  or  Cranford,  may  be  said  to  have  con- 
cluded the  famous  insurrection  of  1798,  as  after  that  engage- 
ment none  of  much  importance  took  place  between  the  hostile 
forces,  we  think  it  right  to  follow  to  the  end  of  their  career 
those  who  took  part  in  the  heroic  but  unsuccessful  struggle 
we  have  essayed  to  describe  in  the  foregoing  pages. 


266  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

The  Wicklow  men,  after  a  brief  repose,  proceeded  towards 
their  proposed  destination,  passing  Ferns  and  Carnew  on 
their  inarch. 

When  at  length  night  set  in  it  found  them  still  pushing 
steadily  onward;  nor  did  they  halt  till  they  had  left  Kilpipe 
and  Aughrim  far  behind  and  gained  the  security  they  sought 
among  their  native  mountains. 

In  this  retreat  they  long  kept  alive  the  scanty  embers  of 
a  fire  that  had  once  burned  with  such  bright  and  cheerful 
flames.  Yet  as  they  never  could  muster  afterwards  a  suf- 
ficient force  wherewith  to  encounter  their  foes  in  any  con- 
siderable conflict,  their  adventurous  and  most  daring  exploits 
furnish  matter  suited  rather  for  the  romancist  than  the  his- 
torian. 

In  Emmet's  memoirs  we  find  a  highly  interesting  narrative 
of  the  adventures  of  the  small  but  heroic  band  who  so  long 
maintained  those  strongholds  of  nature,  their  own  ''native 
hills,"  against  the  numerous  forces  of  military  despatched 
against  them,  thus  rendering  their  name  one  of  terror  to  the 
English  garrison  of  the  lowlands. 

Hackett,  Dwyer,  Holt,  and  Garret  Byrne  were  the  chiefs  of 
this  small  band,  who  never  numbered  more  than  two  or  three 
hundred  men,  but  whose  marvelous  courage  and  activity  ren- 
dered them  formidable  to  their  enemies. 

The  lone  Glenmalure  afforded  them  for  a  long  while  a 
comparatively  safe  retreat,  from  which,  however,  they  were 
finally  driven  by  the  king's  troops.  Their  most  effective  and 
inveterate  enemies  were  the  kilted  Highlanders,  whose  for- 
mer habits  peculiarly  fitted  them  for  the  effectual  hunting 
down  of  the  brave  but  unfortunate  Wicklow  mountaineers. 

The  Wexford  men,  with  their  few  Wicklow  adherents, 
once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  assembled  on  the  Hill  of 
Carrigrew,  having  as  their  leaders  Father  Kearns,  Anthony 
Perry  of  Inch,  and  Garret  Byrne  of  Ballymanus.  These  brave 
chiefs  determined  to  march  forthwith  into  the  county  of  Kil- 
dare  and  join  their  forces  to  those  which  were  assembled  there 
under  the  leadership  of  William  Alymer.  The  desired  junc- 
tion effected,  the  entire  force,  numbering  in  all  some  five 
hundred  men,  set  out  towards  Meath  with  a  view  of  surprising 
Athlone. 

On  their  march  thither  they  arrived  at  the  village  of 
Clonard,  where  their  progress  was  impeded  by  a  galling  fire 


The  Rising  of  '98  267 

of  musketry,  directed  against  them  from  a  fortified  house 
occupied  by  Lieutenant  Tyrrell  and  a  corps  of  yeomanry 
under  his  command. 

The  insurgents  might  have  passed  on,  but,  irritated  by 
the  loss  they  sustained,  they  halted  to  besiege  the  house. 
While  engaged  in  this  unwise  attempt  they  were  warned  of 
the  near  approach  of  large  royalist  reinforcements  from 
Kinnegad  and  Mullingar.  On  receiving  this  intelligence  they 
desisted  from  the  siege  and  pursued  their  uninterrupted 
march  towards  the  village  of  Castlecarberry,  where  they 
remained  for  the  night. 

This  daring  incursion  of  the  Wexford  insurgents  into 
Kildare  alarmed,  while  it  enraged,  the  numerous  loyalists 
of  that  and  the  adjoining  counties.  Corps  of  yeomanry, 
mounted  and  on  foot,  and  detachments  of  regular  troops,  were 
soon  mustering  to  hunt  down  the  daring  band.  On  the  ensu- 
ing day  the  latter  resumed  their  march,  and  passed  into  the 
county  of  Meath  without  receiving  all  the  while  any  aid  from 
the  peasantry,  while  hotly  pursued  by  a  host  of  foes.  The 
first  body  of  pursuers  to  come  up  with  them  was  the  Limerick 
Militia,  under  Colonel  Gough.  The  militia  poured  a  de- 
structive fire  upon  them,  which,  as  their  ammunition  was 
spent,  they  were  unable  to  return,  and  were  consequently 
obliged  to  retreat  with  the  loss  of  a  few  killed  and  many 
wounded. 

It  was  soon  after  this  contest,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  that 
Father  Kearns  and  Anthony  Periy  were  made  prisoners. 
Three  days  after,  the  Catholic  priest  and  the  Protestant  gen- 
tleman being  tried  (and  of  course  found  guilty)  by  court- 
martial,  were  hanged  on  the  same  gallows  at  Edenderry. 
They  died  as  cheerfully  as  they  had  fought  heroically  for  the 
good  old  cause  of  fatherland.  Though  unsuccessful  in  this 
affair,  the  insurgents  still  kept  together,  and,  crossing  the 
Eiver  Boyne,  entered  the  county  Louth.  But  their  pursuers 
pressed  so  closely  upon  them  that  the  hunted  Wexford  men 
were  at  last  forced  to  turn  to  bay.  The  place  where  they 
made  their  final  stand  was  on  the  historic  ground  that  lies 
between  the  Boyne  and  the  town  of  Ardee.  It  was  there  that 
a  large  force  of  cavalry,  under  the  command  of  Major-General 
Wemys  and  Brigadier-General  Meyrick,  charged  down  upon 
the  diminished  ranks  of  the  outwearied  and  half-famished 
pikemen. 


268  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

However,  thoiigli  wearied  and  outnumbered,  they  fouglit 
with  desperate  bravery,  keeping  their  array,  and  repelling 
the  furious  and  frequent  charges  of  the  English  cavalry,  whom 
they  often  forced  to  retire  in  confusion. 

But  the  appearance  at  this  juncture  of  a  large  body  of 
infantry,  accompanied  by  artillerjTnen,  showed  them  the  use- 
lessness  of  further  contest. 

Seeing  their  already  thinned  ranks  still  further  diminished 
by  the  discharges  of  musketry  and  artillery,  they  began  slowly 
to  retreat,  with  their  faces  towards  the  foe,  towards  a  large 
bog  that  lay  on  their  right. 

Here  they  remained  unpursued  during  the  ensuing  night; 
but,  deeming  it  hopeless  to  protract  the  contest  unaided  as 
they  were,  they  resolved  to  disperse  and  thus  render  their 
escape  more  easy.  Before  the  morning  dawned  the  greater 
number  of  the  now  hopeless  insurgents  began,  with  heavy 
hearts,  their  homeward  journey— proceeding  singly  or  by 
twos  or  threes ;  but  a  small  body  keeping  together,  crossed  the 
Boyne  and  pushed  on  towards  Dublin.  However,  they .  did 
not  succeed  in  reaching  the  metropolis,  for,  arriving  at  Bally- 
boghill,  near  Swords,  the  disheartened  fugitives  were  encoun- 
tered and  dispersed  by  a  squadron  of  the  Dumfries  Dragoons. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Gordon  thus  narrates  the  last  desperate 
struggles  that  closed  the  military  career  of  the  Wexford  in- 
surgents: "Totally  disappointed  of  their  expected  rein- 
forcements in  the  county  of  Meath,  which  had  been  lately 
disturbed,  they  passed  the  Boyne  near  Dunleek  by  a  rapid 
motion  into  the  county  of  Louth.  Assailed  on  the  fourteenth 
by  two  divisions  of  troops  between  this  river  and  the  Ardee, 
they  made  a  desperate  stand ;  but  overpowered  on  arrival  of 
more  force  with  artillery,  they  broke  and  fled  into  a  bog. 
Hence  a  part  of  them  took  the  road  to  Ardee  and  dispersed, 
but  the  main  body  repassed  the  Boyne  and  were  advancing 
directly  towards  Dublin  with  their  usual  swiftness  when  they 
were  overtaken  in  a  hot  pursuit  by  Captain  Gordon,  of  the 
Dumfries  Light  Dragoons,  at  Ballyboghill,  within  seven  miles 
of  the  capital.  As  they  would  have  been  surrounded  with 
detachments  from  different  quarters,  they  fled  and  finally 
dispersed,  severally  endeavoring  by  devious  ways  to  reach 
their  homes  or  places  of  concealment." 

But  the  people  of  Wexford  paid  dearly  for  their  gallant 


The  Rising  of  '98 


269 


and  persevering,  tlio'  fruitless,  effort  to  wrest  their  country 
from  the  iron  grasp  of  a  too  powerful  enemy. 

For  months  they  successfully  withstood  the  military  might 
of  the  British  empire,  defeating  her  ablest  generals  in  fair 
fight,  and  flaunting  the  green  flag  in  triumph  on  fields  where 
the  proud  standard  of  England  lay  trampled  in  the  dust.  If 
the  cause  of  freedom  failed  the  fault  was  not  theirs. 

Had  the  rest  of  their  countrymen  awakened,  even  at  the 
eleventh  hour,  Ireland  had  not  now  been  an  uncrowned  nation. 


Ornament  on  leather  case  of  Book  of  Armagh. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers." 


HENRY  GRATTAX. 


SECTION  IV. 


IN  THE  DAYS  OF  GRATTAN 


BY 


SIR  JONAH  BARRINGTON,  LL.  D.,  K.  C. 

CONTAINING 

DESCRIPTION  OF  IRELAND  IN  THE  DAYS  OF  GRATTAN— SCENES  IN 
THE  IRISH  PARLIAMENT— DECLARATION  OF  IRISH  RIGHTS— 
THE  VOLUNTEERS  PROCLAIM  THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  IRE- 
LAND—THE PASSING  OF  THE  ACCURSED  UNION- 
SKETCHES  OF  GRATTAN,  FLOOD,  CHARLE- 
MONT,  CURRAN  AND  OTHERS 


271 


IN  THE  DAYS  OF  GRATTAN. 

BY  SIR  JONAH  BARKINCTON,  LL.  1).,  K.  C. 


CHAPTER  I. 

CAUSES  OF  Ireland's  depressed  condition— Ireland  aroused  by 

AMERICAN  independence. 

More  than  six  centuries  liad  passed  away  since  Ireland 
had  first  acknowledged  a  subordinate  connection  with  the 
English  Monarchy— her  voluntary  but  partial  submission  to 
the  sceptres  of  Henry  and  of  Richard  had  been  construed  by 
their  successors  into  the  right  of  conquest— and  the  same 
spirit  of  turbulence  and  discord  which  had  generated  the 
treachery  and  treasons  of  M']\[orrough  was  carefully  cul- 
tivated by  every  English  potentate  as  the  most  effectual  bar- 
rier against  the  struggles  of  a  restless  and  semi-conquered 
people— and  Ireland,  helpless  and  distracted,  groaned  for 
ages  in  obscurity  under  the  accumulated  pressure  of  internal 
strife  and  external  tyranny. 

The  apathy  produced  by  this  habitual  oppression  had  long 
benumbed  the  best  energies  of  Ireland— her  national  spirit, 
depressed  by  the  heavy  hand  of  arbitrary  restraint,  almost 
forgot  its  own  existence;  and  the  proudest  language  of  her 
constitution  could  only  boast  that  she  was  the  annexed  de- 
pendent of  a  greater  and  a  freer  country. 

It  was  not  until  an  advanced  stage  of  the  American  revolt 
had  attracted  the  attention  of  enlightened  Europe  to  the  first 
principles  of  civil  liberty  that  Ireland  began  steadily  to  re- 
flect on  her  own  deprivations.  Commerce  and  constitution 
had  been  withdrawn  from  her  grasp,  and  the  usurped  suprem- 
acy of  the  British  Parliament  gave  a  death  blow  to  every 
struggle  of  Irish  independence. 

But  in  whatever  relative  situation  the  two  nations  really 
stood,  the  same  jealous  and  narrow  principle  might  be  per- 
ceived uniformly  attending  every  measure  enacted  as  to  the 
Irish  people.  If  at  any  time  a  cheering  ray  of  commercial 
advantage  chanced  for  a  moment  to  illuminate  the  dreary 

273 


274  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

prospects  of  Ireland,  the  sordid  spirit  of  monopoly  instantly 
arose  in  England  and  rendered  every  effort  to  promote  a 
beneficial  trade  or  advance  a  rival  manufacture  vain  and 
abortive. 

Commercial  jealousy  and  arbitrary  government  united, 
therefore,  to  suppress  every  struggle  of  the  Irish  nation,  and 
root  up  every  seed  of  prosperity  and  civilization. 

Alarmed  at  the  increasing  population,  the  unsubdued 
spirit  and  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  that  strong  and  fer- 
tile island,  a  dread  of  her  growing  power  excited  a  fallacious 
jealousy  of  her  future  importance.  In  her  timidity  or  her 
avarice  England  lost  sight  of  her  truest  interests  and  of  her 
nobler  feelings,  and  kings,  usurpers,  and  viceroys,  as  they 
respectively  exercised  the  powers  of  government,  all  acted 
towards  Ireland  upon  the  same  blind  and  arbitrary  principles 
which  they  had  imbibed  from  their  education,  or  inherited 
from  their  predecessors. 

This  desperate  policy,  so  repugnant  to  the  attachment, 
and  fatal  to  the  repose  of  the  two  countries,  excited  the  spirit 
of  eternal  warfare— an  enthusiastic  love  of  national  inde- 
pendence sharpened  the  sword,  and  the  zealots  of  religious 
fanaticism  threw  away  the  scabbard— the  septs  fought  against 
each  other,  the  English  against  all— the  population  was 
thinned,  but  the  survivors  became  inveterate,  and  though  the 
wars  and  the  massacres  of  Elizabeth  and  of  Cromwell,  by 
depopulating,  appeared  to  have  subjugated  the  nation— the 
triumph  was  not  glorious — and  the  conquest  was  not  com- 
plete. 

Direct  persecution  against  principles  only  adds  fuel  to  a 
cojiflagration— the  persons  of  men  may  be  coerced— but  it  is 
beyond  the  reach  of  human  power  to  subdue  the  rooted, 
hereditary  passions  and  prejudices  of  a  persevering,  ardent, 
and  patriotic  jjeople— such  a  nation  may  be  gained  over  by 
address,  or  seduced  by  dissimulation,  but  can  never  be  re- 
claimed by  force,  or  overcome  by  persecution— yet  from  the 
very  first  intercourse  between  the  two  countries  that  de- 
structive system  of  force  and  of  dissension,  which  so  palpably 
led  to  the  miseries  of  Ireland,  had  been  sedulously  cultivated 
and  unremittingly  persevered  in. 

Thus  grievously  oppressed  and  ruinously  disunited,  Ire- 
land struggled  often,  but  she  struggled  in  vain ;  the  weight  of 
her  chains  was  too  heavy  for  the  feebleness  of  her  constitu- 


In  TiiR  Days  of  Grattan  275 

tion,  and  every  effort  to  enlarge  her  liberty  only  gave  a  new 
pretext  to  the  conqueror  to  circumscribe  it  within  a  still  nar- 
rower compass. 

On  the  same  false  principle  of  government  this  oppressed 
nation  was  also  systematically  retained  in  a  state  of  the 
utmost  obscurity,  and  represented  to  the  world  as  an  insig- 
nificant and  remote  island,  remarkable  only  for  her  turbulence 
and  sterility;  and  so  perfectly  did  this  misrepresentation 
succeed  that,  while  every  republic  and  minor ,  nation  of 
Europe  had  become  the  theme  of  travelers,  and  the  subject 
of  historians,  Ireland  was  visited  only  to  be  despised,  and 
spoken  of  only  to  be  calumniated.  In  truth,  she  is  as  yet  but 
little  known  by  the  rest  of  Europe,  and  but  partially  even  to 
the  people  of  England.  But  when  the  extraordinary  capa- 
bilities, the  resources,  and  the  powers  of  Ireland  are  fully 
developed  an  interest  must  arise  in  every  breast  which  reflects 
on  her  misfortunes.  It  is  time  that  the  curtain,  which  has 
been  so  long  interposed  between  Ireland  and  the  rest  of 
Europe,  should  be  drawn  aside  forever,  and  a  just  judgment 
formed  of  the  impolicy  of  measures  which  have  been  adopted 
nominally  to  govern  but  substantially  to  suppress  her  power 
and  prosperity. 

The  position  of  Ireland  upon  the  face  of  the  globe  pe- 
culiarly formed  her  for  universal  intercourse,  and  adapted 
her  in  every  respect  for  legislative  independence.  Separated 
by  a  great  sea  from  England— the  Irish  people,  dissimilar  in 
customs,  more  thnn  equal  in  talent,  and  vastly  superior  in 
energy,  possess  an  island  about  900  miles  in  circumference; 
with  a  climate,  for  the  general  mildness  of  temperature  and 
moderation  of  seasons,  unrivalled  in  the  universe— the  parch- 
ing heats,  or  piercing  colds,  the  deep  snows,  the  torrent,  and 
the  hurricane,  which  other  countries  so  fatally  experience,  are 
here  unknown.  Though  her  great  exposure  to  the  spray  of 
the  Atlantic  increases  the  humidity  of  the  atmosphere,  it  adds 
to  the  fecundity  of  the  soil  and  distinguishes  her  fertile  fields 
by  the  productions  of  an  almost  perpetual  vegetation. 

The  geographical  situation  of  Ireland  is  not  less  favorable 
to  commerce  than  her  climate  is  to  agriculture.  Her  position 
on  the  western  extremity  of  Europe  would  enable  her  to 
intercept  the  trade  of  the  new  world  from  all  other  nations— 
the  merchandise  of  London,  of  Bristol,  and  of  Liverpool  skirt 
her  shores  before  it  arrives  at  its  own  destination ;  and  some 


276  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

of  the  finest  liarbors  in  tlie  world  invite  tlie  inhabitants  of 
this  gifted  island  to  accept  the  trade  of  India  and  form  the 
emporium  of  Europe. 

The  internal  and  natural  advantages  of  Ireland  are  great 
and  inexhaustible.  Rich  mines  are  found  in  almost  every 
quarter  of  the  island;  gold  is  discovered  in  the  beds  of 
streams,  and  washed  from  the  sands  of  rivulets— the  moun- 
tains are  generally  arable  to  their  summits— the  valleys 
exceed  in  fertility  the  most  prolific  soils  of  England— the 
rivulets,  which  flow  along  the  declivities,  adapt  the  country 
most  peculiarly  to  the  improvement  of  irrigation;  and  the 
bogs  and  mosses  of  Ireland,  utterly  unlike  the  fens  and 
marshes  of  England,  emit  no  damp  or  noxious  exhalations, 
and  give  a  plentiful  and  cheering  fuel  to  the  surrounding 
peasantry;  or,  when  reclaimed,  become  the  most  luxurious 
pastures. 

The  population  of  Ireland  is  great  and  progressive.  Above 
five  millions  of  a  brave  and  hearty  race  of  men  are  seen 
scattered  through  the  fields,  or  swarming  in  the  villages— a 
vast  redundancy  of  grain,  and  innumerable  flocks  and  herds 
should  furnish  to  them  not  only  the  source  of  trade,  but  every 
means  of  comfort. 

Dublin,  the  second  city  of  the  British  empire,  though  it 
yields  in  extent,  yields  not  in  architectural  beauties  to  the 
metropolis  of  England.  For  some  years  previous  to  the 
Union  its  progress  was  excessive— the  locality  of  the  parlia- 
ment—the constant  residence  of  the  nobility  and  commons— 
the  magnificent  establishments  of  the  vice-regal  court— the 
indefatigable  hospitality  of  the  people— and  the  increasing 
commerce  of  the  port,  altogether  gave  a  brilliant  prosperity 
to  that  splendid  and  luxurious  capital. 

Ireland,  possessing  the  strongest  features  of  a  powerful 
state,  though  laboring  under  every  disadvantage  which  a 
restricted  commerce  and  a  jealous  ally  could  inflict  upon  her 
prosperity,  might  still  have  regarded  with  contempt  the 
comparatively  unequal  resources  and  inferior  powers  of  half 
the  monarchies  of  Europe.  Her  insular  situation— her  great 
fertility— the  character  of  her  people— the  amount  of  her 
revenues— and  the  extent  of  her  population,  gave  her  a  de- 
cided superiority  over  other  nations  and  rendered  her  crown, 
if  accompanied  by  her  affections,  not  only  a  brilliant  but  a 
most  substantial  ornament  to  the  British  empire. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  277 

However,  though  gifted  and  enriched  by  the  hand  of 
Nature,  the  fomented  dissensions  of  her  own  natives  had 
Wedded  Ireland  to  poverty  and  adapted  her  to  subjugation— 
her  innate  capacities  lay  dormant  and  inactive— her  dearest 
interests  were  forgotten  by  herself,  or  resisted  by  lier  ally; 
and  the  gifts  and  bounties  of  a  favoring  Providence,  though 
lavished,  were  lost  on  a  divided  people. 

By  the  paralyzing  system  thus  adopted  towards  Ireland, 
she  was  at  length  reduced  to  the  lowest  ebb— her  poverty  and 
distresses,  almost  at  their  extent,  were  advancing  fast  to  their 
final  consummation— her  commerce  had  almost  ceased— her 
manufactures  extinguished— her  constitution  withdrawn— the 
people  desponding— while  public  and  individual  bankruptcy 
finished  a  picture  of  the  deepest  misery;  and  the  year  1799 
found  Ireland  almost  everything  but  what  such  a  country  and 
such  a  people  ought  to  have  been. 

This  lamentable  state  of  the  Irish  nation  was  not  the 
result  of  any  one  distinct  cause :  a  combination  of  depressing 
circumstances  united  to  bear  down  every  progressive  effort 
of  that  injured  people.  Immured  in  a  labyrinth  of  difficulties 
and  embarrassments,  no  clew  was  found  to  lead  them  through 
the  mazes  of  their  prison ;  and,  helpless  and  desponding,  they 
sunk  into  a  doze  of  torpid  inactivity,  while  their  humiliated 
and  ineffectual  parliaments,  restrained  by  foreign  and  arbi- 
trary laws,  subjected  to  the  dictation  of  the  British  Council, 
and  obstructed  in  the  performance  of  its  constitutional  func- 
tions, retained  scarcely  the  shadow  of  an  independent  legis- 
lature. 

A  statute  of  Henry  the  Seventh  of  England,  framed  by  his 
Attorne^^-General,  Sir  Edward  Poyning,  restrained  the  Irish 
Parliament  from  originating  any  law  whatever,  either  in  the 
Lords  or  Commons.  Before  any  statute  could  be  finally  dis- 
cussed, it  was  previously  to  be  submitted  to  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant of  Ireland  and  his  Privy  Council,  for  their  considera- 
tion, who  might  at  their  pleasure  reject  it,  or  transmit  it  to 
England.  If  transmitted  to  England,  the  British  Attorney 
General  and  Privy  Council  were  invested  with  a  power  either 
to  suppress  it  altogether  or  model  it  at  their  own  will,  and 
then  return  it  to  Ireland  with  permission  to  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment to  pass  it  into  a  law,  but  without  any  alteration,  though 
it  frequently  returned  from  England  so  changed  as  to  retain 
hardly  a  trace  of  its  original  features,  or  a  point  of  its  original 
object. 


278  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Yet,  as  if  this  arbitrary  law  were  insufficient  to  secure 
Great  Britain  from  the  effect  of  those  rival  advantages  which 
Ireland  might  in  process  of  time  eventually  acquire,  and  as 
if  that  counteracting  j^ower,  with  which  England  had  invested 
herself  by  the  law  of  Poyning,  were  unequal  to  the  task  of 
effectually  suppressing  all  rivalship  of  the  Irish  jjeople,  and 
independence  of  the  Irish  Parliament;  it  was  thought  advis- 
able by  Great  Britain  to  usurp  a  positive  right  to  legislate 
for  Ireland,  without  her  own  consent  or  the  interference  of 
her  Parliament ;  and  a  law  was  accordingly  enacted  at  West- 
minster, in  the  sixth  year  of  the  reign  of  George  the  First, 
by  one  sweeping  clause  of  which  England  assumed  a  despotic 
power,  and  declared  her  inherent  right  to  bind  Ireland  by 
every  British  statute,  in  which  she  should  be  expressly  desig- 
nated; and  thus,  by  the  authority  of  the  British  Council  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  positive  right  assumed  by  the  British 
Parliament  upon  the  other,  Ireland  retained  no  more  the 
attributes  of  an  independent  nation  than  a  monarch,  attended 
in  a  dungeon  with  all  the  state  and  trappings  of  royalty,  and 
bound  hand  and  foot  in  golden  shackles,  could  be  justly  styled 
an  independent  potentate. 

The  effect  of  this  tyrannical  and  ruinous  system  fell  most 
heavily  on  the  trade  of  Ireland.  Its  influence  was  experienced 
not  merely  by  any  particular  branch  of  commerce,  but  in 
every  stage  of  manufacture,  of  arts,  of  trade,  and  of  agri- 
culture. In  every  struggle  of  the  Irish  Parliament  to  promote 
the  commerce  or  the  manufactures  of  their  country,  the  Brit- 
ish monopolizers  were  perpetually  victorious;  and  even  the 
speculative  jealousy  of  a  manufacturing  village  of  Great 
Britain  was  of  sufficient  weight  to  negative  any  measure, 
however  beneficial  to  the  general  prosperity  of  the  sister 
country. 

The  same  jealousy  and  the  same  system  which  operated  so 
fatally  against  the  advancement  of  her  commerce  operated 
as  strongly  against  the  improvement  of  her  constitution. 
England  was  well  aware  that  the  acquirement  of  an  independ- 
ent Parliament  would  be  the  sure  forerunner  of  commercial 
liberty;  and  possessed  of  the  means  to  counteract  these  ob- 
jects, she  seemed  determined  never  to  relax  the  strength  of 
that  power,  by  the  despotic  exercise  of  which  Ireland  had  been 
so  long  continued  in  a  state  of  thraldom. 

But  exclusive  of  these  slavish  restraints   (the  necessary 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  2"9 

cousequonce  of  a  dependent  legislature)  another  system  not 
less  adverse  to  the  general  prosperity  o£  the  whole  .sknd 
than  repugnant  to  the  principle  of  natural  justice  and  ot 
found  policy,  had  heon  long  acted  upon  with  every  seventy 
that  bigotry  could  suggest,  or  intolerance  could  <!'«*««, 

The  penal  statutes,  under  the  tyrannical  pres^sure  of  which 
the  Catholics  had  so  long  and  so  grievously  labored,  though 
in  some  instances  softened  down,  still  bore  heavily  upon  foui- 
fifths  of  the  Irish  pouulation-a  code  which  would  have  dis- 
nored  even  the  sLguinary  pen  of  Draee  had  inBieted  every 
pain  and  penalty,  every  restriction  and  oppression   under 
which  a  people  could  linger  out  a  miserable  existence.     By 
these  stalutes  the  exercise  of  religion  had  been  held  a  crime 
the  education  of  children  a  high  '"«<i«"?ff'^°'-*^!''/°"  ^,'^' 
encouraged  to  betray  his  father-the  child  rewarded  foi  the 
•u  n  of  his  parent-the   house   of   God   declared   a   public 
nuisance-thc  officiating  pastor  proclaimed  an  ""tlaw-the 

acquirement  of  property  absolutely  P™^''"'<''^r*\^',t''"„'^ 
of  trades  restrained-plunder  legahzed  m  courts  of  law.  «°/l 
breach  of  trust  rewarded  in  courts  of  eqnity-the  Irish  Cath- 
0  ic  excluded  from  the  possession  of  any  office  or  occupation 
^  he  state,  the  law,  the  army,  the  na^,  «-,  "7?!'''^''°';;'' 
and  the  chartered  corporations -and  the  m.d  doctrines  of  Ae 
Christian  faith  perverted,  even  m  the  pulpit,  to  the  ^oist 
Durcoses  of  religious  persecution. 

"^    Yet  under  this  galling  yoke  the  Irish  for  near  eighty  yea 
remained  tranquil  and  submissive.    The  ig-norance,  into  which 
poverty  and  w  etchedness  had  plunged  that  people,  prevented 
hem  from  perceiving  the  whole  extent  of  the  oppression; 
and  these  penal  laws,  while  they  operated  as  an  msuperable 
bar  to  the  advancement  of  the  Catholic,  deeply  affected  tl^e 
general  interest  of  the  Protestant.    The  impoverished  tenant 
Ithe  needv  landlord-the  unenterprising  merchant-the  id.a 
artisan  could  all  trace  the  origin  of  their  wants  to  tl'e  enact- 
ment of  these   statutes.     Profession  was  not  permitted  to 
engage  the  mind  of  youth,  or  education  to  cultivate  his  under- 
sSng     Dissolute  habits,  the  certain  result  of  idleness  and 
illiterateness,  were  consequently  making  rapid  progress  in 
almost  every  class  of  society.    The  gentry  were  not  exempt 
?^m1he  habits  of  the  peasant;  the  spirit  of  industry  took  her 
light  altogether  from  the  island;  and,  as  the  loss  of  commerce 
and  constitution  had  no  couuteractmg  advantages,  everything 


280  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

combined  to  reduce  Ireland  to  a  state  of  the  most  general  and 
unqualified  depression. 

It  was  about  this  period,  when  the  short-sighted  policy  of 
the  British  Government  had  by  its  own  arbitrary  proceedings 
planted  the  seeds  of  that  political  philosophy,  afterwards  so 
fatal  to  the  most  powerful  monarchies  of  Europe,  that  Ireland 
began  to  feel  herself  affected  by  the  struggles  of  America. 
The  spirit  of  independence  had  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  the 
Irish  people,  awakened  from  a  trance,  beheld  with  anxiety 
the  contest  in  which  they  now  began  to  feel  an  interest.  They 
regarded  with  admiration  the  exertions  of  a  colony  combating 
for  the  first  principles  of  civil  liberty,  and  giving  to  the  world 
an  instructive  lesson  of  fortitude  and  perseverance. 

Spread  over  a  vast  expanse  of  region,  America,  without 
[wealth— without  resources— without  population— without 
fortresses— without  allies— had  everything  to  contend  with, 
and  everything  to  conquer.  But  freedom  was  her  call,  and  as 
if  she  had  been  designated  by  Providence  for  an  example  to 
the  universe  of  what  even  powerless  states  can  achieve  by 
enthusiasm  and  unanimity,  her  strength  increased  with  her 
deprivations,  and  the  firmness  of  one  great  and  good  man 
converted  the  feebleness  of  a  colony  into  the  power  of  an 
empire.  The  defeats  of  Washington  augmented  his  armies— 
his  wants  and  necessities  called  forth  his  intellect— while  his 
wisdom,  firmness,  and  moderation  procured  him  powerful 
friends,  and  secured  him  ultimate  victory.  The  strength  of 
Great  Britain  at  length  yielded  to  the  vigor  of  his  mind,  and 
the  unflinching  fortitude  of  his  people;  and  Lord  Cornwallis 
(the  chosen  instrument  for  oppressing  heroic  nations),  by  his 
defeat  and  his  captivity,  established  the  independence  of 
America.  The  arrogance  of  England  bowed  its  proud  head 
to  the  shrine  of  liberty,  and  her  favorite  general  led  back 
the  relics  of  his  conquered  army  to  commemorate  in  the 
mother  country  the  impotence  of  her  power  and  emancipation 
of  her  colonies. 

While  these  great  events  were  gradually  proceeding  to- 
wards their  final  completion,  Ireland  became  every  day  a  more 
anxious  spectator  of  the  arduous  conflict— every  incident  in 
America  began  to  communicate  a  sympathetic  impulse  to  the 
Irish  people— the  moment  was  critical— the  nation  became 
enlightened— a  patriotic  ardor  took  possession  of  her  whole 
frame,  and  before  she  had  well  considered  the  object  of  her 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  281 

solicitude  the  spark  of  constitutional  liberty  had  found  its 
way  into  her  bosom. 

The  disposition  of  Ireland  to  avail  herself  of  the  circum- 
stances of  those  times,  so  favorable  to  the  attainment  of  her 
rights,  now  openly  avowed  itself.  Her  determination  to  claim 
her  constitution  from  the  British  Government  became  une- 
quivocal, and  she  began  to  assume  the  attitude  and  language 
of  a  nation  "entitled  to  independence."  The  sound  of  arms 
and  the  voice  of  freedom  echoed  from  every  quarter  of  the 
island,  distinctions  were  forgotten,  or  disregarded;  every 
rank,  every  religion  alike  caught  the  general  feeling,  but  firm- 
ness and  discretion  characterized  her  proceedings— she  grad- 
ually arose  from  torpor  and  obscurity— her  native  spirit  drew 
aside  the  curtain  that  had  so  long  concealed  her  from  the 
world  and  exhibited  an  armed  and  animated  people,  claiming 
their  natural  rights  and  demanding  their  constitutional 
liberty. 

When  the  dawn  of  political  liberty  begins  to  diffuse  itself 
over  a  nation  great  and  gifted  characters  suddenly  spring  up 
from  amongst  the  people— animated  by  new  subjects,  their 
various  talents  and  principles  become  developed— they  inter- 
weave themselves  with  the  events  of  their  country,  become 
inseparable  from  its  misfortunes,  or  identified  with  its  pros- 
perity. 

Ireland,  at  this  era,  possessed  many  men  of  superior 
capabilities— some  distinguished  by  their  pure  attachment  to 
constitutional  liberty— others  by  their  slavish  deference  to 
ruling  powers  and  patronizing  authorities.  Among  those 
whom  the  spirit  of  these  times  called  forth  to  public  notice  was 
seen  one  of  the  most  bold  and  energetic  leaders  of  modern 
days,  an  anticipated  knowledge  of  whose  marked  and  restless 
character  is  a  necessary  preface  to  a  recital  of  Irish  recur- 
rences, in  which  the  effects  of  his  passions  will  be  everywhere 
traced,  and  the  mischievous  errors  of  his  judgment  be  per- 
ceived and  lamented. 

This  person  was  John  Fitzgibbon,  afterwards  Earl  of 
Clare— Attorney  General  arid  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  Ire- 
land. His  ascertained  pedigree  was  short,  though  his  name 
bespoke  an  early  respectability.  His  grandfather  was  obscure 
—his  father,  intended  for  the  profession  of  a  Catholic  pastor, 
but  possessing  a  mind  superior  to  the  habits  of  monkish 
seclusion,  procured  himself  to  be  called  to  the  Irish  bar,  where 


282  Ireland's  Ckown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

his  talents  raised  him  to  the  highest  estimation  and  finally 
established  him  in  fame  and  fortune. 

John  Fitzgibbon,  the  second  son  of  this  man,  was  called 
to  the  bar  in  1772.  Naturally  dissipated,  he  for  some  time 
attended  but  little  to  the  duties  of  his  profession;  but  on 
the  death  of  his  elder  brother  and  his  father  he  found  him- 
self in  possession  of  all  those  advantages  which  led  him  rap- 
idly forward  to  the  extremity  of  his  objects.  Considerable 
fortune— professional  talents— extensive  connections  and 
undismayed  confidence  elevated  him  to  those  stations  on 
which  he  afterwards  appeared  so  conspicuously  seated ;  while 
the  historic  eye,  as  it  follows  his  career,  perceives  him  lightly 
bounding  over  every  obstacle  which  checked  his  course  to  that 
goal  where  all  the  trophies  and  thorns  of  power  were  col- 
lected for  his  reception. 

In  the  Earl  of  Clare  we  find  a  man  eminently  gifted  with 
talents  adapted  either  for  a  blessing  or  a  curse  to  the  nation 
he  inhabited ;  but  early  enveloped  in  high  and  dazzling  author- 
ity, he  lost  his  way  and,  considering  his  power  as  a  victory, 
he  ruled  his  country  as  a  conquest;  indiscriminate  in  his 
friendships— and  implacable  in  his  animosities— he  carried  to 
the  grave  all  the  passions  of  his  childhood. 

He  hated  powerful  talents,  because  he  feared  them;  and 
trampled  on  modest  merit,  because  it  was  incapable  of  resist- 
ance. Authoritative  and  peremptory  in  his  address;  com- 
manding, able,  and  arrogant  in  his  language,  a  daring  con- 
tempt for  public  opinion  was  the  fatal  principle  which 
misguided  his  conduct;  and  Ireland  became  divided  between 
the  friends  of  his  patronage— the  slaves  of  his  power— and 
the  enemies  of  his  tyranny. 

His  character  had  no  medium,  his  manners  no  mediocrity 
—the  example  of  his  extremes  was  adopted  by  his  intimates, 
and  excited  in  those  who  knew  him  feelings  either  of  warm 
attachment  or  of  riveted  aversion. 

While  he  held  the  seals  in  Ireland  he  united  a  vigorous 
capacity  with  the  most  striking  errors;  as  a  judge,  he  col- 
lected facts  with  a  rapid  precision,  and  decided  on  them  with 
a  prompt  asperity;  but  he  hated  precedent,  and  despised  the 
highest  judicial  authorities,  because  they  were  not  his  own. 

As  a  politician  and  a  statesman,  the  character  of  Lord 
Clare  is  too  well  known,  and  its  effects  too  generally  expe- 
rienced to  be  mistaken  or  misrepresented— the   era   of   his 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  283 

reign  was  tho  downfall  of  liis  coimtry-liis  councils  acceler- 
ated what  his  policy  might  have  suppressed,  and  have  marked 
the  annals  of  Ireland  with  stains  and  miseries  unequalled  and 
indelible. 

In  council— rapid,  i)ereniptory,  and  overbearing— he  re- 
garded promptness  of  execution  rather  than  discretion  of 
arrangement,  and  piqued  himself  more  on  expertness  of 
thought  than  sobriety  of  judgment.  Through  all  the  calami- 
ties of  Ireland  the  mild  voice  of  conciliation  never  escaped 
his  lips ;  and  when  the  torrent  of  civil  war  had  subsided  in  his 
country  he  held  out  no  olive  to  show  that  the  deluge  had 
receded.  Acting  upon  a  conviction  that  his  power  was  but 
coexistent  with  the  order  of  public  establishments,  and  the 
tenure  of  his  office  limited  to  the  continuance  of  administra- 
tion, he  supported  both  with  less  prudence  and  more  despera- 
tion than  sound  policy  or  an  enlightened  mind  should  permit 
or  dictate ;  his  extravagant  doctrines  of  religious  intolerance 
created  the  most  mischievous  pretexts  for  his  intemperance 
in  upholding  them ;  and,  under  color  of  defending  the  princi- 
ples of  one  revolution,  he  had  nearly  plunged  the  nation  into 
all  the  miseries  of  another. 

His  political  conduct  has  been  unaccounted  uniform,  but 
in  detail  it  will  be  found  to  have  been  miserably  inconsistent. 
In  1781  he  took  up  arms  to  obtain  a  declaration  of  Irish 
independence ;  in  1800  he  recommended  the  introduction  of  a 
military  force  to  assist  in  its  extingaiishment ;  he  proclaimed 
Ireland  a  free  nation  in  1783,  and  argued  that  it  should  be  a 
province  in  1799;  in  1782  he  called  the  acts  of  the  British 
Legislature  towards  Ireland  ''a  daring  usurpation  on  the 
rights  of  a  free  people,"  and  in  1800  he  transferred  Ireland  to 
the  usurper.  On  all  occasions  his  ambition  as  despotically 
governed  his  politics  as  his  reason  invariably  sunk  before  his 
prejudice. 

Though  he  intrinsically  hated  a  Legislative  Union,  his  lust 
for  power  induced  him  to  support  it;  the  preservation  of 
office  overcame  the  impulse  of  conviction,  and  he  strenuously 
supported  that  measure,  after  having  openly  avowed  himself 
its  enemy ;  its  completion,  however,  blasted  his  hopes  and  has- 
tened his  dissolution.  The  restlessness  of  his  habit,  and  the 
obtrusiveness  of  his  disposition  became  insupportably  embar- 
rassing to  the  British  cabinet— the  danger  of  his  talents  as  a 
minister,  and  the  inadequacy  of  his  judgment  as  a  statesman 


284  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

had  been  proved  in  Ireland ;  he  had  been  a  useful  instrument 
in  that  country,  but  the  same  line  of  services  which  he  per- 
formed in  Ireland  would  have  been  ruinous  to  Great  Britain, 
and  Lord  Clare  was  no  longer  consulted. 

The  union  at  length  effected  through  his  friends  what 
Ireland  could  never  accomplish  through  his  enemies— his  total 
overthrow.  Unaccustomed  to  control,  and  unable  to  submit, 
he  returned  to  his  country,  weary,  drooping,  and  disap- 
pointed; regretting  what  he  had  done,  yet  miserable  that  he 
could  do  no  more.  His  importance  had  expired  with  the  Irish 
Parliament,  his  j^atronage  ceased  to  supply  food  for  his  ambi- 
tion, the  mind  and  the  body  became  too  sympathetic  for  exist- 
ence and  he  sunk  into  the  grave,  a  conspicuous  example  of 
human  talent  and  human  frailty. 

In  his  person  he  was  about  the  middle  size,  slight,  and  not 
graceful,  his  eyes,  large,  dark,  and  penetrating,  betrayed  some 
of  the  boldest  traits  of  his  uncommon  character;  his  coun- 
tenance, though  expressive  and  manly,  yet  discovered  noth- 
ing which  could  deceive  the  physiognomist  into  an  opinion  of 
his  magnanimity,  or  call  forth  a  eulogium  on  his  virtues. 

During  twenty  momentous  and  eventful  years  the  life  of 
Lord  Clare  is  in  fact  the  history  of  Ireland— as  in  romance 
some  puissant  and  doughty  chieftain  appears  prominent  in 
every  feat  of  chivalry— the  champion  in  every  strife— the  hero 
of  every  encounter,  and,  after  a  life  of  toil  and  of  battle,  falls 
surrounded  by  a  host  of  foes,  a  victim  to  his  own  ambition 
and  temerity. 

Thus  Earl  Clare  throughout  those  eventful  periods  will 
be  seen  bold,  active  and  desperate,  engaging  fiercely  in  every 
important  conflict  of  the  Irish  nation  and  at  lengih,  after 
having  sacrificed  his  country  to  his  passions  and  his  ambi- 
tion, endeavoring  to  atone  for  his  errors  by  sacrificing  him- 
self. 


CHAPTER  IT. 

THE  IRISH  PARLIAMENT  PREVIOUS  TO  1779  — CHARACTER  OF  THE 
IRISH  PEASANT  — THE  PROTESTANT  AND  CATHOLIC  CLERGY 
COMPARED. 

The  habits  of  commerce  and  the  pursuits  of  avarice  had 
not,  at  this  period,  absorbed  the  spirit  or  contracted  the  intel- 
lect of  the  Irish  people.  That  vigorous,  comprehensive,  and 
pathetic  eloquence  so  peculiar  to  Ireland,  which  grasped  at 
once  the  reason  and  the  passions,  still  retained  its  ascendancy 
at  the  bar,  and  its  pre-eminence  in  the  Senate ;  and  the  Com- 
mons'  House  of  Parliament,  about  the  period  of  Lord  Clare's 
first  introduction  into  public  notice,  contained  as  much  char- 
acter, as  much  eloquence,  and  as  much  sincerity  as  any  popular 
assembly  since  the  most  brilliant  era  of  the  Roman  republic. 
It  might  be  reasonable  to  infer  that  a  nation  so  long  re- 
tained in  the  trammels  of  dependence,  so  habituated  through 
successive  generations,  to  control  and  to  subjection  would 
have  lost  much  of  its  natural  energy,  and  more  of  its  national 
feeling.  But,  though  the  Irish  Parliament,  previous  to  1799, 
in  general  manifested  strong  indications  of  a  declining  and 
a  subservient  body,  yet,  even  after  centuries  of  depression, 
when  roused  by  the  sting  of  accumulating  usurpation,  its 
latent  spirit  occasionally  burst  forth  and  should  have  con- 
vinced the  British  Government  that  though  the  flame  of  lib- 
erty may  be  smothered  the  spark  is  unextinguishable. 

Although,  by  the  operation  of  Poyning's  Law,  the  parlia- 
mentary discussions  were  generally  restricted  to  local  sub- 
jects and  domestic  arrangements,  yet  constitutional  questions 
of  a  vital  tendency  incidentally  occurred;  and  the  exercise 
of  controlling  powers,  assumed  by  the  British  cabinet  over 
the  concerns  of  Ireland  often  afforded  matter  of  serious  con- 
troversy between  the  viceroy  and  the  nation  and  had,  in  some 
instances,  been  resisted  by  the  parliament  with  a  warmth  and 
a  pertinacity  which  foretold  a  certainty  of  more  important 
contests. 

These  struggles,  however,  although  frequent  were  fruit- 
less. The  country  was  not  yet  ripe  for  independence,  consti- 
tutional freedom  had  been  so  long  obsolete  that  even  its  first 

285 


286  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

principles  were  nearly  forgotten,  and  the  people  were  again 
to  learn  the  rudiments  before  they  could  speak  the  language 
of  liberty.  But  the  fortitude,  the  wisdom,  and  the  perse- 
verance of  the  Anglo-American  colonies,  the  feebleness,  the 
impolicy,  and  the  division  of  Great  Britain  soon  taught  Ire- 
land the  importance  of  the  crisis;  and  by  a  firmness,  a  mod- 
eration, and  a  unanimity  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of 
revolution,  the  Irish  Volunteers  acquired  for  their  country  a 
civic  crown  which  nothing  but  the  insanity  of  rebellion  and 
the  artifices  and  frauds  of  Union  could  ever  have  torn  from 
the  brow  of  the  Irish  people. 

Absentees  who  have  ever  been  and  ever  will  remain  an 
obstacle  to  the  substantial  prosperity  of  Ireland  exerted  them- 
selves more  particularly  at  this  period,  in  giving  a  strenuous 
and  weighty  opposition  to  every  measure  of  innovation,  they 
knew  their  Irish  demesnes  only  by  name  and  by  income,  they 
felt  no  interest  but  for  their  rents,  and  no  patriotism  but  for 
the  territory,  alarmed  at  any  legislative  measure  originating 
in  Ireland.  They  showed  themselves  equally  ignorant  and 
regardless  of  her  constitution,  and  ever  proved  themselves 
the  steady  adherents  of  the  Minister  for  the  time  being ;  their 
proxies  in  the  Lords,  and  their  influence  in  the  Commons  were 
to  be  transferred  to  him  on  a  card  or  in  a  letter,  and  on 
every  division  in  both  houses  almost  invariably  formed  a 
phalanx  against  the  true  and  genuine  interest  of  the  country. 

However  zealous  and  determined  the  incipient  exertions  of 
the  Irish  nation  might  have  been,  they  would  probably  have 
been  crushed  and  extinguished  had  not  a  class  of  men,  pos- 
sessing the  first  talents  in  the  senate  and  the  highest  con- 
fidence of  the  country,  stepped  boldly  forward  to  support  the 
people.  In  those  days  the  Irish  bar,  a  body  equally  formidable 
to  the  Government  by  their  character  and  their  capacity,  too 
independent  to  be  restrained,  and  too  proud  to  be  corrupted, 
comprised  many  sons  of  the  resident  noblemen  and  commoners 
of  Ireland.  The  legal  science  was  at  that  time  considered  as 
part  of  an  Irish  gentleman's  education;  the  practice  was  then 
not  a  trade,  but  a  profession.  Eloquence  was  cultivated  by 
its  votaries,  as  a  preparation  for  the  higher  duties  of  the. 
senate,  and  as  almost  every  peer  and  every  commoner  had 
a  relative  enrolled  among  their  number,  so  they  had  an 
interest  in  the  conduct  and  honor  of  that  department  of 
society.     The  influence,  therefore,  of  the  bar  as  a  body,  in- 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  287 

creased  by  the  general  respect  for  the  connections  and  culti- 
vated talents  of  its  members,  gave  them  an  ascendancy  both 
in  and  out  of  Parliament  which  could  scarcely  be  counter- 
acted, and  on  certain  trying  occasions  the  conduct  of  some  of 
the  law-officers  afforded  experimental  proof  that  even  they 
considered  their  offices  as  no  longer  tenable  with  advantage 
to  the  King,  if  the  Minister  should  attempt  to  use  them  as 
instruments  against  the  people. 

The  rank  and  station  of  the  law-officers  of  Ireland  in  those 
days  were  peculiarly  dignified,  and  conveyed  an  impression 
of  importance  which  the  modern  degeneracy  of  talent  and 
relaxation  of  wholesome  forms  and  of  distinctions  has  alto- 
gether done  away  with.  The  office  of  Prime  Sergeant,  then 
the  first  law-officer  of  Ireland,  was  filled  at  this  period  by 
one  of  the  most  amiable  and  eloquent  men  that  ever  appeared 
on  the  stage  of  politics— Walter  Hussey  Burgh,  whose  con- 
duct in  a  subsequent  transaction  rendered  him  justly  cele- 
brated and  illustrious.  This  gentleman  was  then  representa- 
tive for  Dublin  University,  in  which  office  he  and  M. 
Fitzgibbon  were  colleagues— men  in  whose  public  characters 
scarcely  a  trait  of  similarity  can  be  discovered.  Mild,  mod- 
erate, and  patriotic,  Mr.  Burgh  was  proud  without  arrogance, 
and  dignified  without  effort;  equally  attentive  to  public  con- 
cerns and  careless  of  his  own,  he  had  neither  avarice  to 
acquire  wealth  nor  parsimony  to  hoard  it;  liberal,  even  to 
profusion— friendly  to  a  fault— and  disinterested  to  a  weak 
ness— he  was  honest  without  affluence,  and  ambitious  without 
corruption ;  his  eloquence  was  of  the  highest  order— figurative, 
splendid,  and  convincing;  at  the  bar,  in  the  Parliament,  and 
among  the  people  he  was  equally  admired  and  universally 
respected. 

But  when  we  compare  Mr.  Burgh  with  the  then  Attorney 
General  of  Ireland,  who  had  been  selected  by  Lord  Townsend 
to  bear  down,  if  possible,  the  spirit  of  the  country,  the  contrast 
may  give  a  strong  view  of  that  policy  which  falling  ministers 
frequently  and  perhaps  judiciously  ado]")t,  of  endeavoring, 
if  practicable,  to  enlist  and  seat  upon  their  benches  some 
popular  and  elevated  personage  of  opposition  who,  by  his 
character,  may  give  strength  to  the  party  which  surrounds 
him  or,  at  least,  may  forever  prostrate  his  own  reputation 
by  the  unpopularity  of  the  connection. 

Mr.  John  Scott,  then  Attorney  General  and  afterwards 


288  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

created  Earl  of  Clonmel  and  Chief  Justice  of  Ireland,  ex- 
hibited the  most  striking  contrast  to  the  character  of  the 
Prime  Sergeant.  Sprung  from  the  humbler  order  of  society, 
he  adventured  upon  the  world  without  any  advantage  save  the 
strength  of  his  intellect  and  the  versatility  of  his  talents.  He 
held  his  head  high,  his  boldness  was  his  first  introduction, 
his  policy  his  ultimate  preferment.  Courageous,  humorous, 
artificial,  he  knew  the  world  well,  and  he  profited  by  that 
knowledge;  he  cultivated  the  powerful,  he  bullied  the  timid, 
he  fought  the  brave,  he  flattered  the  vain,  he  duped  the 
credulous,  and  he  amused  the  convivial.  Half  liked,  half 
reprobated,  he  was  too  high  to  be  despised,  and  too  low  to 
be  respected.  His  language  was  coarse  and  his  principles 
arbitrary;  but  his  passions  were  his  slaves,  and  his  cunning 
was  his  instrument.  He  recollected  favors  received  in  his 
obscurity,  and  in  some  instances  had  gratitude  to  requite  the 
obligation ;  but  his  avarice  and  his  ostentation  contended  for 
the  ascendancy ;  their  strife  was  perpetual,  and  their  victories 
alternate.  In  public  and  in  private  he  was  the  same  char- 
acter; and,  though  a  most  fortunate  man  and  a  successful 
courtier,  he  had  scarcely  a  sincere  friend  or  a  disinterested 
adherent. 

This  marked  contrariety  in  character  and  disposition, 
which  distinguished  those  chief  law-officers  of  government, 
was  equally  discernible  in  almost  every  other  dej^artment; 
the  virtues  and  the  talents  of  Grattan,  of  Flood,  of  Yelverton, 
of  Daly,  found  their  contrasts  on  the  same  benches ;  and  these 
two  distinguished  characters  are  thus  brought  forward  by 
anticipation  to  show  in  the  strongest  point  of  view  how  pow- 
erful and  insinuating  the  public  feeling  of  that  day  must  have 
been,  that  could  finally  draw  together  in  one  coromon  cause 
personages  so  opposite  and  so  adverse  on  almost  every 
political  object  and  in  every  national  principle. 

The  crisis,  however,  now  approached  when  Ireland  was 
for  a  moment  to  rear  her  head  among  imperial  nations; 
strange  and  unforeseen  events  began  to  crowd  the  annals  of 
the  world— the  established  axioms  of  general  polity  began  to 
lose  their  weight  among  nations;  and  governments,  widely 
wandering  from  the  fundamental  principles  of  their  own  con- 
stitutions, seemed  carelessly  traveling  the  road  to  anarchy 
and  revolution. 

The  rival  powers  of  England  and  of  France— ever  jealous. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  289 

ever  insincere— concluding  deceptive  negotiations  by 
fallacious  treaties— doubtful  of  each  other's  honor,  and 
dreading  each  other's  prowess— had  long  stood  cautiously  at 
bay— each  watching  for  an  unguarded  open  to  give  a  mortal 
wound  to  her  adversary— yet  each  dreading  the  consequences 
of  an  unsuccessful  effort. 

However,  the  perseverance  and  successes  of  America  com- 
municated a  stimulating  impulse  to  the  councils  of  the  French 
King;  and  that  ill-fated  monarch,  urged  on  to  his  destiny, 
determined  to  strike  a  deadly  blow  at  the  pride  and  the  com- 
merce of  England,  by  giving  an  effectual  aid  to  her  revolted 
colonies. 

The  question  soon  came  to  a  speedy  issue ;  an  undecisive 
engagement  with  the  French  fleet  in  the  Channel  alarmed 
and  irritated  England;  every  prospect  of  accommodation 
vanished,  and  a  declaration  of  war  was  issued  by  the  French 
Government,  with  a  pompous  manifesto  proclaiming  the 
wanton  injuries  they  had  sustained  from  Great  Britain. 

Plunged  into  destructive  warfare,  each  nation  used  their 
utmost  efforts  to  accomplish  their  respective  purposes. 
France  determined  to  establish  the  independence  of  America ; 
while  England  sought  to  reduce  her  colonies  to  the  most 
decisive  slavery.  A  transposition  of  national  principles 
seemed  to  have  been  adopted  by  the  Governments  of  both 
countries— despotic  France  combating  to  establish  the  rights 
of  civil  liberty,  and  England  exerting  all  her  energies  to 
enforce  a  system  of  tyrannic  government— the  one  marshall- 
ing the  slaves  of  her  arbitrary  power  to  battle  in  the  cause 
of  pure  democracy;  the  other  rallying  round  an  English 
standard  the  hired  mercenaries  of  German  avarice  to  sup- 
press the  principles  of  British  freedom,  and  both  Governments 
soliciting  the  aid  of  sanguinary  savages  to  aggravate  the 
horrors  of  a  Christian  war  by  the  scalping-knife  and  the 
tomahawk  of  heathen  murderers. 

Europe  beheld  with  amazement  a  combat  so  unnatural  and 
disgusting,  but  it  would  have  required  a  prophetic  spirit  to 
have  then  foretold  that  the  French  throne  would  be  event- 
ually overturned  by  the  principles  of  those  new  allies,  and 
would  by  the  mighty  shock  of  its  fall  shake  even  the  founda- 
tions of  the  British  constitution,  though  the  total  prostration 
of  the  one  and  the  ministerial  inroads  upon  the  other  would 
since  have  fully  justified  the  hazard  of  that  prediction. 


290  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Amidst  the  confusion  incident  to  tliose  great  events  Ire- 
land yet  remained  unheeded  and  unthought  of;  her  miseries 
and  her  oppressions  had  hardly  engaged  the  consideration  of 
the  British  minister.  Meanwhile  the  Irish  people,  with  a 
dignified  anxiety,  contemplated  the  probable  termination  of 
a  contest  by  the  result  of  which  their  own  destiny  must  be 
determined.  The  subjugation  of  America  might  confirm  the 
dependence  of  Ireland;  and  she  was  soon  convinced  that  she 
could  obtain  her  own  constitutional  rights  from  Great  Britain 
only  by  the  complete  success  and  triumph  of  her  colony. 

Awaiting,  therefore,  the  decrees  of  Providence,  Ireland 
steadily  surveyed  the  distant  prospect  of  great  and  rival 
empires  wantonly  lavishing  the  blood  and  treasures  of  their 
people  in  a  contest  fundamentally  repugnant  to  their  estab- 
lished principles;  but  cautious,  moderate,  and  firm  in  her 
conduct,  though  she  wisely  determined  to  avail  herself  of  the 
crisis  to  promote  the  establishment  of  her  independence,  she 
fed  the  flame  of  liberty,  she  kindled  not  the  blaze  of  licentious- 
ness ;  while  America  fought  to  obtain  a  separation  from  Eng- 
land, Ireland  took  up  arms  only  to  obtain  a  just  participation 
of  her  constitution. 

To  embarrass  the  offensive  measures  of  England,  and 
make  a  formidable  diversion  in  favor  of  America,  France 
manifested  an  intention  of  invading  Ireland.  In  this  alarm- 
ing emergency  Great  Britain,  from  the  dispersions  of  her 
military  force,  scattered  into  many  distant  nations  of  the 
world,  and  so  numerously  employed  on  the  continent  of 
America,  found  it  impossible  to  afford  a  body  of  regular 
troops  sufficient  to  protect  Ireland  in  case  of  such  invasion. 
Here  let  us  for  a  moment  pause  and  dispassionately  reflect 
upon  the  situation  of  Great  Britain  and  the  conduct  of  Ire- 
land at  this  most  trying  moment ;  let  us  survey  the  increasing 
imbecility  of  the  one  and  the  rising  enemies  of  the  other ;  and 
we  must  do  justice  to  the  moderation  and  generosity  of  a 
people  whose  long  and  grievous  oppressions,  if  they  could  not 
have  justified,  would  at  least  have  palliated,  a  very  different 
proceeding. 

The  state  of  England  during  this  war  became  every  'day 
more  difficult  and  distressing.  A  discontented  people  and  an 
unpopular  ministry,  an  empty  treasury  and  a  grievous  taxa- 
tion, a  continental  war  and  a  colonial  rebellion  together 
formed  an  accumulation  of  embarrassment  such    as    Great 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  291 

Britain  had  never  before  experienced.  Her  forces  in  America 
were  captured  or  defeated;  lier  fleets  had  not  yet  attained 
that  irresistible  superiority  which  has  since  proved  the  only 
protection  of  the  British  Islands.  Ireland,  without  money, 
militia,  or  standing  army— without  ordnance  or  fortifications 
—almost  abandoned  by  England— had  to  depend  solely  on  the 
spirit  and  resources  of  her  own  natives ;  and  this  critical  state 
of  Ireland,  which  the  misconduct  of  Great  Britain  herself 
had  occasioned,  gave  the  first  rise  to  those  celebrated  associa- 
tions, the  Irish  Volunteers,  the  immediate  means  of  obtaining 
Irish  independence. 

Many  inducements  prevailed  to  fill  the  ranks  of  these 
associations.  The  warlike  propensities  of  the  Irish  people, 
so  long  restrained,  and  personal  attachment  to  their  chiefs 
and  leaders  were  with  them  the  first  excitements;  but  the 
blending  of  ranks,  and  more  intimate  connection  of  the  people, 
which  was  the  immediate  consequence  of  a  general  military 
system,  quickly  effected  an  extensive  and  marked  revolution 
in  the  minds  and  manners  of  the  entire  nation ;  an  important 
and  extraordinary  change,  of  which  the  gradations  became 
every  day  more  conspicuously  discernible.  The  primary 
stimulus  of  the  Irish  farmer  was  only  that  which  he  felt  in 
common  with  every  other  animated  being— the  desire  of  self- 
preservation.  He  associated  against  invasion  because  he 
heard  that  it  would  be  his  ruin,  but  his  intercourse  with  the 
higher  ranks  opened  the  road  to  better  information.  Thus 
he  soon  learned  that  the  Irish  people  were  deprived  of  politi- 
cal rights,  and  that  his  country  had  endured  political  injuries ; 
his  ideas  became  enlarged,  and  quickly  embraced  more  nu- 
merous and  prouder  objects;  he  began  for  the  first  time  to 
know  his  own  importance  to  the  state;  and,  as  knowledge 
advanced,  the  principles  of  constitutional  independence  were 
better  understood,  and  more  sedulously  cultivated.  The  Irish 
peasant  now  assumed  a  different  rank  and  a  higher  character ; 
familiarized  with  arms,  and  more  intimate  with  his  superiors, 
he  every  day  felt  his  love  of  liberty  increased;  the  spirit  at 
length  became  generally  enthusiastic,  and  in  less  time  than 
could  have  been  supposed  from  the  commencement  of  these 
associations,  the  whole  surface  of  the  island  was  soon  covered 
with  a  self-raised  host  of  patriot  soldiers. 

In  the  formation  of  those  armed  associations,  the  long- 
established  distinctions  between  the  Protestant  and  the  Cath- 
olic could  not  be  altogether  forgotten.     Many  of  the  penal 


292  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

laws  were  still  in  full  force;  Catliolics  were  prohibited  by 
statute  from  bearing  arms  in  Ireland;  and,  from  the  rooted 
prejudices  against  allowing  to  that  body  any  civil  or  military 
power  whatever,  strong  objections  arose  to  their  admission 
into  those  armed  bodies.  The  Catholics,  however,  neither  took 
offence  nor  even  showed  any  jealousy  at  this  want  of  con- 
fidence ;  on  the  contrary,  with  their  money  and  their  exhorta- 
tions, they  zealously  assisted  in  forwarding  those  very 
associations  into  which  they  themselves  had  not  admission. 
Their  calmness  and  their  patriotism  gained  them  many 
friends,  and  a  relaxation  of  intolerance  appeared  rapidly  to 
be  gaining  ground,  but  it  was  not  until  the  volunteers  had 
assumed  a  deliberative  capacity,  and  met  as  armed  citizens 
to  discuss  political  questions,  that  the  necessity  of  uniting 
the  whole  population  of  the  country  in  the  cause  of  inde- 
pendence became  distinctly  obvious.  Those  who  foresaw  that 
a  general  association  of  the  Irish  jDcople  was  essential  to  the 
attainment  of  their  constitutional  objects,  endeavored  to 
reconcile  schisms  of  sectarian  jealousy  by  calm  and  rational 
observations;  they  argued  that  religious  feuds  had,  in  all 
countries,  proved  subversive  of  national  prosperity,  but  to 
none  more  decidedly  fatal  than  to  modern  Ireland— that  the 
true  interests  of  the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant  were  sub- 
stantially the  same,  they  breathed  the  same  air,  tilled  the 
same  soil,  and  had  equal  rights  and  claims  to  the  participation 
of  liberty,  that  they  were  endowed  by  nature  with  equal 
powers  and  faculties,  intellectual  and  corporeal,  and  that  they 
worshipped  the  same  God,  the  truths  and  doctrines  of  re- 
vealed religion  equally  constituting  the  basis  of  their  social 
duties,  and  the  foundation  of  their  religious  tenets,  and  the 
principles  of  virtue  and  morality  being  equally  inculcated 
from  their  pulpits  and  propagated  at  their  altars.  ''Why, 
then,"  they  asked,  ''should  a  few  theological  subtilties,  whose 
mysterious  uncertainties  lay  far  beyond  the  reach  of  human 
determination,  and  were  altogether  unnecessary  to  the  ar- 
rangements of  municipal  institution,  why  should  they  distract 
a  nation  which  to  become  free  should  become  unanimous? 
Why  should  they  excite  controversies  so  strongly  tainted  with 
fanatic  frenzy  that  no  personal  insult  or  aggravated  injury, 
no  breach  of  moral  tie  or  of  honorable  contract  could  rouse 
rancor  more  acrimonious  or  animosity  more  unrelenting  than 
that  which  originated  solely  from  theoretic  distinctions  upon 


In  the  Days  ov  Grattan  293 

inexplicable  subjects?  as  if  Irishmen  were  bound  to  promote 
the  happiness  of  their  neighbors  in  a  future  state  by  destroy- 
ing their  comforts  and  disturbing  their  tranquillity  in  the 
present." 

It  was  also  observed  that,  although  this  strange  insanity 
might  have  existed  in  remote  and  dark  ages  when  the  disciples 
of  every  new  sect  proclaimed  themselves  the  meritorious  mur- 
derers of  the  old,  when  Christian  chiefs  assailed  the  pagan 
jiower  only  to  make  new  j^roselytes  to  their  own  errors  and 
victims  to  their  own  intolerance,  and  though  in  such  unhappy 
times  Ireland  might  have  partaken  of  the  general  madness, 
and  without  peculiar  disgrace  have  participated  in  the  infirm- 
ities of  Europe,  yet,  when  the  progress  of  civilization  had 
opened  the  eyes  and  enlarged  the  understanding  of  the  people ; 
when  the  voice  of  rational  liberty  loudly  called  for  the  unani- 
mous exertion  of  every  sect  in  the  common  cause  of  inde- 
pendence, it  was  full  time  to  discard  these  destructive  preju- 
dices which  had  so  long  and  so  effectually  restrained  the 
rights  and  retarded  the  prosperity  of  the  Irish  nation. 

Nor  can  any  historic  incident  more  clearly  illustrate  the 
inestimable  value  of  unanimity  to  an  oppressed  people  than  a 
contrasted  exhibition  of  the  independent  spirit  displayed  by 
the  Catholics  in  1782,  when  they  acquired  a  constitution  by 
their  firmness,  and  of  their  degenerate  conduct  in  1800  when 
they  lost  that  constitution  through  their  divisions  and  their 
servility. 

Before  the  progress  of  the  Irish  Volunteers  is  particularly 
detailed,  or  the  ultimate  objects  which  they  had  in  view,  the 
genuine  character  of  the  people  among  whom  so  extraordinary 
an  association  originated  should  be  clearly  developed  and 
perfectly  understood ;  as  many  important  events  in  Irish  his- 
tory would  appear  obscure  and  unaccountable  without  a  due 
knowledge  of  the  national  character— a  character  ever  mis- 
conceived or  misrepresented  in  England,  because  the  persons 
by  whom  the  pictures  were  drawn,  generally  either  too 
ignorant  or  too  interested  to  draw  it  with  fidelity,  and  so 
little  of  intbuate  intercourse  had  subsisted  between  the  two 
countries  that  the  people  of  England  were  in  general  as 
unacquainted  with  the  real  dispositions  and  habits  of  the  Irish 
as  with  those  of  any  nation  upon  the  European  continent. 

It  was  therefore  impossible  that  England  should  judi- 
ciously govern  a  people  with  whose  feelings  she  was  wont  to 


294  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

trifle,  and  witli  whose  natural  character  she  was  so  imper- 
fectly acquainted,  nor  can  she  ever  effectually  acquire  that 
knowledge  until  she  is  convinced  that  Ireland  though  formed 
by  nature  for  her  sister  was  never  intended  for  her  servant, 
and  that,  within  her  own  bosom,  she  possesses  powers,  treas- 
ures, and  resources  yet  unexplored  by  England,  but  which,  if 
kindly  cultivated  and  liberally  encouraged,  would  contribute 
more  strength  and  benefit  to  both  than  Great  Britain  has  ever 
heretofore  derived,  or  ever  yet  merited  from  the  connection. 

To  attain  a  just  conception  of  the  remote  causes  of  two 
great  and  repugnant  revolutions  in  Ireland  within  eighteen 
years  we  must  view  the  ranks  of  which  society  is  there  com- 
posed, as  well  as  their  proportions  and  their  influence  upon 
each  other ;  and,  in  the  peculiarities  and  ardency  of  that  char- 
acter, will  be  clearly  discovered  the  true  sources  of  many 
extraordinary  events;  it  will  evidently  appear  that,  to  the 
foibles  of  the  unfortunate  nation,  worked  upon  by  art,  and 
imposed  upon  by  policy,  and  not  to  native  crimes  or  peculiar 
views,  are  attributable  the  frequency  of  her  miseries  and  the 
consummation  of  her  misfortune. 

The  Irish  people  have  been  as  little  known  as  they  have 
been  grossly  defamed  to  the  rest  of  Europe. 

The  lengths  to  which  English  writers  have  proceeded  in 
pursuit  of  this  object  would  surpass  all  belief  were  not  the 
facts  proved  by  histories  written  under  the  immediate  eye  and 
sanction  of  Irish  Governments;  histories  replete  with  false- 
hood which,  combined  with  the  still  more  mischievous  mis- 
representations of  modern  writers,  form  altogether  a  mass 
of  the  most  cruel  calumnies  that  ever  weighed  down  the 
character  of  a  meritorious  people. 

This  system,  however,  was  not  without  its  meaning.  From 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth  the  policy  of  England  has  been  to  keep 
Ireland  in  a  state  of  internal  division.  Perfect  unanimity 
among  her  inhabitants  has  been  considered  as  likely  to  give 
her  a  population  and  a  power  incompatible  with  subjection, 
and  there  are  not  wanting  natives  of  Ireland  who,  impressed 
with  that  erroneous  idea,  zealously  plunge  into  the  same 
doctrine  as  if  they  could  best  prove  their  loyalty  to  the  King 
by  vilifying  their  country. 

The  Irish  peasantry  who  necessarily  composed  the  great 
T)ody  of  the  population  combined  in  theii-  character  many  of 
those  singular    and    repugnant    qualities    which    peculiarly 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  295 

designate  the  people  of  different  nations,  and  this  remarkable 
contrariety  of  characteristic  traits  pervaded  almost  the  whole 
current  of  their  natural  dispositions.  Laborious,  domestic, 
accustomed  to  wants  in  the  midst  of  plenty  they  submit  to 
hardships  without  repining,  and  bear  the  severest  privations 
with  stoic  fortitude.  The  sharpest  wit  and  the  shrewdest 
subtilty,  which  abound  in  the  character  of  the  Irish  peasant, 
generally  lie  concealed  under  the  semblance  of  dullness  or 
the  appearance  of  simplicity;  and  his  language,  replete  with 
the  keenest  humor,  possesses  an  idiom  of  equivocation  which 
never  fails  successfully  to  evade  a  direct  answer  to  an  un- 
welcome question. 

Inquisitive,  artful,  and  penetrating,  the  Irish  peasant 
learns  mankind  without  extensive  intercourse  and  has  an 
instinctive  knowledge  of  the  world  without  mingling  in  its 
societies,  and  never,  in  any  other  instance,  did  there  exist  a 
people  who  could  display  so  much  address  and  so  much  talent 
in  the  ordinary  transactions  of  life  as  the  Irish  peasantry. 

The  Irish  peasant  has,  at  all  periods,  been  peculiarly  dis- 
tinguished for  unbounded  but  indiscriminate  hospitality 
which,  though  naturally  devoted  to  the  necessities  of  a  friend, 
is  never  denied  by  him  even  to  the  distresses  of  an  enemy. 
To  be  in  want  or  misery  is  the  best  recommendation  to  his 
disinterested  protection;  his  food,  his  bed,  his  raiment  are 
equally  the  stranger's  and  his  own ;  and  the  deeper  the  distress 
the  more  welcome  is  the  sufferer  to  the  peasant's  cottage. 

His  attachments  to  his  kindred  are  of  the  strongest  na- 
ture. The  social  duties  are  intimately  blended  with  the 
natural  disposition  of  an  Irish  peasant ;  though  covered  with 
rags,  opi^ressed  with  poverty,  and  perhaps  with  hunger,  the 
finest  specimens  of  generosity  and  heroism  are  to  be  found 
in  his  unequalled  character. 

A  martial  spirit  and  a  love  of  desultory  warfare  is  indi- 
genious  to  the  Irish  people.  Battle  is  their  pastime;  whole 
parishes  and  districts  form  themselves  into  parties,  which 
they  denominate  factions ;  they  meet  by  appointment  at  their 
country  fairs,  there  they  quarrel  without  a  cause,  and  fight 
without  an  object,  and  having  indulged  their  propensity  and 
bound  up  their  wounds,  they  return  satisfied  to  their  own 
liomes,  generally  without  anger,  and  frequently  in  perfect 
friendship  with  each  other.  It  is  a  melancholy  reflection,  that 
the  successive  Governments  of  Ireland  should  have  been  so 


296  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

long  and  obstinately  blind  to  the  real  interest  of  the  country, 
as  to  conceive  it  more  expedient  to  attempt  the  fruitless  task 
of  suppressing  the  national  spirit  by  legal  severity  and  penal 
enactments  than  to  adopt  a  system  of  national  instruction 
and  general  industry  which,  by  affording  employment  to  their 
faculties,  might  give  to  the  minds  of  the  people  a  proper  ten- 
dency, and  a  useful  and  peaceable  direction. 

In  general,  the  Irish  are  rather  impetuously  brave  than 
steadily  persevering;  their  onsets  are  furious,  and  their  re- 
treats precipitate;  but  even  death  has  for  them  no  terrors, 
when  they  firmly  believe  that  their  cause  is  meritorious. 
Though  exquisitely  artful  in  the  stratagems  of  warfare,  yet, 
when  actually  in  battle,  their  discretion  vanishes  before  their 
impetuosity;  and— the  most  gregarious  people  under  heaven 
—they  rush  forward  in  a  crowd  with  tumultuous  ardor,  and 
without  foresight  or  reflection,  whether  they  are  advancing 
to  destruction  or  to  victory. 

An  enthusiastic  attachment  to  the  place  of  their  nativity 
is  another  striking  trait  of  the  Irish  character,  which  neither 
time  nor  absence,  prosperity  nor  adversity,  can  obliterate  or 
diminish.  Wherever  an  Irish  peasant  was  born,  there  he 
wishes  to  die;  and,  however  successful  in  acquiring  wealth 
or  rank  in  distant  places,  he  returns  with  fond  affection  to 
renew  his  intercourse  with  the  friends  and  companions  of  his 
youth  and  his  obscurity. 

An  innate  spirit  of  insubordination  to  the  laws  has  been 
strongly  charged  upon  the  Irish  peasantry;  but  a  people- 
to  whom  the  punishment  of  crimes  appears  rather  as  a  sacri- 
fice to  revenge  than  a  measure  of  prevention— can  never  have 
the  same  deference  to  the  law,  as  those  who  are  instructed  in 
the  principles  of  justice,  and  taught  to  recognize  its  equal- 
ity. It  has,  however,  been  uniformly  admitted  by  every  im- 
partial writer  on  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  that  a  spirit  of  strict 
justice  has  ever  characterized  the  Irish  peasant.  Convince 
him,  by  plain  and  impartial  reasoning,  that  he  is  wrong,  and 
he  withdraws  from  the  judgment-seat,  if  not  with  cheerfulness, 
at  least  with  submission ;  but,  to  make  him  respect  the  laws, 
he  must  be  satisfied  that  they  are  impartial;  and,  with  that 
conviction  on  his  mind,  the  Irish  peasant  is  as  perfectly  tract- 
able as  the  native  of  any  other  country  in  the  world. 

An  attachment  to  and  a  respect  for  females  is  another 
marked  characteristic  of  the  Irish  peasant.     The  wife  par- 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  297 

takes  of  all  her  husband's  vicissitudes;  slie  shares  his  labor 
and  his  miseries,  with  constancy  and  with  affection.  At  all 
the  sports  and  meetings  of  the  Irish  peasantry,  the  women 
are  always  of  the  comj^any ;  they  have  a  great  influence ;  and, 
in  his  smoky  cottage,  the  Irish  peasant,  surrounded  by  his 
family,  seems  to  forget  all  his  privations.  The  natural  cheer- 
fulness of  his  disposition  banishes  reflection;  and  he  expe- 
riences a  simple  happiness,  which  even  the  highest  ranks  of 
society  might  justly  en\y. 

The  middle  class  of  gentry,  interspersed  throughout  the 
country  parts  of  the  kingdom,  possessed  as  much  of  the  peas- 
ant character  as  accorded  with  more  liberal  minds  and  su- 
perior society.  With  less  necessity  for  exertion  than  the 
peasant,  and  an  equal  inclination  for  the  indulgence  of  indo- 
lence, their  habits  were  altogether  devoid  of  industry,  and  ad- 
verse to  reflection— the  morning  chase  and  evening  convivial- 
ity composed  the  diary  of  their  lives,  cherished  the  thought- 
lessness of  their  nature,  and  banished  the  cares  and  solici- 
tudes of  foresight.  They  uniformly  lived  beyond  their  means, 
and  aspired  beyond  their  resources;  pecuniary  embarrass- 
ments only  gave  a  new  zest  to  the  dissipation  which  created 
it ;  and  the  gentry  of  Ireland  at  this  period  had  more  trouble 
and  fewer  cares  than  any  gentry  in  the  universe. 

These  habits,  however,  while  they  contracted  the  distance 
between  the  lower  and  the  superior  order,  had  also  the  effect 
of  promoting  their  mutual  good-will  and  attachment  to  each 
other.  The  peasant  looked  up  to  and  admired,  in  the  country 
gentleman,  those  propensities  which  he  himself  possessed— 
actuated  by  a  native  sympathy  of  this  position  he  loved  old 
customs ;  he  liked  to  follow  the  track  and  example  of  his  fore- 
fathers, and  adhered  to  the  fortunes  of  some  ancient  family, 
with  a  zealous  sincerity ;  and,  in  matter  of  party  or  of  faction, 
he  obeyed  the  orders  of  his  landlord,  and  even  anticipated  his 
wishes,  with  cheerfulness  and  humility. 

The  Irish  country  gentleman,  without  either  the  ties  of 
blood  or  the  weight  of  feudal  authority,  found  himself  sur- 
rounded by  followers  and  adherents  ever  ready  to  adopt  his 
cause,  and  risk  their  lives  for  his  purposes,  with  as  warm  de- 
votion as  those  of  the  Scotish  laird  or  the  highland  chieftain ; 
and  this  disposition,  cultivated  by  family  pride  on  the  one 
side,  and  confirmed  by  immemorial  habit  on  the  other,  greatly 
promoted  the  formation,  the  progress,  and  the  zeal,  of  those 


298  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

armed  associations  whicli  soon  afterwards  covered  the  face 
of  the  country  and  for  a  moment  placed  the  name  of  Ireland 
on  the  very  highest  pinnacle  of  effective  patriotism. 

It  was  the  fashion  of  those  days  to  cast  upon  the  Irish 
gentry  an  imputation— it  would  be  uncandid  not  to  admit  that 
there  was  some  partial  ground  for  it— that  they  showed  a  dis- 
position to  decide  petty  differences  by  the  sword  and  placed 
too  fastidious  a  construction  on  what  they  termed  the  *' point 
of  honor."  This  practice  certainly  continued  to  prevail  in 
many  parts  of  Ireland,  where  time  and  general  intercourse  had 
not  yet  succeeded  in  extinguishing  the  romantic  but  honorable 
spirit  of  Milesian  chivalry ;  and,  when  we  reflect  on  the  natu- 
ral warlike  disposition  of  the  Irish  people,  that  indigenous 
impetuosity  and  love  of  battle  which  so  eminently  dis- 
tinguished their  aboriginal  character,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
hasty  and  unnecessary  encounters  should  occasionally  occur 
among  a  people  perpetually  actuated  by  the  pride  of  ances- 
try and  the  theories  of  honor.  But,  even  in  these  contests, 
the  Irish  gentleman  forgave  his  adversary  with  as  much  read- 
iness as  he  fought  him ;  he  respected  the  courage  which  aimed 
at  his  own  life ;  and  the  strongest  friendships  were  sometimes 
formed,  and  frequently  regenerated,  on  the  field  of  battle. 
It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  this  practice  should  have  been 
exaggerated,  by  the  English  people,  whom  nature  had  endowed 
with  less  punctilious  and  much  more  discreet  propensities. 

The  cowardly  crime  of  suicide,  which  prevailed  and  pre- 
vails in  England,  was  scarcely  ever  known  among  the  Irish. 
Circumstances,  which  would  plunge  an  Englishman  into  a 
state  of  mortal  despondency,  would  only  rouse  the  energies 
of  an  Irishman  to  bound  over  his  misfortunes— under  every 
pressure,  in  every  station,  and  in  every  climate,  a  lightness 
of  heart,  an. openness  of  disposition,  distinguishes  him  from 
the  inhabitants  of  every  other  country. 

On  the  whole  of  the  characters,  the  Irish  gentry,  though 
far  from  being  faultless,  had  many  noble  qualities— generous, 
hospitable,  friendly,  brave— but  careless,  prodigal,  and  in- 
discreet—they possessed  the  materials  of  distinguished  men 
with  the  propensities  of  obscure  ones,  and,  by  their  openness 
and  sincerity,  too  frequently  became  the  dupes  of  artifice,  and 
the  victims  of  dissimulation. 

Among  the  highest  orders  of  the  Irish  people,  the  dis- 
tinguishing features   of  national   character  had   been   long 


In  the  Days  ok  Grattan  299 

wearing  away,  and  becoming  less  prominent  and  remarkable. 
The  manners  of  the  nobilit.y,  in  almost  every  European  coun- 
try, verge  to  one  common  centre;  by  the  similarity  of  their 
education  and  society,  they  acquire  similar  habits ;  and  a  con- 
stant intercourse  clothes  their  address  and  language,  as  it 
does  their  persons,  in  one  peculiar  garb— disguising  the 
strong  points,  and  concealing  the  native  traits,  of  their  origi- 
nal characters. 

The  unprecedented  expenses  of  the  American  War,  which 
first  familiarized  the  English  people  to  empty  their  purses  for 
the  support  of  unnecessary  and  inglorious  warfare  (in  which 
they  have  since  become  such  extraordinary  proficients),  called 
every  day  for  new  resources ;  and  the  minister  conceived  and 
executed  the  artful  project  of  increasing  his  financial  means 
and  parliamentary  power  by  erecting  a  banking  and  commer- 
cial interest  on  the  site  and  ruins  of  the  landed  representa- 
tion. Money  brokers  began  to  institute  a  new  order  in  the 
state,  and  to  form,  if  not  an  integral  part,  at  least  a  necessary 
appendage  to  every  subsequent  administration  of  Great 
Britain. 

Experience  has  proved  the  mischiefs  of  that  fatal  policy 
to  the  whole  of  the  empire. 

Though  the  greater  number  of  the  Irish  noblemen  had 
been  of  remote  creations,  a  few  had  not  been  long  enough 
removed  from  the  mass  of  the  community  to  have  acquired 
very  high  ideas  of  hereditary  pride,  or  to  have  emblazoned 
the  shield  of  very  ancient  or  illustrious  pedigrees. 

As  a  body,  the  Irish  lords  were  not  peculiarly  prominent 
in  the  affairs  of  their  country ;  but  they  were  dignified.  Their 
debates  (until  the  accession  of  Lord  Clare)  were  calm  and 
temperate ;  and,  though  like  the  members  of  all  other  political 
assemblies,  they  were  individually  various  in  talent  and  in 
character,  the  appearance  of  the  whole  was  grand ;  and  their 
conduct,  if  not  spirited,  was  firm,  respectable  and  decorous. 

The  Protestant  church  had  great  weight  in  the  commun- 
ity; the  heirarchy,  participating  in  the  dignity  of  an  inde- 
pendent parliament,  possessed  the  united  influence  of  spir- 
itual rank  and  legislative  importance;  the  parochial  clergy, 
though  well  affected  to  the  state,  still  adhered  to  the  inter- 
ests of  their  country,  and,  assuming  a  deportment  decorous 
and  characteristic,  were  at  that  time  generally  esteemed,  and 
deservedly  respected. 


300  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

The  provision  of  the  inferior  Protestant  clergy  was  then 
(as  at  the  present)  quite  disproportioned  to  their  duties  and 
profession.  Many  of  that  meritorious  class  of  men,  the  of- 
ficiating curates,  whose  precepts  and  example  were  to  direct 
the  morals  and  guide  the  conduct  of  the  people,  had  become 
grey  in  poverty,  and  laboring  under  the  pressure  of  severe 
necessities,  effectually  preached  up  to  their  congregations 
the  exercise  of  that  charity,  which  would  have  been  aptly  and 
benevolently  applied  to  their  own  persons. 

The  general  conduct  of  these  men  had  at  all  times  re- 
mained unexceptional.  From  them  the  character  of  the  Irish 
clergy  was  best  to  be  collected;  the  luxurious  possessor  of 
sinecure  and  plurality,  enjoying  ease  and  abundance  without 
care  or  solicitude,  must  form  a  very  inferior  criterion  of  ex- 
perienced merit,  when  compared  to  the  distressed  pastor, 
whose  conduct  remains  exemplary,  while  his  indigence  and 
necessities  might  have  tempted  him  into  errors.  The  extremes 
of  income  among  the  Protestant  clergy  were  too  distant,  their 
w^ealth  and  their  poverty  formed  too  strong  a  contrast. 

The  Catholic  clergy  had  then  an  unlimited  influence  over 
the  people  of  their  own  persuasion.  Though  the  cruel  impolicy 
of  the  penal  statutes  had  not  been  altogether  set  aside,  they 
remained  dutiful  and  obedient  to  the  sovereign  power,  cheer- 
fully submissive  to  the  existing  laws  and  friendly  and  affec- 
tionate to  their  Protestant  fellow-subjects. 

Candidates  for  Catholic  ordination  were  sent  to  France 
for  spiritual  instruction,  and  returned  to  their  own  country 
though  learned,  still  retaining  many  of  the  propensities  of 
their  origin,  they  showed  that  their  respect  to  superior  rank, 
and  submission  to  the  constituted  authorities,  were  rather 
increased  than  diminished  by  their  foreign  education. 

The  monarchy  of  France,  despotic,  splendid,  and  power- 
ful, was  at  that  time  regarded  with  devotion  by  the  French 
people,  as  a  structure  which  neither  time  could  destroy,  nor 
tempests  endanger.  Its  broad  base  covered  every  portion  of 
the  people ;  its  stupendous  height  was  surveyed  with  awe,  and 
its  colossal  strength  beheld  with  admiration.  The  ecclesias- 
tical communities,  fostered  under  its  shelter,  experienced  the 
protection  of  despotic  power,  and,  by  their  doctrines  and 
their  practice  endeavored  to  increase  its  strength,  and  secure 
its  permanence. 

The  Irish  student,  early  imbibing  those  monastic  princi- 


In  thk  Days  of  Crattan  301 

l^les,  was  taught  at  Saint  Omer  the  advantages  of  undefined 
power  in  a  king,  and  of  passive  obedience  in  a  subject;  he 
was  there  instructed  to  worsliip  a  throne,  and  to  mingle  his 
devotion  to  heaven  and  to  monarchy.  The  restoration  of  a 
Catholic  king  over  Ireland  had  long  ceased  to  be  practicable, 
and  such  projects  therefore,  were  hopeless,  and  relinquished ; 
and  the  Irish  Catholic  clergyman,  however  he  might  naturally 
have  wished  for  the  regal  supremacy  of  his  own  sect,  had  long 
since  abandoned  every  view  of  an  object  altogether  unattain- 
able. 

British  supremacy  had  then  no  overt  enemies,  save  its  own 
ministers,  nor  any  consj^iracies  against  its  power,  but  the  ar- 
bitrary determinations  of  its  own  cabinet. 

Thus  returning  from  his  novitiate,  and  educated  with  all 
the  dispositions  of  a  submissive  subject  he  found  his  native 
country  in  a  state  of  profound  tranquillity.  His  views  were 
contracted;  his  ambition  extended  no  further  than  the  affec- 
tions of  his  flock,  and  the  enjoyments  of  society.  The  closest 
intimacy  subsisted  between  him  and  his  parishioners;  he 
mingled  in  all  their  pastimes,  and  consoled  them  in  their  mis- 
eries; but  the  most  convivial  among  them  knew  how  to  dis- 
tinguish clearly  between  the  occasional  familiarities  of  per- 
sonal intercourse,  and  a  dutiful  resj^ect  for  his  religious  func- 
tions ;  and,  even  though  their  companion  might  have  been  con- 
demned, their  priest  was  always  sure  to  be  respected. 

The  Catholic  and  the  Protestant  at  the  same  time  lived  in 
habits  of  great  harmony ;  they  harbored  no  animosities  or  in- 
disposition towards  each  other ;  the  one  governed  without  op- 
position, the  other  submitted  without  resistance;  and  the 
Catholic  clergy  had  every  inclination  to  retain  their  flock 
within  proper  limits  and  found  no  difficulty  in  effecting  that 
object. 

The  severity  with  which  the  agents  of  the  Protestant  clergy 
in  some  parishes  collected  their  tithes,  and  the  exactions  and 
oppressions,  which  the  middle  man  exercised  over  the  occu- 
pant of  the  land,  occasionally  excited  partial  disturbances; 
but,  in  these,  there  was  nothing  of  a  revolutionary  nature; 
they  were  only  the  nocturnal  riots  of  some  oppressed  and  mis- 
managed districts  which  the  civil  power  in  general  found  no 
difficulty  in  suppressing. 


CHAPTER  m. 

IRELAND  AWAKENED  TO  A  SENSE  OF  HER  SLAVERY— DEMANDS  HER 

JUST   RIGHTS. 

The  population  of  Ireland,  distributed  into  those  classes, 
endowed  with  those  qualities,  and  borne  down  by  an  accumu- 
lation of  impolitic  and  ungenerous  restraints,  at  length  awak- 
ened as  it  were  from  a  deep  trance.  The  pulse  of  that  nation, 
torpid  through  habitual  oppression,  began  to  throb ;  her  blood, 
stimulated  by  the  stings  of  injustice,  which  she  had  so  long 
and  so  patiently  endured,  circulated  with  a  new  rapidity ;  her 
heart,  re-animated,  sent  motion  and  energy  through  her  whole 
frame ;  and  from  a  cold  and  almost  lifeless  course,  Ireland  was 
seen  majestically  arising  from  the  tomb  of  obscurity,  and  pay- 
ing the  first  tribute  of  her  devotion  at  the  shrine  of  liberty. 

Roused  to  a  sense  of  her  miserable  situation,  she  cast  her 
eyes  around  on  the  independent  States  of  Europe,  and  com- 
pared their  strength,  their  capacity,  and  their  resources  with 
her  own.  Encouraged  by  the  view  of  her  comparative  su- 
periority, she  soon  perceived  that  she  had  strength,  and  means, 
and  opportunity  to  redress  herself  from  the  wrongs  and  dep- 
redations she  was  suffering;  and  that  so  long  as  she  toler- 
ated the  authority  of  the  British  Legislature  over  her  con- 
cerns, so  long  her  commerce,  her  constitution,  and  her  liber- 
ties, must  lie  prostrate  at  the  foot  of  every  British  minister. 

The  political  situations  of  both  nations  at  that  critical 
period,  afforded  a  more  than  common  scope  for  political  con- 
templation ;  even  the  coldest  politicians  of  that  day  were  led 
involuntarily  to  reflect  on  the  nature  of  the  federative  com- 
pact between  the  two  countries,  and  could  not  avoid  perceiv- 
ing the  total  absence  of  that  reciprocal  good  faith  and  confi- 
dence which  alone  could  ensure  the  integrity  of  the  empire, 
or  the  permanence  of  the  connection.  In  theory,  the  two  na- 
tions were  linked  together  by  the  strongest  ties  of  mutual  in- 
terest and  mutual  security;  but  in  practice  those  interests 
were  separated,  and  that  conjunction  of  strength,  on  which 
the  security  of  empires  must  at  all  times  depend,  was  too  fre- 
quently disregarded,  as  if  England  had  forgotten  that  she 
owed  a  great  proportion  of  stability  to  the  co-operation  of  the 

303 


304  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Irish  people,  and  that  if  one  hundred  thonaand  Irish  subjects, 
who  fought  her  battles  in  her  armies  and  in  her  navy,  became 
even  neutralized,  by  insults  or  by  injuries,  to  their  country, 
the  English  nation  might  too  late  discover  the  fatal  impolicy 
of  her  system. 

The  fundamental  principles  upon  which  the  connection  be- 
tween the  two  nations  was  intrinsically  founded,  soon  became 
a  subject  of  general  inquiry  and  universal  discussion  amongst 
every  rank  and  class  of  society ;  and  it  required  but  little  dif- 
ficulty to  convey  to  the  quick  conception  of  a  naturally  acute 
and  intelligent  people,  a  comprehensive  view  of  their  rights 
and  of  their  deprivations.  Nor  was  Ireland,  at  this  period, 
destitute  of  able  and  active  partisans,  anxious  and  competent 
to  instruct  her  people  in  language  best  adapted  to  impress 
upon  the  poignancy  of  their  national  feelings,  and  enlarge 
the  scope  of  their  political  understandings. 

They  were  told  by  these  instructors,  that  Ireland  was  con- 
stitutionally connected  with  Great  Britain,  upon  the  basis  of 
a  complete  equality  of  rights,  that  she  possessed  a  resident 
Parliament  of  her  own,  competent,  in  all  points,  to  legislate 
on  her  own  concerns,  in  no  point  connected  with,  or  subordi- 
nate to,  that  of  Great  Britain. 

That  their  king  was  bound  to  govern  Ireland,  not  through 
his  crown  of  England,  but  through  his  crown  of  Ireland- 
conferred  upon  him  by  the  Irish  nation,  and  worn  by  him,  in 
conjunction  with  that  of  Great  Britain,  as  the  chief  magistrate 
of  both— but  to  govern  each  country  severally  by  their  respec- 
tive laws  and  their  distinct  legislatures,  and  not  the  one 
through  the  other,  and  though  the  Irish  crown  was,  by  the 
constitution  of  that  country,  placed  for  ever  on  the  head  of  the 
same  legislative  monarch  who  should  wear  that  of  England; 
yet  the  Irish  people  were  not  legally  bound  to  obey  any  laws 
but  those  enacted  by  their  own  legislature,  to  transfer  the 
sceptre  of  their  realm  to  any  usurped  authority,  or  submit  to 
the  hostile  or  corrupt  policy  of  any  minister  who  might  oc- 
casionally occupy  the  seat  of  power  in  England;  that  their 
oath  of  allegiance  was  taken  to  the  king  of  Ireland,  and  not 
to  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain;  that  the  establishment 
of  this  principle  was  indispensable  to  their  existence  as  a  na- 
tion, and  that  every  violation  of  it  was  a  direct  deviation 
from  the  duty  of  the  Irish  crown,  and  a  virtual  dereliction  of 
the  compact  between  the  two  countries;  and  that  the  king's 


In  the  Dayr  of  (Irattan  305 

ministers  of  either  country  advising  unconstitutional  meas- 
ures, to  violate  the  constitutional  independence  of  Ireland, 
must  be  considered  as  traitors  to  the  Irish  crown,  and  ene- 
mies to  the  British  empire. 

It  was  also  observed,  that  this  assumption  of  authority 
to  legislate  for  Ireland,  whatever  coloring  it  might  have  re- 
ceived by  the  dissimulation  or  ingenuity  of  its  supporters, 
had,  in  fact,  for  its  real  object  the  restraint  of  her  commerce 
and  the  suppression  of  her  manufactures,  so  far  as  they 
might  interfere  with  the  interests  of  England;  because  the 
management  of  the  mere  local  concerns  of  Ireland  by  her  own 
parliament  was  altogether  immaterial  to  Great  Britain,  un- 
less where  a  commercial  rivalship  might  be  the  probable  con- 
sequence of  successful  industry  and  legislative  encourage- 
ment. 

From  this  reasoning,  it  was  obvious  that  the  redress  of 
these  grievances  could  not  depend  solely  upon  any  exertions 
of  the  Irish  legislature.  The  Peers— from  the  causes  herein- 
before assigned— were  influenced  at  that  time  by  a  very  small 
portion  of  public  feeling ;  the  measures  of  the  commons  might 
be  suppressed  by  an  act  of  the  Privy  Council ;  and  it  became 
manifest,  that  an  universal  and  determined  co-operation  of 
the  whole  people  with  their  representatives,  to  rescue  their 
representation  by  vigorous  measures,  could  alone  operate 
with  sufficient  effect  upon  the  policy  and  fears  of  England; 
and  that  a  general  appeal  to  the  people  would  be  justified  by 
the  soundest  axioms  of  civil  government ;  as  long  experience 
had  fully  ascertained,  that  nothing  was  to  be  gained  by  the 
forbearance  of  the  one  nation,  or  to  be  expected  from  the 
voluntary  justice  of  the  other. 

The  Irish  people  being  thus  apprised  of  the  real  source 
of  all  their  grievances,  the  subject  quickly  engrossed  their 
whole  thoughts,  and  became  familiar  to  their  understandings. 
A  new  and  broad  field  of  reflection  was  opened  to  the  middle 
orders ;  political  discussions  necessarily  followed  from  day  to 
day;  at  every  public  and  private  meeting,  and  in  every  dis- 
trict, these  discussions  turned  on  the  principles  of  liberty, 
and  as  the  subject  expanded,  their  ideas  became  enlarged; 
those  who  could  read,  liberally  instructed  the  illiterate  as  to 
the  rudiments  of  their  history  and  the  rights  of  the  consti- 
tution ;  and  by  familiar  deductions  the  misery  of  the  peasant 
was  without  difficulty  brought  home  to  the  corruption  of  the 


306  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ministers.  All  ranks  of  the  community  began  to  mingle  and 
converse  at  their  public  meetings;  the  influence  of  that  gen- 
eral communication  diffused  itself  rapidly  amongst  every 
class  of  society ;  and  the  people,  after  having  perfectly  ascer- 
tained the  hardships  of  their  situation,  naturally  proceeded  to 
discuss  the  most  decisive  means  of  redressing  their  griev- 
ances. 

The  circumstances  of  public  affairs  in  America  and  on  the 
continent  of  Europe,  but  more  especially  in  England  herself, 
were  every  moment  becoming  more  and  more  propitious  to  the 
political  emancipation  of  Ireland.  A  dark  cloud  appeared 
collecting  over  the  head  of  Great  Britain— the  rays  of  the 
setting  sun  could  scarcely  penetrate  the  obscurity  of  the 
gloom  which  surrounded  her— and  though  she  faced  the  im- 
pending hurricane  with  magnanimity  and  perseverance,  she 
experienced  a  most  anxious  solicitude  at  the  awful  crisis  which 
was  rapidly  approaching  her. 

Her  situation  was  terrific.  The  States  of  America,  col- 
onized by  her  industry,  and  peopled  by  her  convicts  tearing 
themselves  away  from  the  mother  country,  and  appealing 
to  the  whole  world  against  the  tyranny  which  had  at  once 
caused  and  justified  her  disobedience.  British  armies  wan- 
dering through  boundless  deserts,  and  associating  with  the 
savage  tribes  for  savage  purposes,  dwindling  by  their  vic- 
tories, and  diminishing  by  their  conquests,  surrendering  their 
swords  to  those  whom  they  had  recently  vanquished,  and 
lowering  the  flag  of  England,  with  all  the  courtesies  of  con- 
tinental warfare,  to  those  very  men  whom  the  preceding  mo- 
ment they  had  proclaimed  as  traitors  to  their  king  and  to 
their  country. 

However,  the  wise  and  deliberate  measures  which  Ireland 
on  this  occasion  adopted,  proved  not  only  her  unshaken  fidel- 
ity, but  her  moderation  and  her  unaffected  attachment  to 
Great  Britain.  She  saw  the  perilous  situation  of  her  sister 
country;  and  though  she  determined  to  profit  by  the  crisis, 
in  justly  reclaiming  her  commerce  and  her  constitution,  she 
also  determined  to  stand  or  fall  with  the  British  empire,  and 
to  share  the  fate  of  England  in  the  tremendous  confederacies 
which  were  formed  and  were  forming  against  her. 

The  Irish  people  felt  that  they  had  a  double  duty  to  per- 
form—to themselves,  and  to  their  posterity.  England  her- 
self had  given  them  a  precedent.    She  had  proved  by  the  ex- 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  307 

perieneo  of  centuries,  that  when  slie  had  an  object  to  achieve 
iu  Ireland,  she  had  never  been  restrained  by  the  punctilious 
dictates  either  of  honor  or  humanity,  and  had  never  failed 
to  take  advantage  of  the  feebleness  of  Ireland  to  impose  the 
grievous  weight  of  her  arbitrary  restrictions ;  she  had,  at  all 
periods,  systematically  encouraged  the  internal  dissensions 
of  that  people,  the  better  to  humble  them  for  the  yoke  which 
she  had  always  been  ready  to  place  upon  their  country.  Ire- 
land, therefore,  felt  that  she  would  be  justified  by  British 
precedent  to  take  advantage  of  this  important  crisis,  and  that 
even  the  practical  principles  of  the  British  constitution  had 
declared  and  justified  the  right  of  popular  resistance.  Eng- 
land had,  upon  the  same  principle  of  resistance  to  arbitrary 
power,  attempted  to  justify  the  murder  of  one  king,  and  the 
despotism  of  another,  whilst  Ireland,  preferring  her  alle- 
giance to  her  policy,  remained  faithful  to  both,  and  was  re- 
warded for  her  loyalty  by  massacre  and  confiscation. 

However,  a  hasty  or  impetuous  resistance  of  the  Irish  peo- 
ple, even  to  the  most  arbitrary  acts  of  their  King  or  of  their 
Government,  was  by  no  means  a  principle  congenial  to  their 
political  character;  whilst  it  was  obvious  to  the  whole  world 
that  England  had  adopted  those  violent  and  outrageous  pro- 
ceedings against  her  own  monarchs,  upon  principles  and  pre- 
tenses far  less  constitutional,  and  more  inconsistent  with  her 
liberties,  than  the  measures  and  conduct  which  had  been  wan- 
tonly and  systematically  practiced  by  British  ministers 
against  Irish  freedom.  With  this  useful  and  awful  lesson 
before  her  eyes,  Ireland  wisely  considered  that  she  would  best 
raise  and  establish  her  national  character,  and  effect  her  just 
objects,  by  a  gradual  reassumption  of  her  rights,  and  a  tem- 
perate and  fair  demand  of  constitutional  liberty;  that  her 
moderation  would  form  an  edifying  contrast  to  the  \dolence 
and  intemperance  of  England,  whenever  her  liberties  were 
invaded,  and  that  the  advantage  which  the  embarrassed  state 
of  Great  Britain  had  now  thrown  into  the  hands  of  Ireland, 
would  be  most  honorably  exercised  by  a  calm  and  loyal,  but 
resolute  and  effectual  proceeding.  She  perceived,  however, 
that  the  moment  most  favorable  to  her  objects  had  arrived; 
which,  if  suffered  to  pass  by  without  effort,  might  never  re- 
cur; and  it  therefore  only  remained  to  Ireland  to  ascertain 
the  means  most  moderate  but  most  likely  to  call  Great  Britain 
to  a  sense  of  reason  and  of  justice,  and  to  secure  to  herself 


308  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  attainment  of  her  rights,  without  the  danger  of  hostile 
convulsion,  or  the  horrors  of  civil  conflict. 

England,  notwithstanding  she  had  in  some  instances  sus- 
pended, and  in  others  prohibited,  the  exportation  of  Irish 
manufactures,  inundated  the  Irish  markets  with  every  species 
of  her  own ;  and  with  a  view  effectually  to  destroy  all  power 
of  competition  in  Ireland,  the  great  capitalists  of  England 
determined,  even  at  any  loss,  to  undersell  the  Irish  in  their 
own  markets— a  loss,  however,  which  they  thought  would  be 
eventually  and  amply  repaid  by  the  monopoly  which  must 
necessarily  succeed  the  utter  destruction  of  Irish  manufac- 
ture. 

This  system  it  was  impossible  for  the  Irish  manufacturer 
to  resist  or  counteract;  his  capital  was  too  small  to  bear  the 
losses  of  competition;  resistance  would  have  been  vain;  he 
had  therefore  no  alternative  but  to  change  his  trade,  or  sub- 
mit, and  famish. 

It  depended  on  the  exertions  of  the  people  at  large  to  re- 
sist every  vicious  and  destructive  project;  and  they  lost  no 
time  in  adopting  incipient  measures  of  resistance.  With  this 
view,  they  resolutely  determined  to  adopt  a  non-importation 
and  non-consumption  agreement  throughout  the  whole  king- 
dom ;  and  by  excluding  not  only  the  importation,  but  the  con- 
sumption of  any  British  manufacture  in  Ireland,  visited  back 
upon  the  English  combinators  the  ruin  of  their  own  treachery. 
No  sooner  was  this  measure  publicly  proposed,  than  it  was 
universally  adopted ;  it  flew  quicker  than  the  wind  throughout 
the  whole  nation;  the  manufacturing  bodies,  the  corporate 
towns,  the  small  retailers,  the  general  merchants,  at  once 
universally  adopted  this  vigorous  determination,  and  the 
great  body  of  the  people,  by  general  resolutions,  and  univer- 
sal acclamations,  avowed  their  firm  determination  to  support 
the  measure,  till  they  should  acquire  a  restoration  of  their 
political  rights. 

Meanwhile,  the  armed  associations  hourly  gained  strength 
in  great  numbers;  they  began  to  acquire  the  appendages 
and  establishments  of  a  regular  army— discipline  and  con- 
fidence; and  gradually  consolidated  themselves  into  regi- 
ments and  brigades;  some  procured  cannon  and  field  equip- 
ages, and  formed  companies  of  artillery;  the  completion  of 
one  corps  stimulated  the  formation  of  another,  and  at  length 
almost  every  independent  Protestant  of  Ireland  was  enrolled 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  309 

as  a  patriot  soldier;  and  the  whole  body  of  the  Catholics  de- 
clared themselves  the  decided  auxiliaries  of  their  armed  coun- 
trymen. 

This  extraordinary  armament— the  recollections  of  whicli 
will  forever  excite  in  Ireland  a  devotion  to  the  cause  of  lib- 
erty, which  neither  time  can  efface  nor  misfortunes  ex- 
tinguish—actuated solely  by  the  pure  si)irit  of  incorruptible 
patriotism,  and  signalized  by  a  conduct  more  temperate  and 
more  judicious  than  had  ever  controlled  the  acts  and  ob- 
jects of  any  military  body  in  the  History  of  the  world. 

The  modern  military  corps,  which  have  been  so  skillfully, 
and  perhaps  wisely,  embodied,  to  preclude  any  recurrence  to 
the  measure  of  volunteering,  possess  no  auaology  to  these 
celebrated  associations,  save  that  the  royalty  of  the  Volun- 
teers was  to  their  country  and  their  King—W\Q!  loyalty  of 
the  Yeomen,  to  the  King  of  England  and  to  his  Ministers. 

Self-formed,  and  self-governed,  the  Volunteers  accepted 
no  commissions  whatever  from  the  Crown,  and  acknowledged 
no  connection  whatever  with  the  Government;  the  private 
men  appointed  their  own  officers,  and  occasionally  cashiered 
them  for  misconduct  or  miscapacity;  they  accepted  no  pay, 
the  more  wealthy  soldier  cheerfully  shared  his  funds  with 
his  poorer  comrade— and  the  officers  contributed  their  pro- 
portions to  the  general  stock  purse. 

Yet  notwithstanding  this  perverted  state  of  all  military 
establishments,  their  subordination  was  complete;  the  sol- 
dier obeyed,  from  the  instinctive  impulse  of  honor  to  himself 
and  duty  to  his  country ;  the  officer  commanded  upon  the  same 
principle,  and  very  few  instances  occurred  where  either  were 
found  to  deviate  from  the  straightened  line  of  military  recti- 
tude. The  rules  of  discipline  were  adopted  by  general  as- 
sent, and  that  passive  obedience  which,  in  regular  armies,  is 
enforced  by  punishment  amongst  the  Volunteers  of  Ireland, 
was  effected  by  honor. 

They  assumed  various  uniforms ;  green,  white,  scarlet,  or 
blue  were  the  prevailing  colors.  Their  line,  therefore,  ap- 
peared variegated,  and  peculiarlj^  striking.  Their  arms  were 
at  first  provided  by  themselves;  but  the  extraordinary  in- 
crease of  their  numbers  rendered  them  at  length  unable  to 
procure  a  sufficient  supply  by  purchase;  they  had  then  but 
one  course— they  confidently  required  arms  from  the  Govern- 
ment; the  Government,  whatever  reluctance  they  might  have 


310  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

felt  to  arm  men  who  acknowledged  no  supremacy,  yet  did  not 
think  it  safe  to  refuse  their  demand ;  and  with  an  averted  eye 
handed  out  to  the  Volunteers  twenty  thousand  stands  of  arms 
from  the  Castle  of  Dublin. 

Being  completely  equipped,  the  acquirement  of  persons 
capable  of  instructing  so  large  a  body  in  military  tactics,  ap- 
peared a  matter  of  the  greatest  difficulty ;  but  the  same  events 
which  had  at  first  inspired  the  Irish  with  a  determination  to 
arm,  furnished  them  with  the  means  not  only  of  acquiring 
discipline,  but  of  increasing  their  ardor. 

The  disasters  of  the  American  war  had  restored  to  the 
bosom  of  Ireland  many  brave  men,  whose  health  had  sunk 
under  the  consequences  of  wounds  and  sufferings,  and  who, 
having  witnessed  the  successful  struggles  of  America  for  lib- 
erty, had  returned  to  Ireland  at  that  moment  when  she  was 
critically  preparing  to  assert  her  own.  The  association  of 
these  experienced  veterans  was  sedulously  courted  by  the 
Irish  Volunteers;  their  orders  were  obeyed  with  confidence 
and  alacrity,  and  amongst  the  country  corps  the  effect  of 
their  instructions  became  suddenly  conspicuous;  and,  under 
their  experience,  discipline  advanced  with  rapid  progress. 

The  intercourse  and  conversation  of  those  persons  also 
had  a  powerful  effect,  by  transfusing  into  their  pupils  that 
military  mind  which  a  veteran  soldier  can  never  relinquish. 
In  their  convivial  hours,  the  sergeant,  surrounded  by  his  com- 
pany, expatiating  on  the  events  of  actual  service,  and  intro- 
ducing episodes  of  individual  bravery,  perhaps  of  his  own 
undauntedness  and  sagacity,  gradually  banished  every  other 
topic  from  conversation  at  those  meetings.  The  successful 
perseverance  of  America  had  impressed  even  the  soldier  him- 
self who  had  fought  against  her,  with  an  involuntary  respect 
for  the  principles  of  his  enemies ;  a  constant  intercourse  with 
his  Irish  associates  soon  excited  in  him  congenial  feelings, 
and  he  began  to  listen  with  pleasure  to  their  interesting  ques- 
tion, ''Why  should  not  his  own  brave  countrymen  possess 
as  much  constitutional  liberty  as  those  foreign  colonists  who 
had  conquered?" 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  the  fascination  which  seized 
upon  the  heretofore  contracted  intellect  of  the  military  farmer, 
by  a  repetition  of  these  novel  and  warlike  subjects ;  the  mar- 
tial propensity  of  his  innate  character  had  already  rendered 
him  peculiarly  susceptible  of  these  animating  impressions. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  311 

and  be  now  almost  imperceptibly  imbibed  a  military  mind,  and 
acquired  a  soldier's  feeling.  In  a  word,  the  whole  nation  be- 
came enamoured  of  arms,  and  those  who  were  not  permitted 
to  bear  them,  considered  themselves  as  honored  by  being  em- 
ployed to  carry  the  food  and  ammunition  of  the  soldier. 

The  chief  commanders  of  these  armed  bodies  were  men 
of  the  highest  and  most  distinguished  characters,  and  each 
corps  was  in  general  headed  by  persons  of  the  first  respecta- 
bility in  their  respective  districts,  selected  generally  for  their 
popularity  and  independence ;  but  all  these  corps  were,  for 
a  considerable  time,  totally  distinct  and  unconnected;  nor 
was  it  until  they  had  formed  into  a  consolidated  column,  un- 
der the  command  of  the  amiable  and  illustrious  Charlemont, 
that  they  acquired  the  irresistible  impulse  of  a  co-operating 
power.  The  mild,  but  determined  patriotism  of  that  respected 
nobleman,  gave  a  new  tint  of  character  to  the  whole  army 
which  he  commanded,  and  chased  away  the  tongue  of  slander 
from  their  objects  and  their  conduct. 

In  the  number  of  those  who,  at  this  moment  were  launched, 
for  the  first  time,  into  public  observation,  there  appeared  a 
person,  who,  without  possessing  the  highest  reputation  for 
public  talent,  or  the  most  undeviating  line  of  public  principle, 
by  the  honest  and  spirited  termination  of  his  political  life, 
has  been  justly  raised  upon  the  elevated  joedestal  of  national 
gratitude;  a  person,  whose  early  appointment  to  the  first 
financial  department  of  Ireland,  and  whose  official  conduct 
from  that  day  to  the  catastrophe  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  will 
necessarily  be  the  subject  of  frequent  and  important  observa- 
tions, and  authorizes  an  introduction  of  his  name  and  charac- 
ter, at  an  earlier  stage  of  this  history,  than  would  otherwise 
be  consistent  with  the  regular  detail  of  a  progressive  narra- 
tive. 

Sir  John  Parnell,  the  commandant  of  a  Volunteer  assoc- 
ciation,  was  the  son  of  a  crafty  and  j^rudent  minor  politician 
(Sir  John  Parnell,  of  Rathlegue,  in  the  Queen's  County),  and 
was  educated  with  a  view  to  a  diplomatic  situation;  but  on 
his  return  from  the  Continent,  was  found  by  his  father  too 
deficient  in  the  necessary  attainments  of  evasion  and  dupli- 
city, to  qualify  him  for  the  high  departments  of  foreign  diplo- 
macy; his  talents,  therefore,  became  destined  for  home  con- 
sumption, and  by  the  intrigues  of  his  father,  and  a  forced 
exertion  of  his  own  abilities,  he  was  soon  noticed  in  the  Irish 


312  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Parliament  as  a  person  of  more  than  ordinary  capacity— and 
after  a  veering  course  of  local  politics,  he  was  appointed  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer.  In  that  situation  he  continued,  till 
the  project  of  a  union  called  forth  the  public  virtues  of  every 
man  who  possessed  any,  and  too  late  opened  the  eyes  of  the 
nation  to  its  steady  friends,  and  to  its  temporizing  enemies. 

Sir  John  Parnell  had  an  eminent  capacity  for  public  busi- 
ness, but  a  lamentable  deficiency  of  system  in  its  arrange- 
ment. His  strong  mind  and  cultivated  understanding  lost 
much  of  their  effect  by  the  flurry  of  his  manner,  which  fre- 
quently impeded  the  perspicuity  of  his  language. 

His  intellect  was  clear,  his  memory  retentive  and  his  con- 
ception just ;  he  possessed  esteem  without  an  effort  to  obtain 
it,  and  preserved  his  friends,  without  exercising  his  patron- 
age; he  supported  the  Ministry  without  offending  the  oppo- 
sition, and  all  parties  united  in  calling  him  an  honorable  man. 

Plain,  frank,  cheerful  and  convivial,  he  generally  pre- 
ferred society  to  trouble,  and  seemed  to  have  rid  himself  of  a 
weight  when  he  had  executed  a  duty.  As  a  financier,  he  was 
not  perfect— as  a  statesman  he  was  not  deep— as  a  courtier, 
he  was  not  polished— but  as  an  officer,  he  was  not  corrupt ;  and 
though  many  years  in  possession  of  high  office,  and  extensive 
patronage,  he  showed  a  disinterestedness  almost  unparal- 
leled; and  the  name  of  a  relative,  or  of  a  dependent,  of  his 
own,  scarcely  in  a  single  instance  increased  the  place  or  the 
pension  list  of  Ireland. 

Though  his  education  and  habits  were  ministerial,  his 
mind  was  intrinsically  patriotic,  and  a  sentiment  of  inde- 
pendent spirit  not  unfrequently  burst  out  from  under  the 
pressure  of  that  official  restriction  which  the  duty  of  his  sta- 
tion had  necessarily  imposed  upon  hun ;  but  his  appointment 
as  a  minister  never  induced  him  to  forget  his  birth  as  an 
Irishman,  and  his  attachments  to  the  sovereign  never  dimin- 
ished his  philanthropy  to  the  subject. 

After  an  honest,  faithful,  and  zealous  service  of  his  king, 
for  seventeen  years— as  Chancellor  of  the  Irish  Exchequer- 
he  was  called  upon  by  the  minister  to  sacrifice  his  principle 
and  betray  his  country— to  efface  the  impressions  of  his 
youth  and  tarnish  the  honor  of  his  maturity— to  violate  his 
faith  and  falsify  his  conviction ;  but  the  fetters  of  office  could 
not  restrain  the  spirit  of  its  captive ;  he  lost  his  station,  but 
he  retained  his  integrity,  and  was  compensated  for  the  conse- 


In  the  Days  of  GRArrAN  313 

quences  of  an  undeserved  dismissal,  by  the  approbation  of  his 
conscience  and  the  affection  of  his  country. 

The  Volunteer  corps  which  he  commanded,  early  and  zeal- 
ously adopted  the  cause  of  Irish  independence— a  cause  he 
strenuously  adhered  to,  to  the  last  moment  of  his  existence— 
and  in  that  noble  firmness  with  which  he  resisted  a  legisla- 
tive union,  and  disobeyed  the  mandates  of  a  crafty  and  vin- 
dictive viceroy;  he  has  left  to  the  present  age  a  brilliant 
and  a  rare  example  of  a  minister,  honest  enough  to  prefer  his 
character  to  his  officer,  and  proud  enough  to  postpone  his 
interest  to  his  honor. 

The  Volunteer  system  now  becoming  universal  in  Ireland, 
effected  an  important  and  visible  change  in  the  minds  and 
manners  of  the  middle  and  lower  orders  of  the  people ;  by  the 
occurrence  of  new  events,  and  the  promulgation  of  novel  prin- 
ciples, their  natural  character  became  affected  in  all  its  bear- 
ings, and  acquired,  or  rather  disclosed,  new  points,  which  at 
that  period  tended  to  promote  their  prosperity,  but  eventually 
formed  the  grand  pretence  for  the  distinguishment  of  their 
independence. 

The  familiar  association  of  all  ranks,  which  the  nature  of 
their  new  military  connection  necessarily  occasioned,  every 
day  lessened  that  wide  distinction,  which  had  theretofore  sep- 
arated the  higher  and  lower  orders  of  society— the  landlord 
and  the  tenant— the  nobleman  and  the  artisan— the  general 
and  the  soldier— now,  for  the  first  time,  sat  down  at  the  same 
board,  shared  the  same  fare,  and  enjoyed  the  same  con- 
viviality. The  lower  order  learned  their  own  weight  in  the 
community;  the  higher  were  taught  their  dependence  on  the 
people ;  and  those  whose  illiterate  minds  had  never  before  con- 
ceived or  thought  on  the  nature  of  political  constitutions,  or 
the  fundamental  principles  of  civil  government,  now  learned 
from  the  intercourse  and  conversation  of  their  superiors,  the 
rudiments  of  that  comiDlicated  but  noble  science,  the  miscon- 
ception and  the  abuse  of  which,  has  since  become  the  severest 
scourge  that  ever  afflicted  the  states  of  Europe. 

A  visible  alteration  was  also  soon  observable  in  the  gen- 
eral appearance  of  the  period;  the  squalid  garb  and  careless 
dress  of  the  Irish  farmer  was  now  exchanged  for  the  minute 
cleanliness  and  regularity  of  the  soldier.  A  striking  revolu- 
tion took  place  not  only  in  the  minds,  but  also  in  the  external 
appearance  of  the  Irish ;  their  intellect  acquired  strength  by 


314 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


exercise  and  information— their  address  was  improved  by  in- 
tercourse and  discipline— and  their  general  appearance  by 
dress  and  regularity ;  and  had  not  the  same  causes,  which  led 
to  the  concessions  of  1782,  induced  the  British  Government 
to  recall  the  constitution  which  had  been  wrested  from  its 
feebleness,  these  unparalleled  associations  would  have  con- 
ferred advantages  on  the  country,  beyond  all  measures  which 
human  wisdom  could  have  suggested  for  its  improvement. 


Ornament  on  top  of  Devenish  Round  Tower. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers,"  400. 


chaptp:r  IV. 

EVENTS  IN  THE  IRISH  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS  — PUBLIC  CHARACTER  OF 
HENRY  GRATTAN  — CHARLEMONT    AND  THE  VOLUNTEERS. 

While  those  transactions  were  taking  place  throughout  the 
country,  a  memorable  and  unexpected  event  occurred  in  the 
Irish  Parliament. 

The  sessions  of  1779-80  commenced  with  a  scene  which, 
while  it  elevated  the  Irish  people  to  the  height  of  expectation, 
and  inspired  them  with  a  new  confidence,  paralyzed  the  Brit- 
ish Government,  and  for  the  first  moment,  made  known  decid- 
edly to  the  councils  of  that  country,  that  they  had  no  longer 
to  deal  with  a  timid,  dispirited,  and  unprotected  nation. 

The  adoption  of  non-important  and  non-consumption 
agreements  had  already  created  considerable  anxiety  in  the 
British  Minister  as  to  the  probable  result  of  the  ensuing  ses- 
sion, and  the  Lord  Lieutenant  was  directed  to  open  the  Par- 
liament with  a  speech,  remotedly  alluding  to  his  Majesty's 
sentiments  of  liberality,  but  without  specifying  any  measure 
of  concession,  and  so  cautiously  guarded,  as  neither  to  alarm 
the  public  nor  commit  the  Government;  but  the  days  of  in- 
sipidity had  now  passed  away;  the  Viceroy's  speeches  from 
the  throne,  for  almost  a  century,  had  been  composed  nearly 
in  the  same  commonplace  language  and  trite  observation,  and 
the  addresses  of  both  Houses,  in  reply  to  those  speeches,  had 
been  almost  invariably  mere  echoes  of  the  speech  itself,  with 
general  assurances  of  liberal  supplies  and  increasing  loyalty. 

On  the  opening  of  the  Session,  however,  there  appeared  a 
more  than  common  sensation  amongst  the  leading  members 
of  Parliament ;  the  strong  and  animated  declarations  of  public 
sentiment  which  had  been  published  during  the  prorogation, 
made  an  extraordinary  impression,  but  the  extent  or  conse- 
quences of  that  impression  could  not  be  ascertained,  until 
the  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Commons  gave  an  oppor- 
tunity of  observing  what  effect  the  new  spirit  of  the  people 
would  now  have  upon  the  conduct  of  their  representatives. 

At  length  the  Parliament  assembled;  the  anxious  and  in- 
quisitive eye  of  the  Secretary  and  of  the  steady  partisans  of 
government   passed   rapidly    throughout   the   whole    House 

315 


316  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

alarmed  by  the  appearance  of  some  unusual  resistance,  tliey 
endeavored,  from  the  looks,  the  suggestions,  the  manner  of 
the  members,  to  prejudge  the  results  of  the  first  night's  de- 
bates, which  had  generally  decided  the  complexion  of  the 
ensuing  session,  but  no  sagacity  could  have  anticipated  the 
turn  which  Irish  affairs  were  to  receive  on  that  night— no 
human  foresight  could  have  predicted  that  blow  which  the 
system  of  the  British  Cabinet  was  about  to  receive  by  one 
single  sentence— or  have  foreseen  that  that  single  sentence 
would  be  the  composition  of  the  first  law-officer  of  the  Irish 
Government. 

The  Lord  Lieutenant's  speech  was  delivered  by  him,  in  the 
House  of  Lords  in  the  accustomed  tone  of  confidence,  am- 
biguity, and  frivolous  recommendations;  and  in  the  Com- 
mons, the  usual  echo  and  adulatory  address  was  moved  by  Sir 
Eobert  Deane,  a  person  devoted  to  the  views  of  Government. 
A  pause  succeeded  and  an  unusual  communication  was  per- 
ceivable between  several  members  on  the  Government  and 
the  Opposition  sides  of  the  House.  A  decided  resistance  to 
the  usual  qualified  address  now  became  certain;  the  Secre- 
tary, moving  irresolutely  from  place  to  i^lace,  was  seen  en- 
deavoring to  collect  the  individual  opinions  of  the  members 
—and  the  law-officers  of  the  Crown  evinced  a  diffidence  never 
more  observable  before  in  their  department;  throughout  the 
House  a  new  sense  of  expectation  and  anxiety  was  evident. 

At  length  Mr.  Henry  Grattan  arose,  with  a  somewhat  more 
than  usual  solemnity;  he  seemed  laboring  with  his  own 
thoughts,  and  preparing  his  mind  for  a  more  than  ordinary 
exertion.  The  address  and  the  language  of  this  extraordinary 
man  were  perfectly  original;  from  his  first  essay  in  Parlia- 
ment, a  strong  sensation  had  been  excited  by  the  point  and 
eccentricity  of  his  powerful  eloquence— nor  was  it  long  until 
those  transcendent  talents,  which  afterwards  distinguished 
this  celebrated  personage,  were  perceived  rising  above  or- 
dinary capacities,  and,  as  a  charm,  communicating  to  his 
countrymen  that  energy,  that  patriotism,  and  that  persever- 
ance, for  which  he  himself  became  so  eminently  distinguished ; 
his  action,  his  tone,  his  elocution  in  public  speaking,  bore  no 
resemblance  to  that  of  any  other  person ;  the  flights  of  genius, 
the  arrangements  of  composition,  and  the  solid  strength  of 
connected  reasoning,  were  singularly  blended  in  his  fiery,  yet 
deliberative  language ;  he  thought  in  antithesis,  his  irony  and 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  317 

his  satire,  rapid  and  epigrammatic,  bore  down  all  opposition, 
and  left  him  no  rival  in  the  broad  field  of  eloquent  invective; 
his  ungraceful  action,  however,  and  the  hesitating  tardiness  of 
his  first  sentences,  conveyed  no  favorable  impression  to  those 
who  listened  only  to  his  exordium,  but  the  progress  of  his 
brilliant  and  manly  eloquence  soon  absorbed  every  idea,  but 
that  of  admiration  at  the  overpowering  extent  of  his  intellec- 
tual faculties. 

This  was  Mr.  Henry  Grattan  of  1779— in  the  vicissitudes 
of  whose  subsequent  life  will  be  remarked  three  distinct  eras 
of  public  character,  and  disgusting  proofs  of  popular  incon- 
eistency— the  era  of  his  glory,  the  era  of  his  calumny,  and  the 
era  of  his  resurrection;  in  the  first,  elevated  to  a  pitch  of 
unbounded  gratification,  by  the  attachment,  the  gratitude,  and 
the  munificence  of  his  countrymen ;  in  the  second,  despoiled  of 
health,  of  happiness,  and  of  character,  by  the  artifices  of  a 
powerful  enemy,  and  in  the  third  rising  from  a  bed  of  sick- 
ness, re-embarking  a  shattered  frame  in  the  service  of  his 
country.  In  Parliament  he  taught  the  doctrines  of  Molyneux 
and  of  Lucas ;  he  drew  the  true  constitutional  distinctions  be- 
tween the  Crown  and  the  Government,  the  magistrate  and  the 
function,  the  individual  and  the  sceptre.  But  the  partiality 
of  the  friend  may  possibly  bias  the  pen  of  the  historian;  his 
public  principles  will  be  best  ascertained  by  tracing  the  un- 
deviating  line  of  his  public  conduct. 

The  career  of  this  extraordinary  man  is  finished.  But 
he  survived  his  country,  he  lived  to  view  the  demolition  of 
that  noble  fabric  raised  by  the  exertion  of  his  own  virtue  and 
perseverance,  and  the  catastrophe  of  that  constitution,  which, 
**as  he  watched  over  it  in  its  cradle,  so  he  attended  it  to  its 
grave.'* 

After  an  oration,  replete  with  most  luminous  reasoning, 
the  severest  censure,  pathetic  and  irresistible  eloquence,  Mr. 
Grattan  moved  an  amendment  to  the  address,  viz.,  ''That  we 
beseech  your  Majesty  to  believe,  that  it  is  with  the  utmost  re- 
luctance that  we  are  constrained  to  approach  you  on  the 
present  occasion ;  but  the  constant  drain  to  supply  absentees, 
and  the  unfortunate  iDrohibition  of  our  trade,  have  caused 
such  calamity,  that  the  natural  support  of  our  country  has 
decayed,  and  our  manufacturers  are  dying  for  want;  famine 
stalks  hand  in  hand  with  hopeless  wretchedness;  and  the 
only  means  left  to  support  the  expiring  trade  of  this  miser- 


318  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

able  part  of  your  Majesty's  dominions,  is  to  open  a  free  ex- 
port trade,  and  let  yonr  Irish  subjects  enjoy  their  natural 
birthright. ' ' 

His  arguments  had  been  so  conclusive,  his  position  so  self- 
evident,  his  language  so  vigorous  and  determined,  his  predic- 
tions so  alarming,  and  the  impression  which  those  combined 
qualities  made  upon  the  House  was  so  deep,  and  so  exten- 
sive, that  the  supporters  of  Government,  paralyzed  and  pas- 
sive, seemed  almost  ready  to  resign  the  victory,  before  they 
had  even  attempted  a  resistance. 

The  confusion  which  now  appeared  on  the  Treasury  bench 
was  very  remarkable— became  very  unusual.  The  Secretary 
(Sir  Richard  Heron),  for  the  first  time  showed  a  painful 
mistrust  in  the  steadiness  of  his  followers;  he  perceived  that 
the  spirit  of  the  House  was  rising  into  a  storm,  which  all  the 
influence  of  his  office  would  not  be  able  to  allay,  direct  oppo- 
sition would  be  injudicious,  if  not  fatal,  palpable  evasion 
would  be  altogether  impracticable,  the  temporizing  system 
was  almost  worn  out,  and  procrastination  seemed  to  yield  no 
better  prospect  of  a  favorable  issue;  the  officers  of  Govern- 
ment sat  sullenly  on  their  benches,  awaiting  their  customary 
cue  from  the  lips  of  the  Minister,  but  he  was  too  skillful  to 
commit  himself  to  a  labyrinth,  from  whence  return  was  so 
difficult  and  precarious,  and  all  was  silent.  At  length  Sir 
Henry  Cavendish  hesitatingly  arose,  to  declare  his  dissent 
to  this  first  decided  effort  of  the  Irish  Parliament  to  assert 
its  liberties. 

Sir  Plenry  Cavendish  was  one  of  those  persons  who  are 
generally  found  in  the  front  of  a  popular  assembly,  and  ac- 
quire notoriety  by  becoming  the  oracle  of  some  insulated  de- 
partment. Though  possessed  of  a  plain,  shrewd  understand- 
ing, abundance  of  craft,  a  convenient  temper,  and  imposing 
plausibility ;  after  unavailing  effort  to  acquire  the  fame  of  a 
rhetorician.  Sir  Henry  contented  himself  with  the  reputation 
of  profound  knowledge  in  parliamentary  precedents  and 
points  of  order. 

He  was  ever  prepared  with  a  string  of  parliamentary 
precedents,  appropriate  to  every  question,  and  adapted  to 
every  circumstance,  which  he  skilfully  contrived  to  substitute 
for  reasoning,  and  oppose  to  argument,  and  should  his  prolific 
memory  chance  to  fail  him  in  the  quotation  of  his  documents, 
his  inventive  genius  never  let  the  subject  fail  for  want  of  an 
auxiliary. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  319 

On  points  of  order  he  was  at  least  as  garrulous  as  ortho- 
dox, and  peculiarly  expert  at  critical  interruption ;  under  color 
of  keeping  order,  he  assumed  a  license  for  transgressing  it— 
and  in  affecting  to  check  the  digression  of  others,  he  fre- 
quently made  it  the  first  figure  of  his  own  rhetoric;  he  was 
admirably  calculated  for  desultory  debate— when  he  was 
right  he  was  concise— when  he  was  wrong  he  was  pertinacious, 
sarcastic,  obstinate,  plausible,  persevering;  he  gained  time 
when  he  could  not  make  proselytes,  and  became  the  very 
essence  and  soul  of  procrastination.  Sir  Henry  was  well 
aware  that  he  durst  not  venture  an  unqualified  negative,  and 
endeavored  craftily  to  administer  his  panacea  of  precedents, 
and  to  propose  what  he  termed  ''something  more  orderly  in 
the  House,  and  more  sagacious  to  the  Sovereign."  He  said 
he  would  vote  against  the  amendment— that  the  business 
would  be  better  affected  by  following  a  precedent  in  the  year 
1661,  when  the  Lords  and  Commons  of  Ireland  appointed  com- 
missioners to  attend  the  King— to  "supplicate  the  redress  of 
grievances. ' ' 

The  die  was  not  cast— and  a  resistance  to  the  measure 
was  announced  and  proceeded  on.  Mr.  Scott  (Attorney  Gen- 
eral) affected  to  support  Sir  Henry;  but  as  if  conscious  of 
his  ultimate  failure,  he  appeared  almost  a  new  character ;  the 
bold  audacity  of  his  address  degenerated  into  an  insidious 
plausibility ;  his  arrogance  fled  without  an  effort,  and  for  once 
in  his  life  he  was  tame,  vapid,  and  equivocal.  An  ardent 
spirit  now  burst  forth  from  every  quarter  in  the  House.  Mr. 
Henry  Flood,  a  most  prominent  personage  in  Irish  history, 
whose  endowments  were  great,  and  whose  character  was  dis- 
tinguished, the  Provost— Mr.  Ogle,  Sir  Edward  Newnham, 
and  many  others,  declared  their  coincidence  with  the  amend- 
ment. But  though  it  stated,  in  true  and  pathetic  language, 
the  miseries  Ireland  was  subject  to,  by  reason  of  her  absen- 
tees, if  pressed  too  strongly  on  the  tenderest  spot  of  the  in- 
terest of  Britons,  to  admit  of  their  concurrence;  while,  on 
the  other  side,  it  was  conceived  not  to  be  thoroughly  explicit 
—and  not  sufficiently  pre-emptory— the  object  was  most  im- 
portant, the  moment  was  most  critical,  and  the  amendment 
was  exceptional.    These  difficulties  had  been  foreseen. 

Mr.  Hussey  Burgh  (The  Prime  Sergeant)  at  length  arose 
from  the  Treasury  bench,  with  that  proud  dignity  so  con- 
genial to  his  character,  and  declared,  that  he  would  never 


320  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

support  any  Government,  in  fraudulently  concealing  from  a 
King  the  right  of  his  people;  that  the  high  office  which  he 
possessed  could  hold  no  competition  with  his  principles  and 
his  conscience,  and  he  should  consider  the  relinquishment  of 
his  gown  only  as  a  just  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  his  country; 
that  strong  statement,  rather  than  pathetic  supplication,  was 
adapted  to  the  crisis ;  and  he  proposed  to  Mr.  Grattan  to  sub- 
stitute for  his  amendment  the  following  words:  ''That  it  is 
not  by  temporary  expedients,  that  this  nation  is  now  to  be 
saved  from  impending  ruin." 

The  effect  of  his  speech  was  altogether  indescribable,  nor 
is  it  easily  to  be  conceived  by  those  who  were  not  witnesses 
of  that  remarkable  transaction;  the  House,  quick  in  its  con- 
ception, and  rapidly  susceptible  of  every  impression,  felt  the 
whole  force  of  this  unexpected  and  important  secession.  The 
talent,  the  character,  the  eloquence  of  this  great  man,  bore 
down  every  symptom  of  further  resistance ;  many  of  the  usual 
supporters  of  Government,  and  some  of  the  Viceroy's  im- 
mediate connections,  instantly  followed  his  example,  and  in 
a  moment  the  victory  was  decisive— not  a  single  negative 
could  the  Minister  procure,  and  Mr.  Burgh's  amendment 
passed  unanimously,  amidst  a  tumult  of  joy  and  exultation. 

This  triumph  of  Irish  patriotism  made  an  instantaneous 
and  powerful  impression  on  the  minds  of  the  people;  it  was 
their  first  victory,  and  the  Minister's  first  discomfiture.  The 
volunteers  attributed  this  unexpected  success  to  the  impres- 
sions which  their  spirit  had  diffused  throughout  the  country, 
and  they  determined  to  adopt  this  measure,  as  if  it  had  been 
their  own  offspring,  and  thereby  identify  the  virtues  of  the 
Parliament  with  the  energies  of  the  people.  On  the  circum- 
stance being  anounced,  the  drums  beat  to  arms;  the  volun- 
teer associations  collected  in  every  part  of  the  metropolis; 
and  they  resolved  to  line  the  streets  and  accompany  to  the 
gates  of  the  Castle  that  part  of  the  legislative  body  which 
moved  in  solemn  procession,  to  present  their  wholesome 
warning  into  the  hands  of  the  Viceroy. 

The  secession  of  Mr.  Burgh  from  the  Government  was 
not  more  important  than  that  of  M.  Conolly,  brother-in-law 
to  the  Viceroy,  and  Mr.  Burton  Cunningham,  a  constant  sup- 
porter of  the  ministerial  measures— men  in  high  estimation 
and  of  large  fortunes— which  gave  Mr.  Grattan  an  oppor- 


In  the  Days  of  Orattan  321 

tunity   for   observing,   tliat  "the  people  were  just   getting 
landed  security  for  the  attainment  of  their  liberties." 

The  effect  of  this  measure,  though  in  its  nature  inconclu- 
sive, appeared  to  lay  the  first  stone  of  Irish  independence, 
and  greatly  increased  both  the  numbers  and  confidence  in 
Volunteer  associations. 

Several  attempts  had  j^reviously  been  made  to  fix  the 
attention  of  the  British  legislature  on  the  distressed  and 
dangerous  situation  of  Ireland;  but  every  effort  had 
proved  totally  abortive.  Although  the  critical  state  of 
that  country  had  been  discussed  in  both  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  addresses  had  been  voted  to  the  King  requesting 
his  immediate  attention  to  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  to  which 
favorable  answers  had  been  returned  by  his  Majesty;  and 
though  the  Irish  Commons  had  also  framed  a  resolution,  in 
the  language  of  more  than  common  expostulation,  yet  the  sub- 
ject passed  away  from  the  attention  of  the  Ministers,  and 
even  this  session  closed,  affording  only  further  and  decided 
proofs  of  their  temporizing  duplicity. 

Great  Britain  was  not  as  yet  sufficiently  alarmed  to  be- 
come just;  she  could  not  as  yet  be  persuaded  that  the  Irish 
people  were  com2:>etent  to  the  redress  of  their  own  grievances ; 
and  she  considered  the  warmth  of  their  public  declarations 
only  as  the  brilliant  flashes  of  a  temporary  patriotism. 

Her  egotism  blinded  her  to  her  state  and  she  fancied  that, 
the  same  revolution  which  had  confirmed  her  liberties,  had  sub- 
jected to  her  i^ower  the  liberties  of  her  sister ;  and  still  para- 
mount to  justice  and  to  policy,  she  felt  too  proud  to  bend  her 
attention  to  the  grievances  which  she  herself  had  inflicted. 

Some  powerful  friends  of  Ireland  at  length  began  zeal- 
ously to  espouse  her  interests.  The  good  Earl  Nugent, 
whose  memory  and  character  are  still  revered  by  those  who 
recollect  the  sincerity  of  his  attachment  to  that  country  in 
1778,  made  an  effort  in  the  British  Lords  to  call  their  atten- 
tion to  the  distresses  of  Ireland ;  but  his  efforts  were  ineffec- 
tual. The  same  nobleman  soon  after  repeated  the  same 
efforts ;  but  his  weight  and  abilities  were  not  equal  to  his  zeal 
and  integrity.  His  motion  was  treated  with  an  unbecoming 
superciliousness  by  Lord  North,  and  death  unfortunately, 
soon  after,  deprived  his  country  of  one  of  the  truest  friends 
and  most  dignified  and  honest  advocates. 

The  Earl  of  Shelburne,  in  the  Lords,  and  the  Earl  of  Up- 


322  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

per  Ossory,  in  the  Commons,  also  proposed  strong  resolutions 
in  both  Houses,  declaratory  of  the  dangerous  state  of  the 
country.  But  though  the  motion  was  well-timed,  the  motives 
of  the  noble  movers  did  not  proceed  from  the  same  feeling 
which  actuated  the  resident  inhabitants  of  Ireland.  Neither 
of  those  noblemen  had  been  habitual  friends  to  the  general 
interests  of  that  country.  Both  of  them  were  total  absentees 
—they  possessed  large  estates  in  Ireland,  and  trembled  for 
their  properties— they  acted  in  general  opposition  to  the 
Government,  and  wished  to  register  the  culpability  of  their 
adversaries.  Their  motions  were,  after  very  sharp  debates, 
rejected  in  both  Houses,  and  Ireland  became  fully  and  finally 
convinced,  that  it  was  not  through  the  occasional  exertion  of 
Irish  emigrants,  in  a  foreign  legislature,  that  she  was  to  seek 
for  the  recovery  of  her  rights  and  alleviation  of  her  miseries. 

Applications  to  the  Govermnent,  petitions  to  the  Parlia- 
ment and  supplications  to  the  Crown  had  all  been  tried  in 
vain;  neither  the  bold  remonstrances  of  right  nor  the  pierc- 
ing cries  of  necessity  could  reach  the  royal  ear,  or  penetrate 
the  circle  of  ministers  which  surrounded  the  British  throne, 
and  concealed  from  the  Irish  King  a  distinct  view  of  his  Irish 
people.  Humble  and  pathetic  language  had  failed,  the  voice 
of  the  nation  was  exhausted  by  unavailing  supplication,  and 
it  now  became  full  time  to  act  in  the  cause  of  liberty. 

Such  being  the  ascertained  disi^osition  of  the  whole  body 
of  the  people,  not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost  in  the  adoption 
of  some  measure,  too  strong  to  be  despised  by  ministers,  and 
too  moderate  to  be  dangerous  to  the  connection.  Delay  might 
now  terminate  all  the  hopes  of  Ireland,  the  crisis  might  pass 
away,  the  public  spirit  might  cool,  and  the  moment  so  auspi- 
cious to  the  interests  of  the  nation  might  be  lost  forever. 
Though  this  determ.ination  quickly  circulated  throughout  the 
whole  country,  the  people  still  acted  with  that  deliberate  firm- 
ness, which,  of  all  conduct,  is  the  most  fatal  to  a  political  ad- 
versary, and  adds  most  strength  and  character  to  popular 
proceedings. 

The  personages  who  then  led  Ireland  forward  to  her  blood- 
less victory,  well  knew  the  inestimable  value  of  that  prudent 
principle.  They  were  men  of  great  abilities,  profound  wis- 
dom, and  effective  patriotism,  which  considers  activity  its 
necessary  friend,  but  precipitation  its  almost  dangerous 
enemy.    They  instructed  the  people,  that  while  they  acted 


fv  THE  Days  of  G rattan  323 

with  undeviating  firmness,  tliey  should  also  act  with  pruden- 
tial moderation— that  the  suspended  liberties  of  the  people 
were  most  likely  to  be  recovered  from  a  powerful  oppressor, 
by  a  determined  but  cool  and  progressive  perseverance— that 
by  deliberate  system  none  would  be  alarmed— wise  men 
would  be  attended  to,  the  impetuous  be  restrained,  the  waver- 
ing confirmed,  and  the  people  steadied ;  patriotism  and  confi- 
dence would  grow  up  together  and  become  more  intimately 
blended,  and  the  whole  nation  without  alarm,  be  imperceptibly 
led  to  one  common  centre,  and  become  more  competent  to 
achieve  the  strongest  measures,  before  they  were  well  aware 
that  they  had  commenced  the  preparation  for  them. 

They  were  instructed,  that  on  the  other  hand,  undigested 
and  impetuous  proceedings,  if  not  successful,  by  the  first 
rapidity  of  their  execution,  in  general  defeat  their  own  ob- 
ject, and  rivet  the  chains  of  that  country  which  they  were 
intended  to  emancipate ;  that  it  is  more  practicable  to  advance 
on  gradual  claims  than  recede  from  extravagant  determina- 
tions, and  that  the  inevitable  miseries  of  civil  war,  however 
justifiable  upon  the  principles  and  precedent  of  constitutional 
resistance,  established  at  the  revolution,  should  be  the  last 
resource  even  of  an  enslaved  people;  and,  that  though  the 
Irish  were  armed,  and  might  demand  concession  in  the  atti- 
tude and  tone  of  confidence,  it  would  be  much  wiser  to  give 
their  incipient  proceedings  the  weight  and  character  of  citi- 
zens, and  reserve  for  the  last  extremity  the  threat  of  soldiers ; 
that  England,  by  this  means,  would  be  sufficiently  informed 
of  the  determination  of  Ireland,  without  feeling  her  pride  too 
much  hurt,  to  propose  a  negotiation,  or  so  much  alarmed  as 
to  prepare  for  resistance. 

This  discreet  reasoning  had  its  full  effect  upon  the  gener- 
ality of  the  nation ;  and  though  the  ebullitions  of  public  feeling 
occasionally  broke  forth  in  ardent  resolutions  of  the  Volun- 
teer associations,  the  temperate  system  was  generally 
adopted;  and  it  was  only  upon  fully  experiencing  its  final  fail- 
ing, that  the  exhilarating  shouts  of  an  embattled  people  were 
heard  reverberating  from  every  quarter  of  a  military  country. 

As  before  mentioned,  public  resolutions  neither  to  import, 
purchase,  or  consume  any  British  manufacture,  or  commodity 
whatever,  had  been  universally  but  peaceable  adopted, 
throughout  the  whole  island,  a  measure  at  all  times  justifiable 
by  any  people   who  may  have  been  deprived  of  their  com- 


^2i  Irktand's  Crown  of  Titorns  and  Roses 

merce  and  their  constitution  by  the  power  or  the  machinations 
of  an  insidious  neighbor. 

Inundated  as  Ireland  had  been  with  every  species  of 
British  manufacture,  there  could  be  no  step  so  just,  so  mod- 
erate, or  which  promised  so  many  beneficial  consequences,  as 
the  total  exclusion  from  the  Irish  markets  of  every  com- 
modity which  she  was  herself  competent  to  manufacture,  or 
of  which  she  could  possibly  dispense  with  the  immediate  con- 
sumption. However,  it  was  not  until  after  the  grievances 
of  Ireland  could  be  no  longer  endured,  and  she  found  that 
nothing  but  propositions,  without  sufficient  latitude  to  be 
beneficial,  or  security  to  be  permanent,  were  offered  for  her 
acceptance,  that  these  resolutions  became  almost  universal- 
spread  themselves  like  a  rapid  flame  throughout  every  village 
of  the  island— and  were  zealously  promoted  by  almost  every 
individual  in  the  country.  At  length  a  general  meeting  was 
convened  by  the  High  Sheriffs  of  the  city  of  Dublin,  and 
resolutions  then  entered  into  by  the  whole  metropolis,  which 
finally  confirmed  and  consummated  that  judicious  measure, 
and  at  length  convinced  Great  Britain  that  Ireland  would  no 
longer  submit  to  insult  and  domination,  and  had  commenced 
a  gradation  of  active  proceedings  of  which  the  climax  might 
ultimately,  though  unfortunately,  produce  a  rupture  of  the 
connection. 

These  resolutions  were  enforced  with  rigor  and  strictness. 
Few  men,  however  their  interest  might  be  affected,  would 
wantonly  risk  the  imputation  of  being  traitors  to  their  coun- 
try and  encounter  the  danger  of  popular  retribution  which 
was,  in  some  few  instances,  actually  inflicted. 

The  nation  now  paused  for  a  moment:  it  found  itself 
prepared  to  commence  its  great  work  of  constitutional  regen- 
eration, and  stood  steadily  and  firmly  watching  with  an 
anxious  eye  for  the  operation  of  this  first  overt  act  of  deter- 
mined patriotism.  The  people  had  now  ascended  an  eminence 
sufficiently  elevated  to  give  them  a  full  view  of  their  friends 
and  of  their  enemies— they  had  peaceably  hoisted  the  first 
standard  and  made  the  first  proclamation  of  liberty.  A 
mutual  compact  of  the  citizen  to  support  the  soldier,  and  the 
soldier  to  defend  the  citizen,  formed  a  very  remarkable  fea- 
ture in  all  their  resolutions— and  though  the  military  associa- 
tions had  not  (as  such)  yet  assumed  a  deliberative  capacity, 
it  was  obvious  that  their  discretion  alone  had  continued  the 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  325 

distinction— and  that,  though  they  spoke   by   two   tongues, 
there  was  in  fact  but  one  heart  amongst  the  people. 

This  bold  measure,  however  it  may  have  been  eclipsed  by 
the  more  striking  importance  of  events  which  succeeded  each 
other  in  a  rapid  progression,  yet  had  a  momentous  influence 
on  the  subsequent  fate  and  policy  of  Ireland,  and  must  be 
considered  as  the  commencement  of  that  interesting  course  of 
political  transactions,  which  suddenly  raised  her  to  the  high- 
est pitch  of  national  pride  and  prosperity,  and  afterwards 
hurled  her  down  the  destructive  precipice  of  misery  and 
degradation. 

The  spirited  adoption  and  obstinate  adherence  of  the  Irish 
people  to  these  resolutions  now  flashed  as  a  new  light  in  the 
eyes  of  the  British  administration.  The  power  of  the  English 
statutes,  which  bound  the  commerce  of  Ireland,  was  by  these 
resolutions  almost  at  the  same  moment  denied  and  demol- 
ished, without  the  aid  of  arms  or  tumult  of  insurrection,  and 
the  pride  and  power  of  Great  Britain  received  that  warning 
blow  which  taught  her  what  she  had  reason  to  expect  from  a 
further  perseverance  in  her  favorite  system.  The  Ministry 
were  astonished.  The  arm  of  usurpation,  which  had  so  long 
wielded  alternately  the  sword  and  commanded  the  coffer,  fell 
paralyzed  and  lifeless  by  the  side  of  the  usurpers.  But  the 
fate  of  empires  is  governed  by  the  same  fatality  as  the  check- 
ered life  of  individuals;  and  this  very  measure,  which  so 
auspiciously  and  proudly  asserted,  and  the  events  which 
afterwards  so  completely  acquired  the  constitutional  inde- 
pendence and  commercial  freedom  of  Ireland,  will  be  found 
the  ulterior  pretence  for  revoking  those  great  acquirements. 
England,  compelled  to  concede,  was  determined  to  reclaim, 
and  from  the  first  hours  of  reluctant  concession  pursued  that 
deep  and  insidious  system  which  will  be  fully  traced  and 
developed  in  the  course  of  Irish  transactions,  and  will  be 
found  conspicuously  active  from  the  commercial  tariff  of 
1784  through  every  stage  of  the  regency  and  the  rebellion, 
to  the  completion  of  that  measure  entitled  a  legislative  Union 
between  the  two  countries. 

The  Volunteer  associations  of  the  metropolis  soon  per- 
ceived that  however  numerous  their  force  and  extensive  their 
popularity  it  required  some  strong  link  of  connection  to  unite 
military  bodies  so  entirely  distant  and  independent  of  each 


326  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

other,  who  acknowledged  no  superior  to  their  respective  com- 
manders and  no  control  but  voluntary  obedience. 

To  secure  their  unanimity,  perhaps  even  their  permanence, 
it  required  some  consolidating  authority  whose  weight  might 
restrain  within  proper  limits  the  uncontrolled  spirits  of  a 
body  assuming  the  double  capacity  of  a  soldier  and  of  a 
citizen. 

This  essential  object  could  only  be  attained  by  the  selec- 
tion of  some  high  and  dignified  personage,  whose  rank  and 
character,  rising  beyond  the  reach  of  common  competition, 
might  unite  together,  under  one  common  chief,  that  diversity 
of  views  and  objects  which  must  ever  distract  the  proceedings 
of  detached  associations. 

The  Volunteers  of  Dublin  saw  clearly  that  military  bodies, 
however  laudable  their  views,  must  be  more  than  commonly 
subject  to  the  fallibility  of  human  institutions,  and  that  to 
have  the  effect  and  impetus  of  an  army  they  must  submit 
themselves  fully  to  its  control  and  organization. 

They  did  not,  however,  long  hesitate  in  their  choice  of  a 
commander.  Every  eye  seemed  to  turn,  by  general  instinct, 
on  William,  Duke  of  Leinster.  His  family  from  the  earliest 
periods  had  been  favorites  of  the  people.  He  had  himself, 
when  Marquis  of  Kildare,  been  the  popular  representative  of 
Dublin ;  he  was  the  only  Duke  of  Ireland ;  his  disposition  and 
his  address  combined  almost  every  quality  which  could  en- 
dear him  to  the  nation.  The  honesty  of  his  heart  might 
occasionally  mislead  the  accuracy  of  his  judgment,  but  he 
always  intended  right,  and  his  political  errors  usually  sprung 
from  the  principle  of  moderation. 

This  amiable  Nobleman  was  therefore  unanimously 
elected  by  the  armed  bodies  of  the  metropolis  their  General, 
and  was  immediately  invested  with  all  the  honors  of  so  high 
a  situation ;  a  guard  of  Volunteers  was  mounted  at  his  door, 
a  bodyguard  appointed  to  attend  him  on  public  occasions, 
and  sentinels  placed  in  his  box  when  he  honored  the  theater. 
He  was  followed  with  acclamations  whenever  he  appeared, 
and  something  approaching  to  regal  honors  attended  his 
investiture. 

This  was  the  first  measure  of  the  Volunteers  towards  the 
formation  of  a  regular  army.  Its  novelty  and  splendor  added 
greatly  to  its  importance  and  led  the  way  to  the  subsequent 
appointments  which  soon  after  completed  their  organization. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  327 

The  mild  and  unassuming  disposition  of  the  Duke,  tending 
by  its  example  to  restrain  the  over  zeal  of  an  armed  and 
irritated  nation,  did  not  contribute  much  to  increase  the 
energy  of  their  proceedings  and  at  no  distant  period  deprived 
him,  for  a  moment,  of  a  portion  of  that  popularity  which  his 
conduct  (with  but  little  deviation)  entitled  him  to,  down  to 
the  last  moments  of  his  existence. 

A  new  scene  now  presented  itself  to  the  view  of  the  British 
Minister,  and  embarrassed,  to  an  unparalleled  degree,  every 
measure  of  the  Irish  administration.  A  regular  army,  com- 
posed of  every  rank  of  society,  raised,  armed,  and  disciplined 
in  the  midst  of  the  metropolis,  independent  of  the  Crown,  and 
unconnected  with  the  Government,  disdaining  all  authority  of 
either  over  their  military  concerns,  and  under  the  eye  of  the 
Viceroy,  appointing  a  commander  in  chief  and  avowing  their 
determination  to  free  their  country  or  perish  in  its  ruins,  the 
standing  army  tame  spectators  of  this  extraordinary  spec- 
tacle and  almost  participating  in  the  flame  which  they  might 
be  called  upon  to  extinguish,  the  Government,  irresolute  and 
shrinking  within  the  Castle,  not  only  tolerated  but  even 
affected  to  countenance  this  unparalleled  procedure.  The 
new  commander  of  the  Volunteers  was  received  and  recog- 
nized by  the  public  authorities,  and  the  regular  soldiery  at 
length  involuntarily  paid  him  the  same  military  attentions  as 
their  own  commanders. 

But  though  the  Government,  from  policy,  affected  to  bear 
the  sight  with  complacency  and  patience,  they  reflected,  with 
the  deepest  solicitude,  on  the  situation  of  the  country,  and 
secretly  made  every  effort  to  divide  or  weaken  the  military 
associations.  Every  device  was  used  to  seduce  the  soldier 
from  his  officers,  or  to  detach  the  most  popular  officers  from 
the  command  of  the  soldiers.  The  one  was  offered  commis- 
sions and  pay  from  the  Crown,  the  other  offices  in  the  public 
departments.  No  scheme  was  left  untried;  no  means  were 
forgotten  to  achieve  this  object ;  but  it  was  all  in  vain.  The 
spirit  of  the  people  was  then  too  high,  and  their  patriotism 
too  ardent  to  admit  of  such  negotiation,  and  every  attempt 
became  not  only  Tutile  but  also  gave  an  additional  strength  to 
the  measures  and  declarations  of  the  people. 

The  appointment  of  the  Duke  of  Leinster  to  the  command 
of  the  Volunteers  of  the  metropolis  was  quickly  followed  by 
that  of  other  district  generals,  and  the  organization  of  four 


328  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

provincial  armies  was  regularly  proceeded  on.  The  country 
gentlemen  of  the  highest  consideration  and  largest  fortune 
vied  with  each  other  in  their  efforts  to  promote  it;  many 
leading  members  of  the  Irish  Parliament  were  individually 
active  in  promoting  the  common  object,  and  from  single  corps 
were  soon  collected  county  regiments  and  provincial  armies 
ready  to  take  the  field  at  the  command  of  their  officers,  and 
to  sacrifice  their  lives  and  their  properties  for  the  emancipa- 
tion of  their  country. 

Still,  however,  something  was  wanting  to  complete  their 
organization.  Provincial  armies  had  been  formed  and  dis- 
ciplined, but  still  these  armies  were  independent  of  each  other. 
There  was  no  general  head  to  put  the  whole  in  motion— no 
individual  to  whom  all  would  own  obedience,  and  such  an 
appointment  seemed  indispensably  essential  to  secure  their 
co-operation. 

But  this  was  a  task  more  serious  and  more  difficult  than 
had  yet  occurred.  Where  could  be  fopnd  the  man  whose 
integrity  was  incorruptible,  whose  wisdom  was  profound, 
whose  courage  was  invincible,  yet  whose  moderation  was  con- 
spicuous, and  whose  popularity  was  extensive!  Ireland  could 
not  boast  a  "Washington,  jet  so  critical  was  her  situation  at 
that  moment  that  a  combination  of  all  these  qualities  seemed 
to  be  requisite  in  the  person  to  whom  should  be  entrusted  the 
guidance  of  eighty  thousand  patriot  soldiers.  Such  a  per- 
sonage was  not  to  be  discovered,  and  it  was  only  left  to  the 
Volunteers  to  select  the  purest  character  of  that  day,  and 
leave  his  guidance  to  the  councils  less  of  the  concurring  than 
of  the  counteracting  qualities  of  the  inferior  commanders. 

Public  affairs  in  Ireland  now  began  to  wear  a  serious  and 
alarming  aspect.  The  Leinster  army  appointed  the  Earl  of 
Charlemont  its  commander  in  chief,  and  the  other  armies  pro- 
ceeded rapidly  to  their  organization.  Provincial  reviews  were 
adopted  and  everything  assumed  the  appearance  of  systematic 
movement. 

The  elevation  of  Lord  Charlemont  to  that  high  command, 
though  it  formed  a  more  decided  military  establishment  for 
the  Volunteer  army,  was  probably  the  very  means  of  pre- 
serving the  connection  between  the  two  countries.  Had  the 
same  confidence  and  command  been  entrusted  to  a  more  ardent 
or  ambitious  character,  it  might  have  been  difficult  to  calcu- 
late on  the  result  of  combining  an  intemperate  leader  with  an 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  329 

impatient  army,  but  the  moderation  of  Lord  Charlemont  gave 
a  tone  and  a  steadiness  to  the  proceedings  of  the  people  whicli 
might  otherwise  have  pointed  to  a  distinct  independence. 
His  character  had  long  preceded  his  elevation.  In  the  north 
his  influence  was  unlimited,  and  though  the  Southern  and 
Western  Volunteers  had  not  as  yet  consolidated  their  force 
with  the  other  jjrovinces,  they  were  in  a  high  state  of  disci- 
pline and  preparation,  and  soon  adopted  the  same  principles, 
which  the  appointment  of  the  Earl  of  Charlemont  had  now 
diffused  through  the  other  parts  of  the  Nation. 

From  the  first  moment  that  James,  Earl  of  Charlemont, 
embarked  in  Irish  politics,  he  proved  himself  to  be  one  of  the 
most  honest  and  dignified  personages  that  can  be  traced  in  the 
annals  of  Irish  history.  The  love  of  his  country  was  inter- 
woven with  his  existence;  their  union  was  complete,  their 
separation  impossible ;  but  his  talents  were  rather  of  the  con- 
ducting class,  and  his  wisdom  of  a  deliberative  nature.  His 
mind  was  more  pure  than  vigorous ;  more  elegant  than  power- 
ful, and  his  capacity  seemed  better  adapted  to  counsel  in 
peace  than  to  command  in  war. 

Though  he  was  not  devoid  of  ambition,  and  was  proud  of 
his  popularity,  his  principles  were  calm,  and  his  moderation 
predominant.  For  some  years  at  the  head  of  a  great  army  in 
the  heart  of  a  powerful  people,  in  the  hand  of  an  injured  na- 
tion, during  the  most  critical  epoch  that  a  kingdom  ever  ex- 
perienced, he  conducted  the  Irish  nation  with  incredible  tem- 
perance and,  in  the  midst  of  tempests,  he  flowed  on  in  an 
unruffled  stream,  fertilizing  the  plain  of  liberty  and  enlarg- 
ing the  channel  of  independence,  but  too  smooth  and  too  gentle 
to  turn  the  vast  machinery  of  revolution. 

His  view  of  political  objects,  though  always  honest,  was 
frequently  erroneous.  Small  objects  sometimes  appeared  too 
important  and  great  ones  too  hazardous.  Though  he  would 
not  actually  temporize,  he  could  be  seduced  to  hesitate;  yet, 
even  when  his  decision  was  found  wandering  from  the  point 
of  its  destination,  it  was  invariably  discoverable  that  discre- 
tion was  the  seducer. 

Had  the  unwise  pertinacity  of  England  persisted  in  her 
errors,  and  plunged  his  country  into  more  active  contest,  his 
mildness,  his  constitution  and  his  love  of  order  would  have 
unadapted  him  to  the  vicissitudes  of  civil  commotion,  or  the 
energetic  promptitude  of  military  tactics;  but   fortunately 


330  Ireland's  Ckown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  adoption  of  his  counsels  rendered  his  sword  unnecessary ; 
and  by  the  selection  of  one  man,  to  combat  for  the  liberties 
of  Ireland,  he  raised  a  youthful  champion  for  his  country 
Tvhose  sling  soon  leveled  the  giant  of  usurpation,  and  he 
wound  a  laurel  round  the  bust  of  the  deliverer,  which  will 
remain  unfaded  till  the  very  name  of  Ireland  shall  be  oblit- 
erated from  amongst  nations. 

His  indisposition  to  the  extent  of  Catholic  liberty,  nour- 
ished by  the  prejudice  of  the  times,  was  diminished  by  the 
patriotism  of  the  people.  The  Catholics  of  1780  preferred 
their  country  to  the  claims,  as  those  of  1800,  preferred  their 
claims  to  their  country,  and  amongst  that  people  he  gained  by 
his  honesty  what  he  lost  by  his  intolerance  and  lived  just 
long  enough  to  experience  and  to  mourn  the  fallibility  of  his 
predictions. 

Around  this  Nobleman  the  Irish  Volunteers  flocked  as 
around  a  fortress ;  the  standard  of  liberty  was  supported  by 
his  character;  the  unity  of  the  Empire  was  protected  by  his 
wisdom;  and  as  if  Providence  had  attached  him  to  the  des- 
tinies of  Ireland,  he  arose— he  flourished— and  he  sunk  with 
his  country. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  V. 

HUMILIATION    OF    THE    ENGLISH    GOVERNMENT  — THE    VOLUNTEERS 

GATHER  STRENGTH. 

The  British  Government  at  length  awakened  from  their 
slumbers;  their  dreams  of  power  and  security  now  vanished 
before  the  view  of  their  increasing  dangers.  A  reliance  on 
the  omnipotence  of  English  power,  at  all  times  chimerical, 
would  now  have  been  presumptuous.  The  Irish  nation,  to 
whose  bravery  and  whose  blood  the  victories  and  conquests  of 
Britain  had  been  so  eminently  indebted,  now  called  impera- 
tively for  their  own  rights  and  demanded  a  full  participation 
of  that  constitution  in  support  of  which  they  had  daily  sacri- 
ficed so  great  a  proportion  of  their  treasure  and  their  popu- 
lation. 

The  Irish  soldier  and  the  Irish  seaman  could  never  be  sup- 
posed to  remain  unfeeling  spectators  whilst  their  own  country 
was  struggling  for  its  dearest  liberties,  or  become  the  mer- 
cenary instruments  of  their  own  subjugation.  Even  their 
indisposition  to  the  British  service  would  have  reduced  the 
armies  and  navy  to  debility,  but  their  defections  would  have 
been  fatal  to  the  power  of  Great  Britain,  and  have  enabled 
Ireland  irresistibly  to  effect  her  total  independence.  The 
balance  of  Europe  was  likely  to  undergo  a  great  change ;  the 
improvident  attachment  to  continental  politics  almost  exclu- 
sively engrossed  the  attention  of  England ;  and  the  completion 
of  a  mercenary  league  with  a  petty  potentate  of  a  Germanic 
principality,  inferior  even  to  one  Irish  county,  was  considered 
of  more  importance  by  the  British  Cabinet,  than  all  the  mis- 
eries, the  dangers,  and  oppressions  of  Ireland.  But  the  Brit- 
ish Government  now  jierceived  their  error,  when  it  was  too 
late  to  temporize;  and  that  arrogance,  which  for  centuries 
had  hardly  condescended  to  hear  groans,  was  now  startled 
into  attention. 

Affairs  now  approached  fast  towards  a  crisis.  The  free- 
dom of  commerce  being  the  subject  most  familiar  and  compre- 
hensible to  the  ideas  of  the  people,  was  the  first  object  of  their 
solicitude.  *'A  Free  Trade"  became  the  watchword  of  the 
Volunteers  and  the  cry  of  the  Nation.    The  Dublin  Volunteer 

3ol 


332  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Artillery  appeared  on  parade,  commanded  by  James  Napper 
Tandy,  with  labels  on  the  mouths  of  their  cannon  of  ''Free 
Trade  or  Speedy  Revolution";  placards  were  pasted  up  in 
every  part  of  the  city  to  the  same  effect,  until  the  determined 
proceedings  of  all  ranks  and  classes  of  the  people,  connected 
with  the  operation  of  the  non-important  agreements,  left  no 
further  room  for  ministerial  procrastination. 

The  British  Minister  now  became  alarmed,  and  trembled 
for  the  consequences  of  his  political  intolerance.  He  had  no 
passage  to  retreat  by  and  after  every  struggle  which  circum- 
stances could  aclmit  of,  the  British  Cabinet  at  length  came 
to  a  resolution,  that  ' '  something  must  be  done  to  tranquilize 
Ireland."  The  King  was  informed  of  their  determination, 
and  was  prevailed  upon  to  accede  to  it.  His  Majesty  had  re- 
ceived a  severe  shock  by  the  unexpected  events  of  the  Ameri- 
can contest,  and  the  additional  mortification  of  compulsory 
concessions  to  Ireland  was  little  calculated  to  tranquilize  his 
feelings.  However,  absolute  necessity  required  his  acquies- 
ence  and  it  was  finally  determined,  by  the  executive  Power  of 
Great  Britain,  to  adopt  means  if  not  altogether  to  satisfy,  at 
least  to  conciliate  and  to  concede  considerably  to  Ireland. 

From  this  determination,  the  affairs  in  the  British  Empire 
began  to  wear  a  new  aspect;  the  day  was  fast  approaching 
when  England,  for  the  first  time,  must  condescend  to  acknowl- 
edge her  own  errors,  and  in  the  face  of  Europe,  to  humble 
herself  before  a  people,  who  had  for  six  centuries  been  tlie 
slaves  of  her  power  rather  than  the  subjects  of  her  affection. 

Lord  North  had  now  a  more  difficult  task  to  perform  than 
he  at  first  conceived,  to  recant  his  avowed  principles,  to  hum- 
ble the  pride  of  his  own  country,  and  submit  to  the  justice  of 
another,  and  above  all,  to  justify  his  own  conduct,  which  had 
reduced  both  countries  to  that  state  which  required  those  con- 
cessions ;  an  awful  lesson  to  all  Governments,  how  cautiously 
they  should  arrogate  to  themselves  a  dominion,  of  which  the 
basis  was  power  and  the  superstructure  injustice. 

But  all  subterfuge  had  ended,  and  on  the  24th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1782,  his  Majesty  ascended  the  throne  to  proclaim  his 
first  substantial  act  of  grace  to  the  Irish  nation,  and  to  call 
the  immediate  attention  of  his  British  Parliament  to  the  situa- 
tion of  that  country,  but  his  Majesty  obviously  insinuated  that 
his  attention  to  Ireland  was  attracted  by  a  consideration  for 
the  safety  of  Great  Britain  and  that  the  benefits  to  be  extended 


In  thf-  Days  of  Orattan  ^^^ 

to  Ireland  sliould  be  only  sueli  as  wonld  be  for  the  common  in- 
terest, not  of  Ireland  abstractedly,  but  of  all  his  dommions, 
and  by  that  very  act  of  conceding  to  Ireland,  he  virtually  as- 
serted the  supremacy  of  the  British  Parliament. 

This  speech  was  immediately  attended  to  by  the  British 
Parliament;  the  opposition  received  it  as  a  triumph  over  the 
Minister,  and  gladly  acceded  to  a  declaration  which  pro- 
claimed the  imbecility  and  misconduct  of  the  Cabinet.  An 
actual  insurrection  in  Ireland-the  certain  consequence  of 
further  inattention-would  have  certainly  deprived  the  Min- 
ister of  his  station,  and  perhaps  eventually  of  his  head. 

A  coincidence  of  events  thus  united  two  hostile  interests 
in  one  honest  object;  and  Ireland  was  destined  to  receive, 
through  the  ambition  of  one  party,  and  the  error  of  another, 
those  rights  which  she  had  so  long  in  vain  solicited  from  then- 
justice. 

This  speech  was  immediately  followed  by  the  measures 
recommended  by  his  Majesty,  and  the  same  Parliament  which 
had  so  repeatedly  withheld  the  just  rights  of  Ireland,  now 
thought  that  they  could  not  too  hastily  accede  to  her  claims ; 
and  hardly  a  day  was  omitted,  till  the  proposed  arrangement 
was  proceeded  on. 

Messages  were  sent  over  to  Ireland  to  announce  the  happy 
tidings  to  the  people,  and  emissaries  were  dispersed  over 
every  part  of  the  kingdom,  to  blazon  the  liberality  and  justice 
of  Great  Britain. 

The  Minister,  however,  justly  suspecting,  that  so  soon  as 
the  paroxysm  of  Irish  gratitude,  for  this  unaccustomed  con- 
descension should  subside,  and  give  way  to  calm  reflection, 
that  nation  could  not  avoid  percei\dng,  that  until  their  consti- 
tution became  independent,  and  that  the  usurpation  of 
England  should  be  altogether  acknowledged,  these  favors 
could  have  no  stability,  and  might  be  revoked  at  a  more  favor- 
able opportunity,  by  the  same  authority  which  originally  con- 
ceded them. 

To  obviate  these  feelings,  the  Minister  continued  the  Com- 
mittee on  Irish  affairs  open  from  time  to  time,  now  and  then 
passing  a  resolution  in  favor  of  that  country,  and  thus  en- 
deavoring to  wear  out  the  session,  which  he  no  doubt,  intended 
should  terminate  his  favors. 

The  whole  nation  at  length  perceived  the  duplicity  of 
proceedings  which,  while  they  purported  to  extend  benefits 


384  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

to  Ireland,  asserted  the  paramount  authority  of  Great  Britain, 
and  converted  its  acts  of  concession  into  declaratory  statutes 
of  its  own  supremacy. 

Reasoning  of  this  nature  soon  made  a  deep  impression 
on  the  jDublic  mind,  and  meetings  were  held  throughout  the 
kingdom  to  declare  the  national  feeling  on  this  important 
subject ;  fourteen  counties  at  once  avowed  their  determination 
to  tear  down  these  barriers  which  excluded  them  from  a  full 
participation  of  the  British  constitution,  and  to  establish  at 
the  risk  of  their  lives  and  fortunes,  the  independence  of  the 
Irish  legislature,  beyond  the  power  of  British  re-assumption. 

This  spirit  and  this  determination  spread  themselves  uni- 
versally amongst  the  people;  the  cry  of  "Free  Trade"  was 
now  accompanied  with  that  of  "Free  Parliament,"  and  that 
patriotic  enthusiasm  which  had  so  effectually  asserted  the 
commerce  of  Ireland,  now  arose  with  double  vigor  to  assert 
its  constitution. 

The  Volunteer  army,  in  the  meantime,  rapidly  advanced 
in  discipline  and  numbers;  the  success  which  had  attended 
this  first  effort  of  their  steadiness  acted  as  a  powerful  incite- 
ment to  the  continuation  of  their  exertion;  they  felt,  with 
exultation,  that  at  the  very  time  they  were  in  arms,  without 
the  authority  of  the  Crown,  or  control  of  their  Sovereign,  his 
Majesty,  from  his  throne,  condescended  to  pass  unqualified 
eulogiums  on  the  loyalty  and  fidelity  of  the  people;  expres- 
sions which,  if  considered  with  reference  to  the  King,  were 
gracious ;  but  with  reference  to  the  Government,  which  framed 
them,  were  clearly  intended  as  an  anodyne  to  lull  that  spirit 
which  durst  not  be  encountered. 

Provincial  reviews  of  the  Volunteer  armies  were  now 
adopted,  and  a  more  regular  staff  appointed  to  the  general 
officers ;  new  trains  of  artillery  were  formed ;  that  of  Belfast 
was  brought  to  considerable  perfection.  Earl  Charlemont 
was  called  on  to  review  the  Northern  army;  on  his  tour  he 
was  attended  by  many  persons  of  the  highest  distinction,  and 
his  suite  had  all  the  appearance  of  military  dignity  and  na- 
tional importance.  His  Lordship  returned  to  review  the 
Leinster  corps  in  Dublin.  His  aides-de-camp  were  men  of  the 
highest  character  and  of  the  first  ability.  Barry  Yelverton, 
Hussey  Burgh  and  Mr.  Grattan,  were  on  his  staff. 

The  Volunteer  army  had  acquired  the  discipline  of  an 
efficient  force,  and  at  that  period  amounted  to  above  eighty 


In  tiif,  Days  of  Orattan  335 

thousand  soldiers,  ready  for  actual  service,  aided  by  the  zeal, 
the  prayers,  and  the  co-operation  of  nearly  five  millions  un- 
armed inhabitants. 

The  British  Government,  which  had  supposed  that  enough 
had  been  done,  if  not  to  satisfy,  at  least  somewhat  to  disunite 
the  Irish  people,  now  perceived  how  ill  they  had  calculated 
on  the  character  of  that  nation,  and  felt,  with  pain  and  dis- 
appointment, the  futility  of  their  designs,  and  the  feebleness 
of  their  authority. 

Grave  and  most  important  circumstances  now  opened  to 
the  public  view,  and  imperatively  concurred  to  put  the  con- 
stitutional claims  of  Ireland  directly  in  issue  with  the  British 
legislature. 

The  army  in  Ireland  had  been  under  the  regulations  of  a 
British  statute,  and  the  hereditary  revenue  of  the  Crown 
with  the  aid  of  a  perpetual  mutiny  bill,  enabled  the  British 
Government  to  command  at  all  times  a  standing  army  in  Ire- 
land, without  the  authority  or  the  control  of  its  Parliament. 

This  unconstitutional  power,  hitherto  almost  unnoticed  in 
Ireland  now  that  the  principles  of  liberty  had  been  dissemi- 
nated amongst  the  people,  and  that  an  independent  army  of 
Irishmen  had  been  organized,  became  a  subject  of  general 
dissatisfaction.  Some  patriotic  magistrates  determined  to 
make  a  stand  upon  that  point,  and  to  bring  the  legality  of  the 
British  statutes,  as  operating  in  Ireland,  into  issue,  through 
the  medium  of  their  own  conduct,  in  refusing  to  obey  them. 

To  effect  this  measure,  they  determined  to  resist  the  au- 
thority of  the  British  mutiny  act,  and  by  refusing  to  billet 
soldiers,  under  the  provisions  of  that  statute,  solicited  com- 
plaints against  themselves,  for  the  purpose  of  trying  the 
question. 

This  measure  would  at  once  have  put  Ireland  and  the 
usurpation  of  Great  Britain  in  direct  issue;  but  the  Irish 
judges  were  then  dependent  upon  the  Crown ;  they  held  their 
offices  during  pleasure  only;  judges  might  differ  with  the 
juries,  the  people  with  them  both,  and  the  result  of  a  trial 
of  such  a  question  in  such  a  way,  was  considered  by  all  parties 
as  too  precarious  to  hazard  the  experiment. 

The  career  of  independence,  however,  proceeded  with  irre- 
sistible impetuosity;  a  general  feeling  arose  that  a  crisis  was 
fast  approaching,  when  the  true  principles  of  the  Irish  con- 
stitution must  be  decisively  determined. 


336  Ireland's  CROvm  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Though  the  regular  forces  and  the  Volunteer  armj  were 
on  the  most  amicable  terms,  yet  jealousies  might  eventually 
be  widened  into  a  breach,  pregnant  with  the  most  disastrous 
consequences.  This  was  an  extremity  the  Viceroy  determined 
to  avoid,  and  orders  were  issued  to  the  army  to  show  every 
possible  mark  of  respect  to  the  Volunteers;  their  officers  re- 
ceived the  usual  military  salute  from  the  regular  soldiers, 
and  at  the  request  of  the  Volunteers  a  few  troops  of  cavalry 
were  ordered  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant  to  assist  in  keeping  the 
Volunteer  lines  at  a  review  in  the  Phoenix  Park.  But  an 
accidental  circumstance  some  time  afterwards  occurred,  which 
showed  the  necessity  for  cultivating  that  cordiality,  on  the 
continuation  of  which  the  tranquillity  of  the  nation  so  entirely 
depended. 

Lieutenant  Doyne,  of  the  second  regiment  of  Horse,  march- 
ing to  relieve  the  guards  in  Dublin  Castle  at  the  head  of  the 
cavalry,  came  accidentally  on  Essex  Bridge,  directly  at  right 
angles  with  a  line  of  Volunteer  infantry  commanded  by  Lord 
Altamont.  An  instant  embarrassment  took  place;  one  party 
must  halt  or  the  other  could  not  pass;  neither  would  recede— 
etiquette  seemed  likely  to  get  the  better  of  prudence— the 
cavalry  advanced;  the  Volunteers  continued  their  progress 
till  they  were  nearly  in  contact ;  never  did  a  more  critical  mo- 
ment exist  in  Ireland.  Had  one  drop  of  blood  been  shed, 
through  the  impetuosity  of  either  officer,  even  in  that  silly 
question  of  precedence,  the  Irish  Volunteers  would  have  beat 
to  arms,  from  north  to  south,  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom, 
and  British  connection  would  certainly  have  been  shaken  to  its 
very  foundation. 

As  the  cavalry  advanced,  Lord  Altamont  commanded  his 
corps  to  continue  their  march,  and  incline  their  bayonets,  so 
as  to  be  ready  to  defend  their  line.  The  cavalry  officer,  wisely 
reflecting,  that  by  the  pause  even  of  a  single  moment,  every 
possibility  of  disagreement  would  be  obviated,  halted  his  men 
for  an  instant ;  the  Volunteers  passed  on,  and  the  affair  ended 
without  further  difficulty. 

This  circumstance,  however  trivial,  was  quickly  circulated, 
and  increased  the  public  clamor.  Resolutions  were  entered 
into  by  almost  every  military  corps,  and  every  corjoorate  body, 
that  they  would  no  longer  obey  any  laws,  save  those  enacted  by 
the  Kings,  Lords,  and  Commons  of  Ireland;  and  this  spirit 
gradually  embraced  the  whole  population,  till  at  length  it 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  337 

ended  in  the  celebrated  resolutions  of  Dungannon,  which  es- 
tablished the  short  lived  independence  of  the  nation. 

William,  Dnke  of  Leiuster,  had  long  been  the  favorite  and 
the  patron  of  the  Irish  people,  and  never  did  the  j)hysiogno- 
mist  enjoy  a  more  fortunate  elucidation  of  his  science;  the 
softness  of  philanthropy,  the  placidity  of  temper,  the  openness 
of  sincerity,  the  sympathy  of  friendship,  and  the  ease  of  in- 
tegrity, stamped  corresponding  impressions  on  his  artless 
countenance,  and  left  but  little  to  conjecture  as  to  the  compo- 
sition of  his  character. 

His  elevated  rank  and  extensive  connections  gave  him  a 
paramount  lead  in  Irish  politics,  which  his  marked  talents 
would  not  otherwise  have  justified;  though  his  capacity  was 
respectable,  it  was  not  brilliant,  and  his  abilities  were  not 
adapted  to  the  highest  class  of  political  pre-eminence.  Op. 
public  subjects  his  conduct  sometimes  wanted  energy,  and 
his  pursuits  perseverance;  in  some  points  he  was  weak,  and 
in  some  instances  erroneous,  but  in  all  he  was  honest;  from 
the  day  of  his  maturity  to  the  moment  of  his  dissolution  he 
was  the  undeviating  friend  of  the  Irish  nation ;  he  considered 
its  interests  and  his  own  indissolubly  connected;  alive  to  the 
oppressions  and  miseries  of  the  i3eople,  his  feeling  heart  par- 
ticipated in  their  misfortunes,  and  felt  the  smart  of  every 
lash  which  the  scourge  of  power  inflicted  on  his  country.  As 
a  soldier  and  as  a  patriot  he  performed  his  duties,  and  in  his 
plain  and  honorable  disposition  was  found  collected  a  happy 
specimen  of  those  qualities  which  best  compose  the  character 
of  an  Irish  gentleman. 

He  took  an  early  and  active  part  in  promoting  the  forma- 
tion and  discipline  of  the  Volunteer  associations;  he  raised 
many  corps  and  commanded  the  Dublin  Army.  The  ancient 
celebrity  of  his  family,  the  vast  extent  of  his  possessions,  and 
his  affability  in  private  intercourse,  co-operated  with  his  own 
popularity  in  extending  his  influence,  and  few  persons  ever 
enjoyed  a  more  general  and  merited  influence  amongst  the 
Irish  people. 

The  Irish  Catholics,  at  this  period,  were  much  attached 
to  the  Geraldines,  and  pursued  a  conduct  so  meritorious  that 
even  the  bitterest  enemies  of  that  body  acknowledged  the  un- 
common merit  of  their  conduct ;  their  open  friends  multiplied, 
their  secret  enemies  diminished,  and  they  gradually  worked 
themselves  into  the  favor  and  confidence  of  their  Protestant 
countrymen,  though  loaded  with  severe  restrictions,  though 


338  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Rosks 

put  out  of  the  pale  of  the  British  constitution,  and  groaning 
under  the  most  cruel  and  unjust  oppression,  they  were  active 
and  patriotic;  they  forgot  the  tyranny  under  which  they 
groaned,  and  only  felt  the  chains  which  fettered  and  op- 
pressed their  country ;  a  general  union  of  all  sects  seemed  to 
be  cementing;  the  animosity  of  ages  was  sinking  into  oblivion, 
and  it  was  reserved  for  the  incendiaries  of  a  later  period  to 
revive  that  barbarous  sectarian  discord;  a  weapon,  without 
which  the  British  Government  would  have  ever  found  Ireland 
too  proud  for  the  influence  of  power,  and  too  strong  for  the 
grasp  of  annexation. 

The  doctrine  of  pure  democracy  was  then  but  a  weak 
exotic,  to  which  the  heat  of  civil  war  in  America  had  given 
the  principle  of  vegetation.  In  Ireland  it  was  uncongenial  to 
the  minds,  and  unadapted  to  the  character  of  the  people;  and 
during  the  whole  progress  of  those  events,  which  preceded  the 
attainment  of  Irish  independence,  its  progress  was  only  ob- 
servable in  the  intimate  association  of  the  distant  ranks  in 
military  bodies,  and  the  idea  of  a  revolution  never  extended 
further  than  to  attain  the  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  a  free 
Parliament  and  to  remove  forever  the  ascendency  of  the 
British  Government  over  the  crown  of  Ireland. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  occurrences,  the  British  people, 
in  their  nature  jealous  and  egotistical,  still  remained  obsti- 
nately blind  to  the  true  state  of  Ireland  enjoying  the  blessings 
of  independence,  under  a  resident  monarch  and  an  unfettered 
Parliament ;  they  felt  interested  only  in  their  own  aggrandize- 
ment; their  solicitude  extended  only  to  their  own  concerns; 
and  without  reflecting  that  the  same  advantages  which  they 
so  liberally  possessed,  were  denied  to  Ireland,  they  attributed 
the  uneasiness  of  that  nation  rather  to  innate  principles  of 
disaffection,  than  the  natural  result  of  misery  and  oppression. 

Every  element  of  a  free  constitution  had  been  torn  away 
by  the  rough  hand  of  a  foreign  legislature,  enacting  laws,  to 
which  the  representatives  of  the  Irish  people  were  utter 
strangers.  Yet  this  usurpation  had  been  sanctioned  by  the 
dictum  of  a  British  judge,  who  added  to  his  reputation,  by 
giving  an  unqualified  opinion  for  Irish  slavery. 

The  salaries  of  the  judges  of  Ireland  were  then  barely 
sufficient  to  keep  them  above  want,  and  they  held  their  offices 
only  during  the  will  of  the  British  Minister,  who  might  remove 
them  at  his  pleasure;  all  Irish  justice,  therefore,  was  at  his 
control.    In  all  questions  between  the  Crown  and  the  people. 


In  the  Days  or  CIfuttan  300 

the  purity  of  the  juJge  was  consequently  suspected;  if  he 
could  not  be  corrupted,  he  might  be  cashiered,  the  dignity  of 
his  office  was  lost  in  his  dependence,  and  he  was  reduced  to 
the  sad  alternative  of  poverty  or  dishonor;  nor  was  this 
grievance  lessened  by  many  of  the  judges  being  sent  over 
from  England,  prejudiced  against  the  Irish,  and  unacquainted 
with  their  customs. 

The  Irish  Parliament  at  this  period,  met  but  once  in  two 
years,  and  in  the  British  Attorney  General  was  vested  the 
superintendence  of  their  proceedings,  and  in  the  British 
Pri\^  Council,  the  alteration  and  rejection  of  their  statutes; 
and  the  declaration  or  ruin  of  her  commerce  was  at  least  a 
matter  of  indifference,  if  not  of  triumph,  to  the  British  mo- 
nopolists. 

These  grievances,  in  themselves  almost  intolerable,  were 
greatly  aggravated  by  the  abuses  which  had  been  creeping 
into  the  executive  and  legislative  department  of  the  British 
Government,  and  infected  every  proceeding  adopted  as  to 
Ireland. 

However,  the  British  Government  found  that  resistance 
had  now  become  impossible,  and  something  more  must  be 
done.  The  Irish  Viceroy,  therefore,  was  instructed  to  act 
according  to  the  best  of  his  judgment.  Accordingly,  on  the 
9th  of  October,  1781,  he,  for  the  first  time  met  the  Irish  Par- 
liament with  a  speech  from  the  throne;  which,  though  re- 
ceived with  great  cordiality  by  the  House,  upon  a  close  inves- 
tigation, appears  a  composition  of  the  most  Jesuitical  sophis- 
try; it  complimented  the  country  on  a  prosperity  which  it 
never  enjoyed;  expressed  a  solicitude  for  its  interest  which 
was  never  experienced,  and  promised  future  favors,  which 
were  never  intended  to  be  conceded,  and  was  mingled,  at  the 
same  time  with  recommendations  the  most  vague,  and  obser- 
vations the  most  frivolous.  The  good  temper  of  the  House, 
however,  was  so  excited  by  the  cordial  assurances  it  con- 
tained, it  was  received  with  great  approbation,  and  Mr.  John 
O'Neill,  of  Shane's  Castle,  the  first  Commoner  of  Ireland, 
was  very  wisely  prevailed  upon,  by  the  Secretary,  to  move 
an  address  of  thanks  to  his  Majesty  for  this  gracious  com- 
munication of  his  minister  with  a  view  that  the  weight  and 
character  of  this  gentleman  might  excite  that  unanimity  at 
the  present  crisis  so  very  desirable,  and  which  must  be  so 
highly  advantageous  to  the  Irish  Government. 

Mr.  John  O'Neill,  descended  from  the  most  celebrated 


.340  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

chieis  of  ancient  Ireland,  bore  in  his  portly  and  graceful  mien 
indications  of  a  proud  and  illustrious  pedigree ;  the  generous 
openness  of  his  countenance,  the  grandeur  of  his  person,  and 
the  affability  of  his  address,  marked  the  dignity  of  his  char- 
acter, and  blending  with  the  benevolence  of  his  disposition, 
formed  him  one  of  the  first  Commoners  of  the  Irish  nation, 
a  rank  from  which  he  so  unfortunately  sunk,  by  humbling  his 
name  to  the  level  of  purchased  peerages,  and  descending  from 
the  highest  bench  of  the  Commons  to  the  lowest  among  the 
Nobles. 

In  public  and  in  private  life  Mr.  O'Neill  was  equally  cal- 
culated to  command  respect,  and  conciliate  affection;  high 
minded,  open,  and  well  educated,  he  clothed  the  sentiments 
of  a  patriot  in  all  the  language  of  a  gentleman;  his  abilities 
were  moderate,  but  his  understanding  was  sound ;  unsuspect- 
ing, because  he  was  himself  incapable  of  deception,  he  too 
frequently  trusted  to  the  judgment  of  others,  that  conduct 
which  would  have  been  far  more  respectably  regulated  by  his 
own;  though  he  did  not  shrink  from  the  approbation  of  the 
court,  he  preferred  the  applauses  of  his  country,  and  formed 
one  of  the  most  perfect  models  of  an  aristocratic  patriot. 

This  step,  however,  was  instantly  succeeded  by  a  measure, 
which  did  honor  to  the  patriotic  spirit  of  Mr.  O'Neill,  and  pre- 
served his  character  in  that  station,  from  which  it  might  have 
sunk  had  he  concluded  his  observations,  by  the  fulsome  and 
indecisive  address  which  he  had  so  injudiciously  patronized. 

As  soon  as  the  address  to  his  Majesty  has  passed,  Mr. 
O'Neill  moved  a  resolution  of  thanks  to  ''all  the  Volunteers 
of  Ireland  for  their  exertions  and  continuance."  This  mo- 
tion was  received  with  exultation  by  the  opposition  and  cre- 
ated a  new  embarrassment  to  the  Minister.  To  return  thanks 
to  an  independent  army  for  their  exertions  and  continuance, 
which  acknowledged  no  military  superiority^,  and  called,  with 
arms  in  their  hands,  upon  their  Irish  king  to  restore  their 
civil  rights  and  plundered  constitution,  was  a  step,  undoubt- 
edly, not  warranted  by  precedent,  but  prompt  decision  was 
necessary,  and  the  then  Mr.  John  Fitzgibbon,  in  one  of  the 
first  efforts  of  that  decided  but  inconsiderate  impetuosity 
which  distinguished  him  throughout  life,  harshly  opposed  Mr. 
O'Neill's  motion,  but  by  endeavoring  to  support  the  Govern- 
ment he  deeply  embarrassed  it ;  and  Mr.  Scott,  the  Attorney 
General,  on  that  occasion  showed,  in  his  strongest  colors  the 
advantages  of  well  regulated  policy.    He  instantly  acceded 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  341 

to  what  he  could  uot  oppose,  and  gave  an  appearance  of  full 
approbation  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  to  an  address  of 
thanks  to  those  men,  whom  nothing  but  that  political  duplicity 
which  he  so  amply  possessed,  could  have  induced  him  to  con- 
sent to. 

iAll  opposition  to  the  motion,  therefore,  fell  to  the  ground. 
Mr.  Fitzgibbon,  who,  however,  never  relinquished  an  object, 
from  a  conviction  of  its  impropriety,  though  he  persisted  in 
his  opposition,  was  reluctantly  necessitated  to  give  way,  and 
an  address  to  the  armed  Volunteers  of  Ireland  was  unani- 
mously voted,  and  directed  to  be  circulated  throughout  all 
Ireland,  and  to  be  communicated  by  the  Sheriffs  of  the  coun- 
ties to  the  corps  within  their  bailiwicks. 

Never  had  a  measure  been  adopted  which  gave  so  sudden 
and  singular  a  change  to  the  aspect  of  affairs  in  Ireland.  It 
seemed  to  reverse  all  the  maxims  of  former  Governments, 
and  gave  to  the  people  an  ascendency  they  had  never  expected. 
It  legalized  a  military  levy,  independent  of  the  Sovereign,  and 
obliged  the  Ministers  to  applaud  the  exertions  and  court  the 
continuance  of  an  army  whose  dispersion  was  the  leading 
object  of  all  their  councils. 

This  resolution  made  a  considerable  progress  towards  the 
actual  emancipation  of  the  Irish  people ;  it  brought  down  the 
British  Government  to  the  feet  of  the  Volunteers,  and  raised 
the  Volunteers  above  the  supremacy  of  Britain,  by  a  direct 
Parliamentary  approbation  of  self-armed,  self-governed,  and 
self-disciplined  associations,  whose  motto  bespoke  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  revolution  of  which  England  had  given 
the  precedent. 

It  also  taught  the  people  the  strengi;h  of  their  own  arms 
and  the  timidity  of  their  opponents.  They  perceived,  by  the 
unanimous  adoption  of  this  resolution,  that  the  people  had 
only  to  march,  and  as  certainly  to  conquer.  It  was,  in  fact,  a 
flag  of  truce  from  the  Minister,  and  proved  to  the  world,  that 
unable  to  contend  he  was  preparing  to  capitulate. 

In  reflecting  on  the  circumstances  which  led  the  Govern- 
ment to  this  concession,  observations  on  the  moral  and  phys- 
ical strength  of  the  nation  must  naturally  occur.  The  Irish 
nation,  saturated  with  patriotic  spirit,  by  a  union  of  its  men- 
tal and  corporeal  energies,  had  united  in  its  narrow  focus 
all  the  moral  and  physical  powers  of  which  a  people  are 
susceptible. 


CHAPTER  VL 

THE    CONVENTION    AT    DUNCAN NON  — THE    DECLABATION    OF    IRISH 

RIGHTS. 

An  explicit  and  detailed  declaration  of  the  people's  rights 
was  now  demanded  in  every  part  of  the  nation;  the  press 
teemed  with  i^ublications  on  the  subjects  best  calculated  to 
call  patriotism  into  activity;  the  doctrines  of  Swift,  of  Moly- 
neux,  and  of  Lucas,  were  re-published  in  abstract  pamphlets 
and  placed  in  the  hands  of  every  man  who  could  read  them ; 
their  principles  were  recognized  and  disseminated;  the  Irish 
mind  became  enlightened,  and  a  revolution  in  literature  was 
made  auxiliary  to  a  revolution  in  liberty. 

Delegates  from  all  the  armed  bodies  of  the  people  were 
regularly  appointed  by  their  respective  corps,  and  met,  for 
the  purpose  of  giving  additional  weight  and  importance  to 
their  resolves,  by  conjointly  declaring  their  sentiments  and 
their  determination.  These  meetings,  first  confined  to  dis- 
tricts, soon  multiplied,  and  extended  themselves  to  the  coun- 
ties ;  thence  to  provinces,  and  at  length  to  the  united  nation ; 
their  deliberations  became  regular  and  public,  and  their  reso- 
lutions decisive,  and  at  length  the  celebrated  convention  at 
Dungannon  was  convoked,  which  formed  a  most  remarkable 
incident  of  Irish  history,  and  one  of  the  wisest  and  most  tem- 
perate measures,  that  ever  signalized  the  good  sense,  good 
conduct  and  the  spirit  of  a  people. 

The  northern  counties  of  Ireland,  though  not  more  spirited, 
more  regular  and  more  intelligent  than  the  other  provinces, 
took  the  lead  in  this  celebrated  meeting.  The  armed  asso* 
ciations  of  Ulster  first  appointed  delegates,  to  declare  the  sen- 
timents of  their  province,  in  a  general  assembly;  and,  on  the 
15th  day  of  February,  1782,  one  of  the  most  solemn  and  im- 
pressive scenes  which  Ireland  had  ever  witnessed,  took  place 
in  the  inconsiderable  town  of  Dungannon. 

There  were  comparatively  but  few  Roman  Catholics  in  the 
northern  counties  of  Ireland,  and  still  fewer  of  the  strictly 
Protestant  religion.  The  population  of  Ulster  was  principally 
Dissenters,  a  people  differing  in  character  from  the  aboriginal 
inhabitants,  fond  of  reform,  and  not  hostile  to  equality,  ex- 

343 


344  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

amining  the  constitution  by  its  theory  and  seeking  a  recur- 
rence to  original  principles,  j^rone  to  intolerancy,  without 
being  absolutely  intolerants,  and  disposed  to  republicanism, 
without  being  absolutely  republicans ;  of  Scottish  origin,  they 
partook  of  many  of  the  peculiarities  of  that  hard  people; 
Ijenetrating,  harshminded,  persevering,  selfish,  frugal;  by 
their  industry  they  acquired  individual,  and  by  individual 
political  independence ;  as  brave,  though  less  impetuous  than 
the  western  and  southern  Irish,  they  are  more  invariably  for- 
midable; less  slaves  to  their  passions  than  to  their  interests, 
their  habits  are  generally  temperate,  their  dress  quaint,  blunt, 
and  ungracious,  their  dialect  harsh  and  disagreeable,  their 
jDersons  hardy  and  vigorous.  With  these  qualities  the  north- 
ern Irish  convoked  delegates  from  twenty-five  thousand  sol- 
diers to  proclaim  the  sentiments  of  the  Irish  people. 

This  celebrated  meeting  was  conducted  with  decorum,  firm- 
ness and  discretion  unknown  to  the  popular  meetings  of  other 
times  and  of  other  countries.  KSteady,  silent  and  determined, 
two  hundred  delegated  Volunteers,  clothed  in  the  uniform  and 
armed  with  the  arms  of  their  respective  regiments,  marched, 
two  and  two,  to  the  Church  of  Dungannon,  a  place  selected 
for  the  sanctity  of  nature,  to  give  the  greater  solemnity  to  this 
memorable  proceeding. 

The  entrance  of  the  delegates  into  that  sacred  place  was 
succeeded  by  an  awful  silence,  which  pervaded  the  whole 
assembly;  the  glittering  arms  of  two  hundred  patriots,  for 
the  first  time  selected  by  their  countrjanen,  to  proclaim  the 
wrongs  and  grievances  of  the  people,  was  in  itself  a  scene  so 
uncommon  and  so  interesting,  that  many  of  those  men,  who 
were  ready  in  a  moment  to  shed  the  last  drop  of  their  blood 
in  the  cause  of  their  country  as  soldiers,  were  softened  into 
tears,  while  contemplatively  they  surveyed  that  assembly,  in 
which  they  were  about  to  pledge  themselves  to  measures  irre- 
vocably committing  Ireland  to  a  conflict  with  her  sister  nation 
—the  result  of  which  must  determine  the  future  fate  of  them- 
selves, their  children,  and  their  country. 

This  memorable  assemblage  of  patriotism  and  discretion, 
whose  proceedings  soon  became  a  theme  of  eulogium  through- 
out every  nation  of  Europe,  was  composed  of  men  not  of  an 
ordinary  description,  they  were  generally  persons  of  much 
consideration— selected  for  character  and  abilities— many  of 
them  persons  of  high  rank  and  large  fortune,  some  of  them 


In  the  Days  of  Gkattan  345 

members  of  Parliament,  and  all  of  them  actuated  by  one  heart, 
filled  with  one  spirit,  and  determined  upon  one  procedure. 

iVmongst  tho«e  who,  at  this  meeting,  iirst  distinguished 
themselves,  was  Mr.  Francis  Dobbs,  who  afterwards  became 
a  person  of  singular  reputation,  the  mere  incidents  of  whose 
life  have  nothing  to  engage  diffusely  the  pen  of  an  historian; 
no  great  transitions  of  rank,  no  deep  depressions,  no  unex- 
pected elevation,  no  blaze  of  genius,  no  acts  of  heroism  dis- 
tinguished his  moderate  and  peaceable  progress  through  the 
world,  but  the  extraordinary  bent  of  his  understanding,  and 
the  whimsical,  though  splendid  extravagances  of  his  eccentric 
mind  introduced  him  into  a  notice  which  the  common  exercises 
of  his  talent  would  never  have  affected. 

Francis  Dobbs  was  a  gentleman  of  respectable  family  but 
of  moderate  fortune,  he  had  been  educated  for  the  bar,  where 
he  afterwards  acquired  some  reputation  as  a  constitutional 
lawyer,  and  much  as  a  zealous  advocate,  but  his  intellect  was  of 
an  extraordinary  description;  he  seemed  to  possess  two  dis- 
tinct minds,  the  one  adapted  to  the  duties  of  his  profession  and 
the  usual  offices  of  society ;  the  other,  diverging  from  its  nat- 
ural centre,  led  him  through  wilds  and  ways,  rarely  frequented 
by  the  human  understanding,  entangled  him  in  a  maze  of 
contemplative  deduction  from  revelation  to  futurity,  and  fre- 
quently decoyed  his  judgment  beyond  the  frontiers  of  reason. 
His  singularities,  however,  seemed  so  separate  from  his  sober 
judgment,  that  each  followed  its  appropriate  occupation  with- 
out interruption  from  the  other,  and  left  the  theologist  and 
the  prophet  sufficiently  distinct  from  the  lawyer  and  the  gen- 
tleman. 

There  were  but  few  virtues  he  did  not,  in  some  degree, 
partake  of,  nor  were  there  any  vices  discernible  in  his  disposi- 
tion; though  obstinate  and  headstrong,  he  was  gentle  and 
philanthropic,  and,  with  an  ardent  temper,  he  was  inoffensive 
as  an  infant. 

By  nature  a  patriot  and  an  enthusiast,  by  science  a  lawyer 
and  an  historian,  on  common  topics  he  was  not  singular,  and 
on  subjects  of  literature  was  informed  and  instructed;  but 
there  is  sometimes  a  key  in  the  human  mind  which  cannot 
be  touched  without  sounding  those  wild  chords  which  never 
fail  to  interrupt  the  harmony  of  reason,  and  when  expatiating 
on  the  subjects  of  antichrist  and  the  millennium,  his  whole 
nature  seemed  to  undergo  a  change,  his  countenance  bright- 


346  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ened  up  as  if  by  the  complacent  dignity  of  a  prophetic  spirit, 
his  language  became  earnest,  sometimes  sublime,  always  ex- 
traordinary and  not  unfrequently  extravagant. 

These  doctrines,  however,  he  made  auxiliaries  to  his  view 
of  politics,  and  persuaded  himself  of  its  application  to  Ireland 
and  the  infallibility  of  his  reasoning.  Mankind  has  an  eternal 
proiJensity  to  be  seduced  by  the  lure  of  new  sects,  and  en- 
tangled in  the  trammels  of  inexplicable  mysteries ;  and  prob- 
lems of  theology,  in  their  nature  incapable  of  demonstration, 
are  received  with  avidity  by  the  greediness  of  superstition. 

Yet  on  these  mysterious  subjects  Mr.  Dobbs  seemed  to  feel 
no  difficulty,  he  devoted  a  great  proportion  of  his  time  to 
the  development  of  revelation,  and  attempted  to  throw  strange 
and  novel  lights  on  divine  prophecy.  This  was  the  string  on 
which  his  reason  seemed  often  to  vibrate,  and  his  position  all 
tended  to  one  extraordinary  conclusion. 

''That  Ireland  was  decreed  by  heaven  lo  remain  forever 
an  independent  state,  and  was  destined  to  the  supernatural 
honor  of  receiving  the  antichrist";  and  this  he  labored  to 
prove  from  passages  of  Revelation. 

At  the  Dungannon  meeting  Mr.  Dobbs  first  appeared  as  a 
delegate  from  the  northern  Volunteer  corps,  he  was  after- 
wards appointed  a  member  of  the  national  convention  of  Ire- 
land for  the  province  of  Ulster,  and  will  be  found  throughout 
the  whole  course  of  Irish  events,  a  distinguished  and  ardent 
advocate  for  the  constitutional  lights  of  the  country. 

The  deliberations  of  the  Dungannon  meeting  were  contin- 
ued for  several  days  without  interruption  or  intermission ;  its 
discussions  were  calm  and  dignified,  its  resolutions  firm,  mod- 
erate, and  patriotic.  Every  member  of  that  assembly,  on 
taking  his  seat  in  the  awful  hall  felt  the  great  importance  and 
novelty  of  his  delegation,  as  the  elected  representative  of  the 
united  civil  and  military  bodies,  blending  the  distinct  func- 
tions of  the  armed  soldier  and  of  the  deliberative  citizen,  to 
protect  his  country  against  the  still  more  unconstitutional 
coalescence  of  a  mercenary  army  and  an  external  legislature. 

Colonel  Irwin,  a  northern  gentleman  of  the  highest  re- 
spectability, of  a  discreet,  moderate,  and  judicious  though 
active,  steady,  and  spirited  character,  was  called  to  the  chair 
by  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  assembly,  and  conducted  him- 
self in  that  most  important  presidency,  throughout  the  whole 
of  the  business,  with  a  moderation  and  a  decorum,  which 


In  the  Days  of  Gkattan  347 

always  aid  a  cause,  and  never  fail  to  give  weight  to  the  claims 
of  a  people. 

At  length,  on  the  15th  of  i^'ebiuaiy,  1782,  this  assembly 
finally  framed  and  agreed  upon  that  celebrated  declaration  of 
rights  and  of  grievances,  under  which  the  Irish  nation  had 
so  long  been  languishing,  and  announced  to  the  world  the  sub- 
stantial causes  by  which  its  commerce  had  been  so  long  re- 
strained, and  every  trace  of  a  free  constitution  almost  ob- 
literated. 

To  give  the  complexion  of  constitutional  legality  to  the 
unprecedented  organization  of  this  meeting,  it  was  thought 
judicious  to  refer  pointedly  to  the  first  principle  of  popular 
freedom  universally  admitted,  established,  and  acted  upon  in 
England  by  the  Revolution,  namely,  *Vthe  people's  rights  of 
preparatory  resistance  to  unconstitutional  oppression."  The 
assembly  therefore  recognized  that  principle  by  its  first  reso- 
lution :  ' '  That  citizens,  by  learning  the  use  of  arms,  abandon 
none  of  their  civil  rights,"  thereby  asserting  the  otherwise 
questionable  legality  of  a  self-created  military  body,  exercis- 
ing also  the  deliberative  functions  of  a  civil  delegation,  and 
boldly  bottoming  the  assertion  of  that  right  upon  the  very 
same  principle  which  the  prince  of  Orange  had  used  to  usurp 
the  throne  of  England,  ''the  popular  expulsion  of  a  tyrannical 
monarch." 

This  resolution  was  also  wisely  adapted  to  check  all  legal 
proceedings,  or  even  ministerial  cavil,  as  to  the  constitution- 
ality of  their  meeting,  by  putting  into  direct  issue  with  the 
British  Government  a  previous  question  of  right,  which,  if 
contested,  must  have  drawn  into  public  discussion  and  con- 
troversy the  principles  of  the  Revolution  and  the  very  tenure 
of  the  Crown  of  England ;  for  the  English  nation  had  by  that 
Revolution  exploded  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience,  and 
acting  on  that  ground,  had  armed  against  their  own  sovereign, 
and  put  the  sword  of  popular  resistance  into  the  hand  of 
William,  to  cut  away  the  allegiance  of  the  Irish  people  even 
to  his  own  father. 

The  Dungannon  meeting  next  proceeded  to  denounce,  by 
subsequent  resolutions,  as  altogether  unconstitutional,  illegal, 
and  as  grievances,  all  British  legislation  over  Ireland,  the  law 
of  Poyning,  the  restraint  of  Irish  commerce,  a  permanent 
standing  army  in  Ireland,  the  dependence  of  the  superior 
judges  on  the  crown,  and  consequently  on  the  minister;  and 


348  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  assembly  finally  resolved  to  seek  a  redress  of  all  those 
grievances,  and  invited  the  armed  bodies  of  the  other  prov- 
inces of  Ireland  to  unite  with  them  in  the  glorious  cause  of 
constitutional  regeneration. 

The  most  weighty  grievances  and  claims  of  Ireland  were  by 
these  means,  in  the  mildest  and  simi3lest  language  without 
argument  or  unnecessary  observation,  consolidated  into  one 
plain  and  intelligible  body  of  resolutions,  entered  into  by  dele- 
gates from  twenty-five  thousand  Ulster  soldiers,  and  backed 
by  the  voice  of  above  a  million  of  inhabitants  of  that  prov- 
ince, combining  together  the  moral  and  physical  strength  of 
one  of  the  strongest  quarters  of  Ireland,  all  actuated  by  a 
fixed  and  avowed  determination  to  attain  redress  at  every  risk 
of  life  and  fortune,  and  headed  by  the  highest  and  most  opu- 
lent gentlemen  of  that  province,  feeling  the  claims  to  be 
equally  just  and  irresistible,  and  therefore  not  speculating  on 
success  without  substantial  grounds,  or  denouncing  griev- 
ances without  solid  and  just  foundation. 

""Whereas  it  has  been  asserted  that  Volunteers,  as  such, 
cannot  with  propriety  debate  or  give  opinions  on  j^olitical  sub- 
jects, or  the  conduct  of  parliaments  or  public  men : 

''Resolved  unanimously.  That  a  citizen,  by  learning  the 
use  of  arms,  does  not  abandon  any  of  his  civil  rights. 

* '  That  a  claim  of  any  body  of  men,  other  than  the  King, 
Lords,  and  Commons  of  Ireland,  to  make  laws  to  bind  this 
kingdom,  is  unconstitutional,  illegal,  and  a  grievance. 

''That  the  power  exercised  by  the  privy  council  of  both 
kingdoms,  under  pretence  of  the  law  of  PojTiing,  is  uncon- 
stitutional and  a  grievance. 

"That  the  ports  of  this  country  are  by  right  open  to  all 
foreign  countries,  not  at  war  with  the  King,  and  that  any 
burthens  thereupon,  or  obstructions  thereto,  save  only  by  the 
parliament  of  Ireland,  are  unconstitutional,  illegal  and  griev- 
ances. 

' '  That  a  mutiny  bill,  not  Imiited  in  point  of  duration  from 
session  to  session,  is  unconstitutional  and  a  grievance. 

"That  the  independence  of  judges  is  equally  essential  to 
the  impartial  administration  of  justice  in  Ireland,  as  in  Eng- 
land; and  that  the  refusal  or  delay  of  this  right  to  Ireland, 
makes  a  distinction  where  there  should  be  no  distinction ;  may 
excite  jealousy  where  perfect  union  should  prevail;  and  is  in 
itself  unconstitutional  and  a  grievance. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  340 

''That  this  is  our  decided  and  unalterable  determination 
to  seek  a  redress  of  these  grievances ;  and  we  pledge  ourselves 
to  each  other,  and  to  our  country,  as  freeholders,  fellow-citi- 
zens, and  men  of  honor,  that  we  will,  at  every  ensuing  election, 
support  those  only  who  have  su2)ported  us  therein,  and  that 
we  will  use  every  constitutional  means  to  make  such  our  pur- 
suit of  redress,  speedy  and  effectual. 

"That  as  men,  and  as  Irishmen,  as  Christians,  and  as 
Protestants,  we  rejoice  in  the  relaxation  of  the  penal  laws 
against  our  Roman  Catholic  fellow-subjects ;  and  that  we  con- 
ceive the  measure  to  be  fraught  with  the  happiest  conse- 
quences to  the  union  and  j^rosperity  of  the  inhabitants  of  Ire- 
land. 

* '  That  four  members  from  each  county  of  the  province  of 
Ulster  (eleven  to  be  a  quorum)  be,  and  hereby  are  appointed, 
a  committee  till  next  general  meeting,  to  act  for  the  Vol- 
unteer corps  here  represented,  and,  as  occasion  shall  require, 

call  general  meetings  of  the  province. 

''That  the  said  committee  do  appoint  nine  of  their  mem- 
bers to  be  a  committee  in  Dublin,  in  order  to  communicate 
with  such  other  Volunteer  associations  in  the  other  provinces, 
as  they  may  think  proper  to  come  to  similar  resolutions;  and 
to  deliberate  with  them  on  the  most  constitutional  means  of 
carrying  them  into  effect." 

The  truth  and  simplicity  of  these  resolutions,  whilst  they 
defied  every  imputation  of  party  faction  or  of  revolutionary 
disloyalty,  yet  convinced  the  minister  that  the  Irish  people 
would  be  no  longer  trifled  with.  By  the  firmness  that  was 
observed  respecting  them,  the  waverings  were  steadied,  the 
too  moderate  roused,  and  the  too  ardent  moderated,  whilst 
the  adverse  were  deterred  by  an  anticipation  of  their  success. 
Adapted  to  almost  every  class,  and  to  the  disposition  of  al- 
most every  character,  th«ir  effect  through  all  Ireland  was 
electric,  and  the  consequence  fully  answered  the  most  san- 
guine hojDes,  nay  wishes,  of  their  framers. 

Having  passed  these  resolutions,  the  assembly  adjourned, 
committing  the  further  procedure  to  the  coincidence  and  zeal 
of  the  other  jirovinces  of  the  nation;  and,  with  a  discretion 
almost  unparalleled,  a  body  of  patriots,  who  might  in  one 
week  have  collected  a  military  force,  which  all  the  power  of 
England  could  not  then  have  coped  with,  and,  at  the  head  of 
an  irresistible  army  in  a  triumphant  attitude,  might  have  dic- 
tated their  own  terms  to  a  trembling  government,  by  their 


350  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

wise  and  temperate  conduct  avoided  the  horrors  of  a  civil  com- 
motion, and  deliberately  represented  to  Great  Britain  the 
grievances,  which,  by  more  hostile  proceedings,  they  could 
by  their  own  power  have  redressed  in  a  moment. 

When  a  people  are  bold  enough  to  throw  off  oppression, 
strong  enough  to  resist  it  and  wise  enough  to  be  unanimous, 
they  must  succeed.  Oppression,  though  clothed  in  all  the 
haughtiness  of  arbitrary  power,  is  ever  accompanied  by  the 
timidity  of  guilt.  On  the  contrary  a  just  resistance  to  tyranny, 
however  feeble  in  its  commencement,  acquires  strength  in  its 
progress,  the  stimulants  of  rising  liberty,  like  the  paroxysms 
of  fever,  often  communicating  a  supernatural  strength  to  a  de- 
bilitated body.  Ireland  had  arrived  at  that  crisis,  her  natural 
vigor  was  rapidly  surmounting  the  malignancy  of  her  dis- 
order, and  her  dormant  powers  at  once  burst  forth  on  an  as- 
tonished empire,  and  an  embarrassed  administration. 

By  this  time  the  national  armed  force  had  greatly  in- 
creased, not  only  in  numbers,  but  in  respectability,  and  had 
improved  not  only  in  discipline,  but  in  all  the  military  requi- 
sites for  a  regular  and  active  army. 

About  that  period  there  were  nearly  ninety  thousand  sol- 
diers ready,  armed,  disciplined,  and  regimented,  burning  with 
impatience  for  the  enjoyment  of  their  liberties,  not  acting  on 
a  wild,  enthusiastic  impulse,  but  guided  by  reason  and  depend- 
ing on  justice.  The  conduct  of  the  British  parliament  had 
taught  them  the  necessity  of  national  unanimity,  the  whole 
population  therefore  were  ready  to  be  embodied  if  necessitj^ 
required  it,  and  in  one  month  five  hundred  thousand  active  sol- 
diers might  have  been  enrolled  for  service.  They  saw  clearly 
that  Great  Britain,  by  the  consolidation  of  her  strength,  had 
risen  to  that  height  of  power,  which  alone  protected  her  from 
her  ambitious  neighbors,  and  that,  whilst  she  kept  all  her 
liberty  at  home  for  her  own  consumption,  she  was  able  to 
exercise  despotic  authority  over  every  other  quarter  of  the 
world,  which  she  governed.  It  was  therefore  only  by  the  same 
unanimity  that  Ireland  could  counteract  her;  and  all  the  ca- 
pacities and  talents  which  the  Irish  people  possessed  seemed 
to  collect  their  united  strength  for  the  cause  of  their  inde- 
pendence. 

They  had  now,  by  the  constant  discussions  of  political  sub- 
jects in  every  rank  of  society,  acquired  a  capacity  of  acute 
reasoning  on  constitutional  controversies;  their  native  elo- 
quence breaking  forth  at  every  meeting  nourished  their  native 


In  the  Days  of  Ghattan  351 

ardor,  and  almost  every  peasant  became  a  public  orator. 
"Kings"  (said  a  private  volunteer  at  one  of  those  provincial 
assemblies  in  Leinster)  "are,  we  now  perceive  but  human  in- 
stitutions. Ministers  are  but  human  institutions,  but  Liberty 
is  a  right  Divine,  it  is  the  earliest  gift  from  heaven,  the  char- 
acter of  our  birthright,  which  human  institutions  can  never 
cancel,  without  tearing  down  the  first  and  best  decree  of  the 
Omnipotent  Creator." 

The  pulpit,  too,  from  which  fanaticism  was  expelled,  did 
not  fail  to  become  auxiliary  to  the  general  cause.  Some  dis- 
senting clergj^men  in  the  north  of  Ireland  were  particularly 
eloquent;  a  passage  in  one  of  their  sermons  deserves  to  be 
recorded. 

"My  brethren  and  brother  soldiers,"  said  the  pastor,  "let 
us,  by  prayer  and  by  humiliation  supplicate  heaven  to  grant 
our  attainment  of* that  liberty,  without  which  life  is  but  a 
prison,  and  society  a  place  of  bondage.  Our  tutelary  provi- 
dence has  permitted  that  blessing  to  be  so  long  withheld  from 
us  by  the  corrupt  and  the  unworthy  only  as  a  punishment  for 
our  past  offences,  and  a  trial  for  our  future  fortitude  and  per- 
severance. But  the  time  of  our  expiation  seems  now  to  liave 
been  completed,  a  bright  flame  has  blazed  up  amongst  the 
people,  and,  in  the  hands  of  .iustice,  lights  them  to  the  plains  of 
Virtue  and  of  Victory.  The  justice  of  our  cause  has  drawn 
down  that  flame  from  a  superior  power,  and  we  may  well 
anticipate,  that  through  its  fire,  the  priests  of  Baal  will  soon 
perish  before  the  altars  of  the  Almighty." 

Almost  every  Irish  gentleman  had  now  either  raised  a  mili- 
tary corps,  or  had  enlisted  himself  in  that  of  his  neighbor. 
Some  Roman  Catholic  gentlemen  also  took  to  arms,  and  raised 
corps  composed  solely  of  persons  of  that  persuasion,  whilst 
many  Protestants,  relinquishing  their  prejudices,  received 
their  Catholic  fellow-subjects  into  their  ranks  with  cordiality, 
and  the  whole  nation  became  almost  as  a  single  family.  The 
most  profound  peace  and  good  conduct  signalized  the  lowest 
peasantry,  the  most  perfect  and  effectual  police  was  estab- 
lished, hardly  a  public  crime  of  any  kind  was  committed  with- 
out instant  detection,  and  every  man  of  every  rank  seemed 
to  have  adopted  one  prominent  and  permanent  principle,  that 
of  uniting  good  order,  patriotism  and  firmness. 

The  love  of  liberty,  however,  is  often  palled  by  enjoyment; 
the  miseries  of  former  oppression  are  sometimes  forgotten  in 
the  views  of  avarice,  or  the  pursuits  of  ambition,  and  there 


352  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

are  too  many  instances  in  history  of  sanguinary  contests  for 
the  attainment  of  independence,  and  vohmtary  relapses  into 
the  fangs  of  tyranny.  Human  nature  is  subject  to  inconsis- 
tencies, and  man  cannot  counteract  the  errors  of  his  original 
formation;  but  when  that  inconsistency  is  the  voluntary  re- 
sult of  depraved  or  corrupted  principles,  the  weakness  be- 
comes a  vice,  and  the  object  disgusting.  Nor  can  there  be  a 
stronger  elucidation  of  this  i^osition,  or  a  more  painful  com- 
parison of  times  and  persons,  than  that  which  will  occur  in 
the  progress  of  this  narrative,  where  we  shall  discover  the 
very  same  men  who,  in  1782,  were  foresmost  in  offering  their 
lives  and  fortunes  to  attain  the  independence  of  their  country, 
metamorphosed  on  the  Union,  eighteen  years  afterwards,  into 
the  veriest  slaves  of  direct  and  shameless  corruption,  and  pub- 
licly selling  themselves,  their  connections  and  their  country, 
for  money,  for  office  or  for  title.  The  individual  proofs  of 
this  are  numerous,  indisputable  and  easily  produced ;  and  the 
comparison  will  afford  a  wholesome  lesson  for  states  and 
nations  to  look  with  more  caution  and  less  confidence  on  the 
professions  of  public  men,  who  too  frequently  remain  no 
longer  honest,  than  till  public  opinion  may  safely  be  encoun- 
tered by  plausible  pretences.  The  shouts  of  popularity  only 
gratify  the  momentary  vanity  of  man,  whilst  successful  ambi- 
tion rewards  more  substantially  his  pride,  or  fills  the  measure 
of  his  avarice.  The  instances  are  rare,  and  therefore  more 
precious,  of  perfect  purity  attending  public  character,  with-* 
out  deviation,  through  the  whole  course  of  its  career. 

Of  those  who  led  the  Volunteer  associations  in  Leinster, 
Lord  Charlemont,  the  Duke  of  Leinster,  Mr.  Grattan,  and  Mr. 
Henry  Flood  had  the  greatest  weight  and  authority;  their 
popularity  was  extreme,  and  it  was  merited. 

To  this  list  may  be  added  the  names  of  many  others,  par- 
ticularly Archdall,  Stewart,  and  Brownlow,  names  that  will 
forever  remain  engraved  on  the  tablet  of  Irish  gratitude,  as 
belonging  to  men  who  remained  steady  during  all  the  subse- 
quent ordeals  through  which  their  unfortunate  country  was 
doomed  to  pass,  and  formed  a  striking  and  melancholy  con- 
trast to  Altamont  and  Belvidere,  Shannon  and  Clanricard, 
Longfield  and  Nevil,  and  the  crowd  of  those,  whose  apostacy, 
in  1800,  has  stained  the  records  of  Irish  history,  and  tarnished 
the  character  of  Irish  patriotism.  A  dereliction  of  public 
principle  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  reflecting  that  the  ac- 
complished politician  and  polished  patriot  are  no  less  sus- 


In  the  Days  of  GrattaN  353 

ceptible  of  the  debasing  passions  of  the  human  mind  than 
the  most  humble  and  illiterate  amongst  uncultivated  society. 
High  rank  and  influence  oftener  expose  the  dormant  errors 
than  multiply  the  virtues  of  a  jjublic  character. 

As  soon  as  the  Dungannon  Volunteers  had  received  the 
concurrence  of  the  armed  associations,  the  commons  house 
of  parliament  assumed  a  new  aspect.  Its  former  submission 
and  unqualified  adulation  to  the  minister  and  the  lord  lieuten- 
ant had  departed.  The  old  supporters  of  the  government 
seemed  only  solicitious  how  they  could  diminish  their  obedi- 
ence without  sacrificing  their  connection,  and  every  successive 
debate  showed  evident  symptoms  of  an  approaching  and  de- 
cisive crisis. 

The  proceedings  of  the  people  without  doors  now  began 
to  have  their  due  weight  on  their  representatives  within ;  the 
whole  house  appeared  forming  into  new  parties,  accoraingly 
as  they  were  operated  on  by  different  degrees  of  caution,  of 
timidity,  of  patriotism,  and  of  interest ;  the  leaders  of  each 
party  became  more  conspicuous,  and  every  question,  however 
trivial,  confessed  the  unsteadiness  of  the  government,  and 
betrayed  the  embarrassment  of  its  supporters. 

Fitzgibbon  pursued  an  unvaried  course.  His  haughty  and 
inflexible  mind  despised  the  country  which  he  hoped  one  day 
to  govern.  Her  release  from  British  domination  might  also 
liberate  her  from  his  own  grasp,  and,  so  long  as  he  could,  he 
uniformly  opposed  every  measure  which  might  tend  to  her 
emancipation,  save  in  a  few  instances,  which,  by  exposing  his 
duplicity,  confirmed  his  character.  Perfectly  indifferent  as 
to  the  public,  he  every  day  gave  fresh  proofs  of  that  arbitrary 
and  impetuous  talent,  which  so  strongly  contributed  to  bring 
the  nation  to  its  end,  and  himself  to  his  conclusion,  and  he 
often  embarrassed  the  government  more  by  the  intemperance 
of  his  support  than  their  opponents  by  the  steadiness  of  their 
opposition. 

The  flame  reached  even  those  who  from  office  or  connec- 
tion were  necessitated  to  adhere  to  the  measures  of  govern- 
ment; lowering  their  usual  tone  of  arrogance  and  of  triumph, 
they  condescended  to  give  reasons  for  their  conduct,  and  ap- 
peared almost  to  court  a  supposition  that  this  adherence  was 
compulsory,  and  their  conviction  open;  while  the  number 
was  small  of  those  who,  looking  to  the  possibility  of  a  termi- 
nation favorable  to  the  government,  and  their  future  interests, 
still  gave  them  a  support,  the  more  acceptable  because  now 


3r)4  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

more  necessary.  But  it  was  too  late— negotiation  was  at  an 
end,  the  mine  was  charged,  the  train  laid,  the  match  was  burn- 
ing, the  summons  was  peremptory,  and  either  surrender  or  ex- 
plosion was  inevitable.  At  this  moment  the  leading  characters 
all  started  from  their  ranks;  every  party  had  its  chief,  and 
every  chief  turned  his  eyes,  by  almost  unanimous  assent,  to 
the  eloquence  and  energy  of  the  ardent  Grattan.  The  favorite 
of  the  parliament,  the  terror  of  the  minister,  the  intimate 
friend  of  the  ablest  men  and  the  indefatigable  advocate  of  his 
country,  he  seemed  most  peculiarly  calculated  to  bring  for- 
ward some  great  or  decisive  measure,  which  should  at  once 
terminate  the  dangerous  paroxysm  to  which  the  minds  of  the 
whole  nation  were  now  worked  up,  and  by  its  decision  inform 
them  whether  they  were  to  receive  their  rights  from  the  jus- 
tice, or  to  enforce  them  by  the  humiliation  of  Great  Britain. 

The  period,  however,  had  not  quite  arrived  for  this  step. 
Extensive  as  the  abilities  of  Mr.  Grattan  were,  they  had  many 
competitors ;  jealousies  intrude  themselves  even  into  the  high- 
est minds ;  the  spirit  of  rivalship  is  inseparable  from  great  tal- 
ents; Mr.  Grattan 's  importance  was  merely  individual,  and 
he  was  then  only  advancing  to  that  pre-eminence,  which  he 
soon  after  acquired  over  all  competitors.  Though  it  was  ap- 
proaching fast,  it  was  evident  that  it  had  not  indisputably 
arrived;  it  was  essential  that  all  those  parties  in  the  house 
should  be  a  little  more  approximate,  before  a  measure  was 
announced  on  which  unanimity  was  of  vital  importance. 

So  much  talent  never  had  before  appeared  in  the  Irish 
senate  as  at  that  particular  moment;  rank  and  fortune  also 
were  in  higher  estimation  there  than  in  England,  where  both 
are  more  common,  and  consequently  less  imposing.  Elo- 
quence and  talents  have  always  had  their  appropriate  weight 
in  a  popular  assembly ;  but  several  members  of  the  Irish  par- 
liament, in  addition  to  splendid  talents,  having  great  fortune 
and  distinguished  rank  to  recommend  them,  the  commons 
house  was  not  as  yet  fully  prepared  to  give  so  splendid  a  lead 
to  any  individual,  who,  devoid  of  these,  had  nothing  to  recom- 
mend him  but  his  character  and  his  talents. 

Those  who  led  their  respective  parties  were  all  men  of 
eminent  abilities  or  of  extensive  connections.  Flood,  Grat- 
tan, Brownlow,  Burgh,  Daly,  Yelverton,  appeared  the  most  re- 
spected or  efficient  leaders  of  the  opposition;  Scott  (the  attor- 
ney general)  and  Fitzgibbon  were  the  most  active  and  efficient 
supporters  of  the  government;  while  Daly,  Bagenall,  Sir  Ed- 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  355 

ward  Ncwcnliam,  Mr.  Joseph  Dean  and  a  number  of  county 
gentlemen,  all  dissimilar  in  habits,  and  heterogeneous  in  prin- 
ciples, were  grouped  together  without  any  particular  leader, 
but  always  paid  a  marked  deference  to  the  opinions  of  Mr. 
Brownlow,  whose  good  sense,  large  fortune  and  reasonable 
efficiency   constantly  ensured  him  a  merited  attention. 

A  few  of  these  country  gentlemen  had  a  sort  of  exclusive 
privilege  of  speaking  without  interruption,  whether  they 
spoke  good  sense  or  folly,  with  reason  or  without,  as  suited 
their  whims,  or  accorded  with  their  capacities.  Of  this  class 
was  Mr.  Thomas  Connolly,  who  appeared  to  have  the  largest 
personal  connection  of  any  individual  in  the  commons  house  of 
parliament.  He  took  a  principal  lead  amongst  the  country 
gentlemen  because  he  spoke  more  than  any  of  them,  though 
probably  his  influence  would  have  been  greater  if  he  had  re- 
mained totally  silent.  He  was  a  person  of  very  high  family, 
ample  fortune,  powerful  connections,  and  splendid  establish- 
ments; friendly,  sincere,  honorable  and  munificent  in  dispo- 
sition, but  whimsical,  wrongheaded  and  positive,  his  ideas  of 
politics  were  limited  and  confused ;  he  mistook  obstinancy  for 
independence  and  singularity  for  patriotism,  and  fancied  he 
was  a  Whig,  because  he  was  not  professionally  a  Tory. 

Full  of  aristocracy,  he  was  used  by  the  patriots,  when  they 
could  catch  him,  to  give  weight  to  their  resolutions,  and  court- 
ed by  the  government,  to  take  advantage  of  his  whimsicality 
and  embarrass  the  opposition.  He  was  bad  as  a  statesman, 
worse  as  an  orator.  In  parliament  he  gave  his  opinions  at  the 
close  of  a  debate,  without  having  listened  to  its  progress ;  and 
attacked  measures  with  a  sort  of  blunt  point,  which  generally 
bruised  both  his  friends  and  his  opponents.  His  qualities  were 
curiously  mixed,  and  his  principles  as  singularly  blended;  and 
if  he  had  not  been  distinguished  by  birth  and  fortune,  he  cer- 
tainly would  have  remained  all  his  life  in  obscurity. 

This  gentleman  had  an  extensive  circle  of  adherents.  On 
some  questions  he  was  led  away  by  their  persuasions,  on  oth- 
ers, they  submitted  to  his  prejudices,  as  a  bait  to  fix  him  on 
more  important  occasions;  and  sometimes  he  differed  unex- 
pectedly from  all  of  them.  He  was  nearly  allied  to  the  Irish 
minister  at  the  discussion  of  the  union,  and  he  followed  his 
lordship  *s  fortunes,  surrendered  his  country,  lost  his  own 
importance,  died  in  comparative  obscurity,  and  in  his  person 
ended  the  pedigree  of  one  of  the  most  respectable  English 
families  ever  resident  in  Ireland. 


356  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Many  other  persons,  who  distinguished  themselves  at  this 
period  of  public  trial,  will  be  subjects  of  observation  in  the 
course  of  this  memoir;  but  scarcely  any  of  them  more  justly 
deserve  notice  than  Mr.  Yelverton,  who  was,  perhaps,  the  only 
public  character  of  those  days  whose  every  act  could  be  with 
ease  accounted  for,  his  motives  for  the  act  being  as  j^alpable 
as  the  act  was  public ;  and  whether  his  conduct  was  right  or 
wrong  made  no  difference  in  this  respect,  its  causes  could  be 
traced  with  equal  facility,  and  he  generally  struggled  as  little 
against  the  propensities  of  his  nature  as  any  man  that  ever 
existed.  In  this  narrative  of  the  concerns  of  Ireland  his  name 
will  frequently  occur ;  and  as  so  extraordinary  a  character  can 
never  be  forgotten  in  the  minds  of  his  countrymen,  it  may 
properly  be  anticipated. 

Barry  Yelverton,  of  humble  origin,  afterwards  Lord  Avon- 
more,  and  successor  to  Hussey  Burgh,  as  chief  baron  of  the 
exchequer,  had  acquired  great  celebrity  as  an  advocate  at 
the  Irish  bar,  and  was  at  this  time  rapidly  winging  his  way  to 
the  highest  pinnacle  of  honorable  notoriety  and  forensic  ad- 
vancement. He  had  been  elected  member  of  parliament  for 
the  town  of  Carrickfergus,  and  became  a  zealous  partisan  for 
the  claims  of  Ireland. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  do  justice  to  the  lofty  and  over- 
whelming elocution  of  this  distinguished  man,  during  the 
early  periods  of  his  political  exertions.  To  the  profound, 
logical,  and  conclusive  reasoning  of  Flood ;  the  brilliant,  stim- 
ulating, epigrammatic  antithesis  of  Grattan ;  the  sweet-toned, 
captivating,  convincing  rhetoric  of  Burgh;  or  the  wild  fasci- 
nating imagery  and  varied  pathos  of  the  extraordinary  Cur- 
ran,  he  was  respectively  inferior;  but  in  powerful,  nervous 
language,  he  excelled  them  all.  A  vigorous,  commanding,  un- 
daunted eloquence  burst  in  rolling  torrents  from  his  lips,  not 
a  word  was  lost.  Though  fiery,  yet  weighty  and  distinct,  the 
authoritative  rapidity  of  his  language,  relieved  by  the  beauty 
of  his  luxuriant  fancy,  subdued  the  auditor  without  the  power 
of  resistance,  and  left  him  in  doubt  whether  it  was  to  argu- 
ment or  to  eloquence  that  he  surrendered  his  conviction. 

His  talents  were  alike  adapted  to  public  purposes,  as  his 
private  qualities  to  domestic  society.  In  the  common  transac- 
tions of  the  world  he  was  an  infant;  in  the  varieties  of  right 
and  wrong,  of  propriety  and  error,  a  frail  mortal ;  in  the  sen- 
ate and  at  the  bar,  a  mighty  giant ;  it  was  on  the  bench  that, 
unconscious  of  his  errors,  and  in  his  home  unconscious  of  his 


In  the  Days  of  Gkattan  o57 

virtues,  both  were  most  conspicuous.  That  deep-seated  voice, 
which  with  equal  power  freezes  the  miser's  lieart  and  inflames 
the  ruffian's  passions,  was  to  him  a  stranger;  he  was  always 
rich  and  always  poor;  like  his  great  predecessor,  frugality 
fled  before  the  carelessness  of  his  mind,  and  left  him  the  vic- 
tim of  his  liberality,  and  of  course  in  many  instances  a  monu- 
ment of  ingratitude.  His  character  was  entirely  transparent, 
it  had  no  opaque  qualities ;  his  passions  were  open,  his  pre- 
possessions palpable,  his  failings  obvious,  and  he  took  as  little 
pains  to  conceal  his  faults  as  to  publish  his  perfections. 

In  politics  he  was  more  steady  to  party  than  to  principle, 
but  evinced  no  immutable  consistency  in  either ;  a  patriot  by 
nature,  yet  susceptible  of  seduction,  a  partisan  by  temper,  yet 
capable  of  instability;  the  commencement  and  the  conclusion 
of  his  political  conduct  were  as  distinct  as  the  poles,  and  as 
dissimilar  as  the  elements. 

Amply  qualified  for  the  bench  by  profound  legal  and  con- 
stitutional learning,  extensive  professional  practice,  strong 
logical  powers,  a  classical  and  wide  ranging  capacity,  equit- 
able propensities  and  a  philanthropic  disposition,  he  pos- 
sessed all  the  positive  qualifications  for  a  great  judge;  but 
he  could  not  temporize;  the  total  absence  of  skilful  or  even 
necessary  caution,  and  the  indulgence  of  a  few  feeble  coun- 
teracting habits,  greatly  diminished  that  high  reputation, 
which  a  cold  phlegmatic  mien,  or  a  solemn,  imposing,  vulgar 
plausibility  confers  on  miserably  inferior  judges. 

But  even  with  all  his  faults  Lord  Avonmore  was  vastly 
superior  to  all  his  judicial  contemporaries.  If  he  was  im- 
petuous, it  was  an  impetuosity  in  which  his  heart  had  no  con- 
cern ;  he  was  never  unkind  that  he  was  not  also  repentant ;  and 
ever  thinking  that  he  acted  with  rectitude,  the  cause  of  his 
greatest  errors  seemed  to  be  a  careless  ignorance  of  his  les- 
ser imperfections. 

He  had  a  species  of  intermitting  ambition,  which  either  led 
him  too  far,  or  forsook  him  altogether.  His  pursuits,  of 
course,  were  unequal,  and  his  ways  irregular.  Elevated  solely 
by  his  own  talents,  he  acquired  new  habits  without  altogether 
divesting  himself  of  the  old  ones.  A  scholar,  a  poet,  a  states- 
man, a  lawyer,  in  elevated  society  he  was  a  brilliant  wit— at 
lower  tables,  a  vulgar  humorist ;  he  had  appropriate  anecdote 
and  conviviality  for  all,  and  whether  in  the  one  or  in  the  other, 
he  seldom  failed  to  be  either  entertaining  or  instructive. 
He  was  a  friend,  ardent,  but  indiscriminate  even  to  blind- 


358  Ireland,^  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ness ;  an  enemy,  warm,  but  forgiving  even  to  folly ;  lie  lost  his 
dignity  by  the  injudiciousness  of  his  selections  and  sunk  his 
consequence  in  the  pliability  of  his  nature ;  to  the  first  he  was 
a  dupe,  to  the  latter  an  instrument;  on  the  whole  he  was  a 
more  enlightened  than  efficient  statesman,  a  more  able  than 
unexceptionable  judge,  and  more  honest  in  theory  than  the 
practice  of  his  politics.  His  rising  sun  was  brilliant,  his 
meridian  cloudy,  his  setting  obscure ;  crosses  at  length  ruffled 
his  temper— deceptions  abated  his  confidence,  time  tore  down 
his  talents,  he  became  depressed  and  indifferent,  and  after 
a  long  life  of  chequered  incidents  and  inconsistent  conduct, 
he  died,  leaving  behind  him  few  men  who  possessed  so  much 
talent,  so  much  heart,  or  so  much  weakness. 

This  distinguished  man  at  the  critical  period  of  Ireland's 
emancipation,  burst  forth  as  a  meteor  in  the  Irish  senate ;  his 
career  in  the  commons  was  not  long,  but  it  was  busy  and  im- 
portant ;  he  had  connected  himself  with  the  Duke  of  Portland, 
and  continued  that  connection  uninterrupted  till  the  day  of  his 
dissolution.  But  through  the  influence  of  that  nobleman,  and 
the  absolute  necessity  of  a  family  provision  on  the  question 
of  the  Union  the  radiance  of  his  public  character  was  ob- 
scured forever,  the  laurels  of  his  early  achievements  fell  with- 
ered from  the  brow,  and  having  with  zeal  and  sincerity  labored 
to  attain  independence  for  his  country  in  1782,  he  became  one 
of  the  sale-masters  in  1800,  and  mingling  in  a  motley  crowd, 
uncongenial  to  his  native  character,  and  beneath  his  natural 
superiority,  he  surrendered  the  rights,  the  franchises  and  the 
honors  of  that  peerage  to  which,  by  his  great  talents  and  his 
early  virtues,  he  had  been  so  justly  elevated. 

Except  upon  the  bench,  his  person  was  devoid  of  dignity 
and  his  appearance  ordinary  and  mean,  yet  there  was  some- 
thing in  the  strong,  the  marked  lines  of  his  rough  unfinished 
features,  which  bespoke  a  character  of  no  common  descrip- 
tion ;  powerful  talent  was  its  first  trait,  fire  and  philanthropy 
contended  for  the  next;  his  countenance,  wrought  up  and 
varied  by  the  strong  impressions  of  his  laboring  mind,  could 
be  better  termed  indicatory  than  impressive ;  and  in  the  midst 
of  his  greatest  errors  and  most  reprehensible  moments,  it  was 
difficult  not  to  respect  and  impossible  not  to  regard  him. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

GRATTAN   FORCES   THE   ISSUE— A   SPECIAL   CALL   OF   THE   HOUSE   OF 
COMMONS  — ENGLISH  AND  IRISH  PARLIAMENTS  COMPARED. 

Mr.  Grattan  had  prepared  and  determined  to  move  a  gen- 
eral declaration  of  rights  in  the  House  of  Commons;  and  it 
must  have  been  an  object  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the 
Duke  of  Portland  either  to  prevent  that  measure  altogether, 
or  obtain  at  least  its  postponement  until  he  became  better 
acquainted  with  the  disposition  of  the  principal  persons  of  the 
country,  the  full  extent  of  their  views,  and  how  far  he  might 
be  able  to  assuage  the  general  irritation,  without  going  the 
full  length  of  their  extensive  requisitions.  It  was  also  of  im- 
portance to  the  credit  of  his  administration,  that,  if  possible, 
he  should  have  the  substance  of  whatever  he  was  authorized 
to  accede  to,  made  known  by  anticipation,  as  the  liberal  act  of 
his  government,  through  his  English  secretary,  rather  than 
brought  forward,  as  the  demand  of  the  people,  through  their 
Irish  advocate.  Under  these  circumstances,  an  adjournment 
of  parliament  was  a  most  desirable  object,  and  he  determined 
to  attempt  it  through  the  negotiation  of  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  who 
was  at  least  as  sincere  a  man  as  his  noble  employer,  and  had 
always  expressed  himself  strongly  in  favor  of  the  interest  of 
Ireland. 

The  Duke  also  felt  the  great  importance  of  a  little  breath- 
ing-time after  his  arrival ;  and  both  Mr.  Fox  and  Lord  Rock- 
ingham exerted  themselves  to  obtain  that  object  from  the 
Irish  patriots ;  and  under  the  circumstances  in  which  his  Grace 
stood,  it  might  be  supposed  that  it  would  have  been  granted 
without  much  hesitation;  and  in  common  times  and  cases  it 
certainly  would  have  been  but  just,  and  even  in  the  existing 
one  did  not  seem  altogether  unreasonable ;  for,  in  fact,  did  not 
everything  promise  a  harvest  of  benefits  from  the  new  ad- 
ministration? The  avowed  and  proved  enemies  of  Ireland 
had  retired  from  office.  In  their  stead  at  the  head  of  the  gov- 
ernment was  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham;  as  a  man,  most  ex- 
cellent; as  a  statesman,  constitutional,  honest,  liberal;  as  Sec- 
retary of  State,  Mr.  Fox,  on  the  admirable  nature  of  whose 
public  principles  eulogiura  would  be  surplusage ;  and  for  the 
management  of  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  the  Duke  of  Portland, 

359 


360  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

accompanied  by  Colonel  Fitzpatrick.  A  more  propitious  pros- 
pectus could  hardly  be  expected;  nor  could  England  furnish 
many  men,  on  whose  tolerating  dispositions  the  Irish  nation 
had  more  reason  to  repose.  But  still  it  could  not  be  forgotten 
that  they  were  all  Englishmen;  and  though  naturally  munif- 
icent, honorable  and  conciliatory,  yet  necessarily  partaking 
in  some  degree  of  those  inherent  prejudices,  which  education 
favors  and  habits  confirm  in  English  minds,  unacquainted 
with  the  state  of  their  sister  country,  and,  of  course,  cautious 
of  committing  themselves  with  the  one  country,  by  too  pre- 
cipitate and  favorable  a  change  of  system  towards  the  other. 
Men  the  most  enlightened  on  general  principles  are  frequently 
found  feeble  on  abstract  subjects ;  and  Mr.  Fox  was  excusable 
in  his  wariness  of  adopting  sudden  determinations,  repugnant 
to  the  theories  and  practice  of  all  former  ministers  and  for- 
mer parliaments  of  Great  Britain. 

Every  proper  preliminary,  therefore,  was  adopted  by  the 
new  ministry  to  prepare  their  nation  for  measures  towards 
Ireland  which  never  were,  and  never  could  be,  popular  in 
England;  and  with  a  view  to  anticipating  the  expected  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Irish  parliament,  a  message  was  delivered 
from  the  King  to  the  British  parliament,  on  the  18th  of  April, 
1782,  stating  ^'That  mistrusts  and  jealousies  had  arisen  in 
Ireland,  and  that  it  was  highly  necessary  to  take  the  same 
into  consideration,  in  order  to  a  final  adjustment."  This 
message  from  the  King,  when  coupled  with  the  address  of 
the  British  parliament  to  his  Majesty  in  reply,  expressive  of 
"their  entire  and  cheerful  concurrence  in  his  Majesty's  views 
of  a  final  adjustment,"  if  they  are  to  be  understood  in  the 
plain  and  unequivocal  meaning  of  words  and  construction  of 
sentences,  clearly  import  the  conjoined  sentiments  of  both  the 
British  King  and  British  Parliament  to  proceed  to  a  final  ad- 
justment of  all  differences  between  the  two  countries ;  and  this 
message  and  reply  are  here  more  particularly  alluded  to,  be- 
cause they  form  one  of  the  principal  points  afterwards  relied 
upon  in  the  Irish  parliament  as  decisive  against  any  agitation 
of  the  question  of  a  Union.  The  words  final  adjustment,  so 
unequivocally  expressed  by  his  Majesty,  were  immediately 
acted  upon  by  the  parliaments  of  both  nations,  and  the  ad- 
justment which  took  place  in  consequence  of  the  message  was 
considered  by  the  contracting  parties  as  decisively  conclusive 
and  final— as  intended  to  be  an  indissoluble  compact,  mutually 
and  definitely  ratified  by  the  two  nations. 


In  the  Days  uf  Gkattan  361 

Tlie  measure  of  a  Union,  therefore,  being  proposed,  and 
afterwards  carried  against  the  will  of  the  people;  by  the 
power  and  through  the  corruption  of  the  executive  authority ; 
after  the  conii^lcte  ratification  of  that  contract,  and  after  it 
had  been  acted  upon  for  seventeen  years,  was  clearly  a  direct 
infringement  of  that  final  adjustment— a  breach  of  national 
faith— an  infraction  of  that  constitutional  federative  compact 
solemnly  enacted  by  the  mutual  concurrence  of  the  King, 
Lords  and  Commons  of  Ireland,  and  the  King,  Lords,  and 
Commons  of  Great  Britain,  in  their  joint  and  several  legis- 
lative capacities. 

This  message,  therefore,  forms  a  predominant  circum- 
stance, as  applying  to  the  most  important  subsequent  occur- 
rences between  the  two  nations,  and  as  such,  should  be  kept 
in  mind  through  every  event  detailed  in  this  memoir.  It  also 
leads  to  some  considerations,  which,  though  they  may  be  con- 
sidered as  a  digression  from  the  transactions  which  imme- 
diately took  place  in  consequence  of  the  message,  are  yet  of 
considerable  utility  in  elucidating  the  respective  situation  of 
the  two  countries,  at  the  time  this  final  adjustment  was  pro- 
posed by  the  King,  and  the  sense  that  his  Majesty's  ministers, 
eighteen  years  afterwards,  were  pleased  to  give  to  the  word 
fiiial,  when  they  conceived  it  necessary  to  argue  that  it  bore, 
not  a  positive,  but  an  inclusive  import,  and  could  only  be  con- 
strued as  giving  an  indefinite  scope  for  future  negotiation. 

Previous  to  the  year  1780,  the  distressed  state  of  Ireland, 
the  law  of  Poyning,  the  sixth  of  George  the  Fii'st,  the  stand- 
ing army  under  a  jiermanent  mutiny  bill,  the  dependence  of 
the  judges,  the  absence  of  the  habeas  corpus  act,  the  re- 
straints on  commerce,  and  the  deprivation  of  a  constitution 
had  often  suggested  to  some  of  the  best  friends  of  Ireland  the 
idea  of  a  complete  incorporation  of  that  country  with  Great 
Britain,  as  the  only  remedy  for  its  accumulated  and  accumu- 
lating grievances  and  oppressions  as  the  most  advantageous 
measure  which  could  be  obtained  for  Ireland  under  its  then 
deplorable  circumstances;  and  about  the  year  1753,  and  sub- 
sequently, several  pamphlets  of  considerable  merit  were  pub- 
lished on  this  subject,  detailing  the  advantages  which  Ireland 
must  necessarily  have  derived  from  so  close  and  beneficial  a 
connection. 

As  Ireland  was  then  trampled  upon,  oppressed,  and  put 
down  without  the  power  of  resistance,  or  any  probable  chance 
of  ever  obtaining  justice ;  there  could  be  no  doubt  that  almost 


362  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

any  change  must  have  been  beneficial;  and,  in  that  point  of 
view,  a  complete  union  of  the  two  nations  would  then  have 
been  in  many  respects  extremely  fortunate  for  that  ruined 
country.  The  British  parliament  had  declared  itself  para- 
mount to  that  of  Ireland.  The  Irish  parliament,  tired  of  inef- 
fectual struggles  for  even  the  name  of  independence,  had  be- 
come indifferent  to  its  fate,  and  sunk  into  a  state  of  lassitude 
and  debility,  from  which,  though  it  was  occasionally  roused  by 
the  sharp  stings  of  oppression,  it  soon  relapsed  into  its  own 
apathy,  partly  through  despair  and  partly  through  corruption, 
while  the  people,  kept  systematically  ignorant,  and  of  course 
having  but  little  public  mind  and  less  public  information,  were 
naturally  indifferent  to  the  existence  of  a  representative  as- 
sembly, of  which  they  neither  felt  the  honor  nor  experienced 
the  utility. 

But  at  that  period  England  was  too  powerful,  too  jealous, 
and  too  haughty  to  equalize  her  constitution  and  her  com- 
merce, with  what  she  considered  as  a  conquered  country.  She 
had  then  no  object  to  obtain  from  a  captive  who  lay  groaning 
at  her  feet,  picking  up  the  crumbs  that  fell  from  the  rich  man's 
table.  The  prejudiced,  contracted  and  fallacious  views  which 
England  then  took  of  the  state  of  Ireland,  deceived  her  as  to 
her  own  interests,  connected  with  the  general  strength  and 
prosperity  of  the  whole  empire,  and  every  idea  of  an  incorpor- 
ate union  with  Ireland  was  rejected  with  disdain  by  the  Brit- 
ish nation.  England  had  united  herself  with  Scotland  to  avoid 
the  chance  of  a  total  separation  which  it  was  more  than  prob- 
able might  otherwise  have  been  the  consequence  of  distinct 
dynasties;  but  the  state  of  Ireland  and  the  nature  of  her 
federal  connection  with  England  occasioned  no  risk  of  such 
an  event,  and  therefore  created  no  such  uneasiness  or  neces- 
sity, and  the  idea  seemed  to  have  been  totally  relinquished  by 
both  countries— by  the  one,  because  she  was  too  haughty  and 
avaracious  to  grant,  by  the  other  because  she  was  too  poor  and 
too  dejected  to  obtain  so  advantageous  an  arrangement. 

But  when  Ireland,  by  the  causes  heretofore  detailed,  had 
been  awakened  to  a  sense  of  her  own  strength,  and  a  knowl- 
edge of  her  own  resources ;  when  America  had  shown  her  the 
example  of  perseverance,  and  the  possibility  of  obtaining  jus- 
tice, every  idea  of  annexation  to  England  vanished  like  the 
passing  wind ;  liberty  was  attainable,  prosperity  must  follow 
liberty,  and,  in  1782,  there  was  scarcely  an  Irishman  who 
would  not  have  sooner  sunk  under  the  ruins  of  his  country 


In  the  Day«  of  G rattan  363 

than  submit  to  a  measure  wbicli,  a  few  years  before,  was  au 
object  at  least  of  indifference.  England  too  late  perceived  its 
error  j  a  union  in  1753  would  have  effectually  ended  all  claijns 
of  an  independent  constitution  by  Ireland  in  1782,  and  would 
have  been  an  object  of  the  highest  importance  to  Great  Brit- 
ain; but  now  it  was  a  word  she  durst  not  even  articulate;  the 
very  sound  of  it  would  have  been  equal  to  a  declaration  of  hos- 
tilities, and  however  indisposed  the  new  ministers  of  England 
might  have  been  to  admit  all  the  claims  of  Ireland,  the  words 
''final  adjustment,"  so  emphatically  used  by  his  Majesty,  left 
no  room  to  suppose  that  a  union  could  be  in  contemplation,  or 
ever  afterwards  be  insisted  upon;  and  yet  it  is  singular  that 
the  very  same  words,  ''final  adjustment,"  were  repeated  by 
the  Irish  minister,  when  a  union  was  proxwsed  to  the  Irish 
parliament  in  1800  for  its  consideration. 

So  many  arguments  afterwards  arose  from  that  expres- 
sion, so  many  sophistical  constructions  were  placed  on  his 
majesty's  message,  so  much  duplicity  did  his  ministers  at- 
tribute to  his  language,  that  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  all 
the  ministers  of  that  day  were  unreservedly  sincere  as  to  the 
finality  of  the  arrangement  made  with  Ireland  under  its  then 
commanding  attitude,  and  it  reminds  us  of  one  very  remark- 
able truism  of  Irish  history,  that  no  compact  had  ever  before 
been  entered  into  between  the  two  countries,  that  had  not 
been  infringed  or  attempted  to  be  infringed  by  England,  when 
her  power  enabled  her  to  withdraw  from  her  engagements. 

Nothing  can  more  clearly  elucidate  the  public  conduct  of 
the  Duke  of  Portland.  In  1782,  he  came  to  Ireland  to  consum- 
mate a  final  adjustment  between  the  two  nations,  and  in  pur- 
suance of  such  proposal,  a  final  adjustment  was  apparently 
effected,  passed  by  the  i:>arliament  of  both  nations,  confirmed 
by  the  honor  of  Great  Britain,  and  sanctified  by  the  faith  of 
Majesty.  The  Duke  of  Portland  was  the  accredited  agent  of 
that  final  adjustment,  the  responsible  minister  of  both  na- 
tions, the  official  voucher  of  its  perpetuity  and,  therefore, 
should  have  been  the  guardian  of  that  independence,  which 
was  effected  through  himself,  and  declared  by  him,  as  viceroy, 
to  be  final  and  conclusive. 

Yet,  in  1800,  the  same  Duke  of  Portland  is  found  retracing 
all  his  former  steps,  recanting  his  Irish  creed,  demolishing 
that  independence  of  which  he  was  the  guardian,  falsifying 
his  own  words,  and  equivocating  on  those  of  his  sovereign  to 
both  parliaments,  and  arguing  upon  an  incongruity,  never  yet 


364  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

paralleled,  namely,  that  the  words  ^' final"  and  'inclusive" 
were  synonymous  in  politics ;  for  upon  no  other  principle  could 
his  grace's  first  and  latter  conduct  be  explained  or  justified. 

It  is  impossible,  therefore,  to  give  the  Duke  the  merit  of 
sincerity  towards  Ireland  in  1782.  The  altered  state  of  Ire- 
land in  1800  was  made  the  solitary  but  fallacious  pretense  for 
dissolving  a  solemn  bond,  breaking  the  ties  of  national  faith, 
and  diminishing  the  character  of  royal  integrity. 

The  Duke  was  obliged  to  meet  the  Irish  parliament  within 
two  days  after  his  arrival ;  those  days  were  employed  in  en- 
deavoring to  procure  an  adjournment  of  the  house,  and  sev- 
eral confidential  communications  took  jDlace  between  him,  Mr. 
Grattan  and  others,  who  had  determined  not  to  admit  the  de- 
lay of  a  single  hour.  The  Duke's  arrival  in  Ireland  had  been 
preceded  by  letters  from  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham  ana 
Mr.  Fox  to  the  Earl  of  Charlemont,  requesting  an  adjourn- 
ment of  parliament  for  three  weeks,  and  expressing  their  con- 
viction that  the  request  would  be  immediately  acceded  to. 
Nothing  could  more  clearly  i^rove  their  ignorance  of  the  state 
of  Ireland.  All  the  influence  of  the  crown  could  not  have  ad- 
journed the  commons  for  a  single  day.  The  people  were  too 
impatient  for  any  procrastination.  By  adjournment  the  par- 
liament would  have  lost  its  character,  and  the  members  their 
influence,  anarchy  would  have  been  the  inevitable  result,  and 
instead  of  a  placid,  constitutional,  parliamentary  declaration 
of  rights,  a  recess  would  probably  have  occasioned  popular 
declarations  of  a  more  alarming  tendency.  For  every  reason, 
therefore,  an  adjournment,  though  superficially  considered, 
seemed  an  object  of  importance  to  government,  and  might 
have  ended  in  measures  greatly  to  their  disadvantage. 

The  reasons  for  declining  all  delay  were  communicated  to 
the  Duke  of  Portland  by  Mr.  Grattan,  and  the  Duke,  though 
not  convinced,  having  no  power  of  resistance,  was  passive 
on  a  proceeding  which  he  could  not  encounter. 

Mr.  Grattan  also,  previously  to  proposing  his  measure  to 
parliament,  fairly  submitted  the  intended  declaration  of  rights 
to  the  Duke,  but  it  was  rather  too  strong  and  too  peremptory 
for  his  grace's  approbation.  He  durst  not,  however,  say  he 
would  oppose,  and  yet  could  not  say  he  would  support  it,  but 
he  proposed  amendments  which  would  have  effectually  de- 
stroyed the  vigor  and  narrowed  the  compass  of  these  reso- 
lutions, and  recommended  modifications  which  would  have 
neutralized  its  firmness.    Mr.  Grattan  declined  anv  alteration 


In  tuk  Days  of  (Irattan*  SGfi 

whatever,  and  the  Duke  remained  doubtful  whether  his 
friends  would  accede  to  or  resist  it,  and  it  is  more  than  prob- 
able he  was  himself  at  the  same  moment  equally  irresolute  as 
to  his  own  future  conduct;  he  had  no  time  to  communicate 
with  England,  and  his  only  resource  was  that  of  fishing  for 
the  support  of  eminent  persons  in  both  houses  of  parliament, 
in  the  hope  of  being  able  in  modifying  to  moderate  by  their 
means  the  detailed  measures  which  would  follow  the  declara- 
tion. 

Whilst  the  chief  governor  was  thus  involved  in  perplexity 
and  doubt,  every  step  was  taken  by  the  advocates  of  independ- 
ence to  secure  the  decisive  triumph  of  Mr.  Grattan's  intended 
declaration.  Whoever  has  individually  experienced  the  sen- 
sations of  ardent  expectation,  trembling  suspense,  burning 
impatience,  and  determined  resolution,  and  can  suppose  all 
those  sensations  possessing  an  entire  nation,  may  form  some 
but  yet  an  inadequate  idea  of  the  feelings  of  the  Irish  peo- 
ple on  the  16th  of  April,  1782,  which  was  the  day  peremptorily 
fixed  by  Mr.  Grattan  for  moving  that  declaration  of  rights, 
which  was  the  proximate  cause  of  Ireland's  short-lived  pros- 
perity, and  the  remote  one  of  its  final  overthrow  and  annexa- 
tion. So  high  were  the  minds  of  the  public  wound  up  on  the 
eve  of  that  momentous  day  that  the  Volunteers  flew  to  their 
arms  without  having  an  enemy  to  encounter,  and,  almost 
breathless  with  impatience,  inquired  eagerly  after  the  j^roba- 
bility  of  events  which  the  close  of  the  same  day  must  certainly 
determine. 

It  is  difficult  for  any  persons  but  those  who  have  witnessed 
the  awful  state  of  expected  revolutions  and  of  popular  com- 
motion to  describe  the  interesting  moments  which  preceded  the 
meeting  of  the  Irish  parliament ;  and  it  is  equally  impossible 
to  describe  the  no  less  interesting  conduct  of  the  Irish  Volun- 
teers on  that  trying  occasion.  Had  the  parliament  rejected 
Mr.  Grattan's  motion,  no  doubt  could  exist  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  were  witnesses  to  the  temper  of  the  times  that  the 
connection  with  England  would  have  been  shaken  to  its  very 
foundation,  yet  the  most  perfect  order  and  decorum  were  ob- 
served by  the  armed  associations,  who  paraded  in  every  quar- 
ter of  the  city.  Though  their  own  ardor  and  impatience  were 
great  they  wisely  discouraged  any  manifesting  of  the  same 
warm  feelings  amongst  the  lower  orders  of  the  people,  and 
though  they  were  resolved  to  lose  the  last  drop  of  their  blood 
to  obtain  the  independence  of  their  country,  they  acted  as 


366  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

l^reservers  of  the  peace,  and  by  tlieir  exertions  effectually 
prevented  the  slightest  interruption  of  public  tranquillity ;  the 
awe  of  their  presence  restrained  every  symptom  of  popular 
commotion. 

Early  on  the  16th  of  April,  1782,  the  great  street  before 
the  house  of  parliament  was  thronged  by  a  multitude  of  people 
of  every  class,  and  of  every  description,  though  many  hours 
must  elapse  before  the  house  would  meet  or  business  be  pro- 
ceeded on.  As  it  was  a  circumstance  which  seldom  takes  place 
on  the  eve  of  remarkable  events,  it  becomes  a  proper  subject 
of  remark,  that  though  more  than  many  thousands  of  people, 
inflamed  by  the  most  ardent  zeal,  were  assembled  in  a  public 
street  without  any  guide,  restraint  or  control  save  the  examj^le 
of  the  Volunteers,  not  the  slightest  appearance  of  tumult  was 
observable,  on  the  contrary,  such  perfect  order  prevailed  that 
not  even  an  angry  word  or  offensive  expression  escaped  their 
lips.  Nothing  could  more  completely  prove  the  good  disposi- 
tion of  the  Dublin  populace,  than  this  correctness  of  demeanor, 
at  a  time  when  they  had  been  taught  that  the  very  existence  of 
their  trade  and  manufactures  and  consequently  the  future 
existence  of  themselves  and  their  families,  was  to  be  decided 
by  the  conduct  of  their  representatives  that  evening;  and  it 
was  gratifying  to  see  that  those  who  were  supposed  or  even 
proved  to  have  been  their  decided  enemies,  were  permitted  to 
pass  through  this  immense  assemblage  without  receiving  the 
slightest  token  of  incivility  and  with  the  same  ease  as  those 
who  were  known  to  be  their  determined  friends. 

The  parliament  had  been  summoned  to  attend  this  mo- 
mentous question  by  an  unusual  and  special  call  of  the  house, 
and  by  four  o'clock  a  full  meeting  took  place.  The  body  of 
the  House  of  Commons  was  crowded  with  its  members,  a  great 
proportion  of  the  peerage  attended  as  auditors,  and  the  ca- 
pacious gallery  which  surrounded  the  interior  magnificent 
dome  of  the  house  contained  above  four  hundred  ladies  of  the 
highest  distinction,  who  partook  of  the  same  national  fire 
which  had  enlightened  their  parents,  their  husbands  and  their 
relatives,  and  by  the  sympathetic  influence  of  their  presence 
and  zeal  communicated  an  instinctive  chivalrous  impulse  to 
eloquence  and  to  patriotism. 

Those  who  have  only  seen  the  tumultuous  rush  of  imperial 
parliaments  scuffling  in  the  antiquated  chapel  of  St.  Stephen's 
crowded  by  a  gallery  of  note-takers,  anxious  to  catch  the  pub- 
lic penny  by  the  earliest  reports  of  good  speeches  made  bad, 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  367 

and  bad  speeches  made  better,  indifferent  as  to  subjects  and 
careless  as  to  misrepresentation,  yet  the  principal  medium 
of  communication  between  the  sentiments  of  the  representa- 
tive and  the  curiosity  of  the  represented,  can  form  the  idea  of 
the  interesting  appearance  of  the  Irish  House  of  Commons. 
The  cheerful  magnificence  of  its  splendid  architecture,  the 
number,  the  decorum  and  the  brilliancy  of  the  anxious  audi- 
tory, the  vital  question  that  night  to  be  determined,  and  the 
solemn  dignity  which  clothed  the  proceedings  of  that  awful 
moment  collectively  produced  impressions,  even  on  disinter- 
ested strangers,  which  perhaps  had  never  been  so  strongly  or 
so  justly  excited  by  the  appearance  and  proceedings  of  any 
house  of  legislature. 

Mr.  Sextus  Perry  then  occupied  the  speakers'  chair,  a 
person  in  whose  integrity  the  house,  the  nation  and  the  gov- 
ernment reposed  the  greatest  confidence;  a  man  in  whose 
pure  character,  spirit,  dignity,  independence  of  mind,  and 
honesty  of  principle,  were  eminently  conspicuous;  decisive, 
constitutional,  patriotic,  discreet,  he  was  everything  that  be- 
came his  ofHce,  and  everything  that  became  himself.  He  had 
been  a  barrister  in  extensive  practice  at  the  time  of  his  eleva- 
tion, and  to  the  moment  of  his  death  he  never  departed  from 
the  line  of  rectitude,  which  marked  every  step  of  his  progress 
through  life,  whether  in  a  public  or  private  station.  Mr. 
Perry  took  the  chair  at  four  o'clock.  The  singular  wording 
of  the  summons  had  its  complete  effect,  and  procured  the  at- 
tendance of  almost  every  member  resident  within  the  king- 
dom. A  calm  but  deep  solicitude  was  apparent  on  almost 
every  countenance  when  Mr.  Grattan  entered,  accompanied 
by  Mr.  Brownlow  and  several  others,  the  determined  and  im- 
portant advocates  for  the  declaration  of  Irish  independence. 
Mr.  Grattan 's  preceding  exertions  and  anxiety  had  manifestly 
injured  his  health;  his  tottering  frame  seemed  barely  suf- 
ficient to  sustain  his  laboring  mind,  replete  with  the  unprece- 
dented importance  and  responsibility  of  the  measure  he  was 
about  to  bring  forward.  He  was  unacquainted  with  the  recep- 
tion it  would  obtain  from  the  connections  of  the  governments, 
he  was  that  day  irretrievably  to  commit  his  country  with 
Great  Britain  and  through  him  Ireland  was  either  to  assert 
her  liberty  or  start  from  the  connection.  His  own  situation 
was  tremendous,  that  of  the  members  attached  to  the  ad- 
ministration embarrassing,  that  of  the  people  anxious  to  pal- 
pitation.   For  a  short  time  a  profound  silence  ensued ;  it  was 


368  Ieeland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

expected  that  Mr.  Grattan  would  immediately  rise  when  the 
wisdom  and  discretion  of  the  government  gave  a  turn  to  the 
proceedings  which  in  a  moment  eased  the  parliament  of  its 
solicitude,  Mr.  Grattan  of  the  weight  that  oppressed  him,  and 
the  people  of  their  anxiety.  Mr.  Hely  Hutchinson  (then  secre- 
tary of  state  in  Ireland)  rose.  He  said  that  his  Excellency, 
the  Lieutenant,  had  ordered  him  to  deliver  a  message  from 
the  King,  importing  that  ''His  Majesty,  being  concerned  to 
find  that  discontents  and  jealousies  were  prevailing  among 
his  loyal  subjects  in  Ireland,  upon  matters  of  great  weight 
and  importance,  recommended  to  the  house  to  take  the  same 
into  their  most  serious  consideration,  in  order  to  effect  such 
a  final  adjustment  as  might  give  satisfaction  to  both  king- 
doms." And  Mr.  Hutchinson  accompanied  this  message— and 
his  statement  of  his  own  views  on  the  subject— with  a  deter- 
mination to  support  a  declaration  of  Irish  rights,  and  con- 
stitutional independence. 

Notwithstanding  this  official  communication,  the  govern- 
ment members  were  still  greatly  perplexed  how  to  act.  Mr. 
Grattan 's  intended  declaration  of  independence  was  too 
strong,  decisive  and  prompt  to  be  relished  as  the  measure  of 
any  government ;  it  could  neither  be  wholly  resisted  nor  gen- 
erally approved  of  by  the  viceroy.  His  secretary.  Colonel 
Fitzpatrick,  was  not  yet  in  parliament,  all  modification  what- 
soever had  been  rejected  by  Mr.  Grattan  and  his  friends,  and 
it  is  generally  believed,  that  the  members  of  the  government 
went  to  parliament  that  day  without  any  decided  plan  or  sys- 
tem, but  determined  to  regulate  their  own  individual  conduct 
by  the  circumstances  that  might  occur,  and  the  general  dis- 
position indicated  by  the  majority  of  the  house  in  the  course 
of  the  proceedings. 

Thus,  on  the  16th  of  April,  1782,  after  nearly  700  years  of 
subjugation,  oppression  and  misery,  after  centuries  of  un- 
availing complaint  and  neglected  remonstrance,  did  the  King 
of  Ireland,  through  his  Irish  secretary  of  state,  at  length  him- 
self propose  to  redress  those  grievances  through  his  Irish  par- 
liament, an  authority  whi(^h,  as  King  of  England,  his  minister 
had  never  before  recognized  or  admitted.  In  a  moment  the 
whole  scene  was  completely  changed;  those  miserable  pros- 
pects which  had  so  long  disgusted  and  at  length  so  completely 
agitated  the  Irish  people,  vanished  from  their  view;  the  phe- 
nomena of  such  a  message  had  an  instantaneous  and  astonish- 
ing effect  and  pointed  out  such  a  line  of  conduct  to  every  party 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  309 

and  to  every  individual,  as  left  it  almost  impossible  for  any 
but  the  most  niiseliievous  characters  to  obstruct  the  happy 
unanimity  which  now  became  the  fcratifying  result  of  this 
prudent  and  wise  proceeding. 

Mr.  Hutchinson,  however,  observed  in  his  speech  that  he 
was  not  officially  authoi'ized  to  say  more  than  simply  to  de- 
liver the  message;  he  was  therefore  silent  as  to  all  details, 
and  pledged  the  government  to  none,  the  parliament  would 
act  upon  the  message  as  to  themselves  might  seem  advisable. 
Another  solemn  pause  now  ensued.  Mr.  Grattan  remained 
silent. 

Mr.  George  Ponsonby  rose,  and  after  eulogizing  the  King, 
the  British  Minister,  and  the  Irish  Government,  simply  pro- 
posed an  humble  address  in  reply,  "thanking  the  King  for  his 
goodness  and  condescension,  and  assuring  his  majesty  that 
his  faithful  commoners  would  immediately  proceed  upon  the 
great  objects  he  had  recommended  to  their  consideration." 

This  uncircumstantial  reply,  however,  fell  very  short  of 
the  expectation  of  the  house,  or  the  intentions  of  Mr.  Grattan. 
On  common  occasions  it  would  have  answered  the  usual  pur- 
poses of  incipient  investigation ;  but  the  subject  of  Irish  griev- 
ances required  no  committee  to  investigate,  no  protracted  de- 
bates for  further  discussion.  The  claims  of  Ireland  were  al- 
ready well  known  to  the  King  and  to  his  ministers ;  they  had 
been  recorded  by  the  Dungannon  convention,  and  now  only 
required  a  parliamentary  adoption  in  terms  too  explicit  to 
be  misconstrued  and  too  peremptory  to  be  rejected.  It  is  true, 
the  good  intentions  of  his  majesty  were  announced,  the  favor- 
able disposition  of  his  cabinet  communicated,  a  redress  of  dis- 
contents and  jealousies  suggested,  but  nothing  specific  was 
vouched  or  even  alluded  to ;  the  present  favorable  government 
might  be  displaced  and  the  King's  conceding  intentions 
changed  by  a  change  of  ministers,  and  Ireland  thus  be  again 
committed  with  Great  Britain  under  circumstances  of  dimin- 
ished strength  and  more  difficult  adjustment.  Every  man  per- 
ceived the  crisis,  but  no  man  could  foresee  the  result— some 
decisive  step  appeared  inevitable,  but  without  great  prudence 
that  step  might  be  destructive ;  popular  impetuosity  frequently 
defeats  its  own  objects,  the  examples  of  European  history  in 
all  ages  have  proved  that  rash  or  premature  efforts  to  shake 
off  oppression,  generally  confirmed,  or  rent  the  chains  of  des- 
potism from  the  grasp  of  one  ruler,  only  to  transfer  them 
with  stronger  rivets  to  the  power  of  a  successor.    It  is  less 


370  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

difficult  to  throw  off  the  trammels  of  an  usurping  government 
than  to  secure  the  preservation  of  a  new-gained  constitution, 
and  in  cold  and  phlegmatic  nations  where  the  sublime  prin- 
ciples of  political  freedom  were  less  investigated  or  less  val- 
ued than  in  Ireland  at  that  enlightened  epoch,  more  compre- 
hensive powers  might  be  entrusted  to  the  prudence  of  the  peo- 
ple or  delegated  to  the  guardianship  of  selected  chieftains; 
but,  in  an  ardent  nation  distinguished  more  for  its  talents  and 
its  enthusiasm  than  for  its  steadiness  or  its  foresight,  where 
every  man  fostered  his  heated  feelings,  and  the  appetite  for 
liberty  was  whetted  even  to  voracity  by  the  slavery  of  ages, 
hasty  or  violent  proceedings,  however  they  might  for  a  mo- 
ment appear  to  promote  a  rescue  of  the  country  from  existing 
evils,  would  probably  plunge  it  still  deeper  into  unforeseen 
and  more  deplorable  misfortunes.  Visionary  men  and  vision- 
ary measures  are  never  absent  from  such  political  struggles, 
but  if  the  frenzy  of  Eutopian  speculations  gets  wing  amongst 
a  people,  it  becomes  the  most  plausible  pretext  to  oppressive 
rulers  and  the  most  destructive  enemy  to  the  attainment  of 
constitutional  liberty,  and  at  this  important  crisis  had  one 
rash  step  prematurely  committed  Ireland  and  Great  Britain 
in  hostile  struggle  the  contest  would  have  ended  in  the  ruin 
of  one  country,  if  not  of  both. 

These  considerations  had  great  weight,  and  excited  great 
embarrassments  amongst  the  leading  members  in  the  Irish 
Parliament ;  different  characters  of  course  took  different  views 
of  this  intricate  subject;  strength  of  intellect,  courage,  cow- 
ardice, interest,  ignorance  or  information  naturally  communi- 
cated their  correspondent  impressions  and  but  few  persons 
seemed  entirely  to  coincide  on  the  specific  limits  to  which  these 
popular  proceedings  might  advance  with  safety. 


CHAPTER  VTII. 

DECLARATION   OF  IRISH   RIGHTS  IS   MOVED   IN   THE   HOUSE   OF  COM- 
MONS—TRIUMPHANT   OUTCOME  — IRELAND    IS    A    NATION. 

Mr.  Grattan  had  long  declared  the  absolute  necessity  of 
gratifying  the  people  by  a  legislative  declaration  of  Irish 
rights  and  constitutional  independence,  marking  out  by  an 
indelible  record  that  sacred  Rubicon  past  which  the  British 
government  should  never  more  advance,  and  beyond  which 
the  Irich  nation  should  never  wander.  On  that  point  the  fate 
of  Ireland  vibrated  as  on  a  pivot,  it  must  rise  or  it  must  fall, 
it  could  no  longer  remain  stationary,  and  the  great  landed 
proprietors  strongly  felt  that  they  must  necessarily  partici- 
pate in  its  vicissitudes;  the  court  had  totally  lost  its  influence, 
the  people  had  entirely  acquired  theirs,  the  old  system  of  Irish 
government  was  annihilated,  and  the  British  cabinet  had 
neither  the  wisdom  nor  the  disposition  to  take  a  decisive  lead 
in  more  popular  arrangements;  the  parliament  and  the  peo- 
ple were  gradually  drawing  together,  an  instinctive  sense  of 
the  common  difficulty  called  all  men  towards  some  common 
centre,  all  parties,  all  sects  and  all  factions  looked  to  the  tal- 
ents and  the  honesty  of  Mr.  Grattan ;  they  knew  that  he  had 
no  object  but  his  own  country,  and  no  party  but  its  supporters ; 
they  knew  that  his  energetic  mind  could  neither  be  restrained 
by  resistance  nor  neutralized  by  subterfuge;  he  possessed  all 
those  intellectual  qualities  best  calculated  to  lead  the  Irish 
people  to  the  true  standard  of  freedom. 

It  is  an  observation  not  unworthy  of  remark,  that  in  de- 
scribing the  events  of  that  important  evening,  the  structure  of 
the  Irish  House  of  Commons  (as  before  mentioned)  at  the 
period  of  these  debates  was  particularly  adapted  to  convey 
to  the  people  an  impression  of  dignity  and  of  splendor  in  their 
legislative  assembly;  the  interior  of  the  Commons  House  was 
a  rotunda  of  great  architectural  magnificence;  an  immense 
gallery,  supported  by  Tuscan  pillars,  surrounded  the  inner 
base  of  a  grand  and  lofty  dome ;  in  that  gallery,  on  every  im- 
jDortant  debate,  nearly  seven  hundred  auditors  heard  the  senti- 
ments and  learned  the  characters  of  their  Irish  representa- 
tives; the  gallery  was  never  cleared  on  a  division;  the  rising 
generation  acquired  a  love  of  eloquence  and  of  liberty,  the 

371 


372  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

principles  of  a  just  and  proud  ambition,  the  details  of  public 
business,  and  the  rudiments  of  constitutional  legislation. 

The  front  rows  of  this  gallery  were  generally  occupied  by 
females  of  the  highest  rank  and  fashion,  whose  presence  gave 
an  animating  and  brilliant  si3lendor  to  the  entire  scene,  and  in 
a  nation  such  as  Ireland  then  was,  from  which  the  gallant 
principles  of  chivalry  had  not  been  altogether  banished,  con- 
tributed not  a  little  to  the  preservation  of  that  decorum  so  in- 
dispensable to  the  dignity  and  weight  of  deliberative  as- 
semblies. 

This  entire  gallery  had  been  crowded  at  an  early  hour  by 
personages  of  the  first  respectability  of  both  sexes ;  it  would 
be  difficult  to  describe  the  interesting  appearance  of  the  whole 
assemblage  at  this  awful  moment;  after  the  speech  of  Mr. 
Hutchinson,  which  in  fact  decided  nothing,  a  low,  confidential 
whisper  ran  through  the  house,  and  every  member  seemed  to 
court  the  sentiments  of  his  neighbor  without  venturing  to  ex- 
press his  own ;  the  anxious  spectators  inquisitively  leaned  for- 
ward, awaiting  with  palpitating  expectation  the  development 
of  some  measure  likely  to  decide  the  fate  of  their  country, 
themselves  and  their  posterity.  No  middle  course  could  pos- 
sibly be  adopted;  immediate  conciliation  and  tranquillity,  or 
revolt  and  revolution  was  the  dilemma  which  floated  on  every 
thinking  mind;  a  solemn  pause  ensued;  at  length  Mr.  Grattan, 
slowly  rising  from  his  seat,  commenced  the  most  luminous, 
brilliant,  and  effective  oration  ever  delivered  in  the  Irish  par- 
liament. 

This  speech,  ranking  in  the  very  first  class  of  effective  elo- 
quence, rising  in  its  progress,  applied  equally  to  the  sense, 
the  pride  and  the  spirit  of  the  nation;  every  succeeding  sen- 
tence increased  the  interest  which  his  exordium  had  excited; 
tramping  upon  the  arrogant  claims  and  unconstitutional 
usurpations  of  the  British  government,  he  reasoned  on  the 
enlightened  jorinciple  of  a  federative  compact,  and  urged  ir- 
resistibly the  necessity,  the  justice  and  the  policy  of  immedi- 
ately and  unequivocally  declaring  the  constitutional  independ- 
ence of  the  Irish  nation  and  the  supremacy  of  the  Irish  par- 
liament, as  the  only  effectual  means  of  preserving  the  con- 
nection between  the  two  nations.  His  arguments  were  power- 
ful and  conclusive,  but  they  were  not  original,  it  was  the  very 
same  course  of  argument  which  that  great  Irish  statesman, 
Molyneux,  had  published  near  a  century  before,  the  same  prin- 
ciples on  which  Swift,  the  ablest  of  the  Irish  patriots,  had  de- 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  373 

fended  his  country  and  the  same  which  that  less  able,  but  not 
less  sincere  and  honest  friend  of  Ireland,  Dr.  Lucas,  had  con- 
tinually maintained,  frequently  in  oi>position  to  the  doctrines 
of  Mr.  Grattan 's  own  father.  Some  passages  of  this  oration 
were  particularly  characteristic  of  Mr.  Grattan 's  energetic 
manner.  *'He  admired  that  steady  progressive  vii-tue  which 
had  at  length  awakened  Ireland  to  her  rights,  and  roused 
her  to  her  liberties ;  he  was  not  yet  old,  but  he  remembered  her 
a  child ;  he  had  watched  her  growth ;  from  childhood  she  grew 
to  arms,  from  arms  she  grew  to  liberty;  whenever  historic 
annals  tell  of  great  revolutions  in  favor  of  freedom  they  were 
owing  to  the  quick  feelings  of  an  irritated  populace  excited 
by  some  strong  object  presented  to  their  senses;  such  was 
the  daughter  of  Virginius  sacrificed  to  virtue,  such  were  the 
meagre  and  haggard  looks  of  the  seven  bishops  sacrified  to 
liberty.  But  it  was  not  the  sudden  impulse  of  irritated  feel- 
ings which  had  animated  Ireland,  she  had  calmly  mused  for 
centuri^  on  her  oppressions,  and  as  deliberately  rose  to  res- 
cue the  land  from  her  oppressors. 

For  a  people  to  acquire  liberty  they  must  have  a  lofty  con- 
ception of  themselves ;  what  sets  one  nation  above  another  but 
the  soul  that  dwells  within  her?  Deprive  it  of  its  soul,  it  may 
still  retain  a  strong  arm,  but  from  that  moment  ceases  to  be 
a  nation,  of  what  avail  the  exertions  of  Lords  and  Commons 
if  unsupported  by  the  soul  and  exertions  of  the  people  1  The 
Dungannon  meeting  had  spoken  this  language  with  the  calm 
and  steady  voice  of  an  injured  country ;  that  meeting  had  been 
considered  as  an  alarming  measure  because  it  was  uni^rece- 
dented.  But  it  was  an  original  transaction  and  all  original 
transactions  must  be  unprecedented ;  the  attaimiient  of  Magna 
Charta  had  no  precedent,  it  was  a  great  original  transaction 
not  obtained  by  votes  of  parliament,  but  by  barons  in  the  field. 
To  that  great  original  transaction  England  owed  her  liberty, 
and  to  the  great  original  transaction  at  Dungannon  Ireland 
will  be  indebted  for  hers.  The  Irish  Volunteers  had  associ- 
ated to  support  the  laws  and  the  constitution,  the  usurpations 
of  England  have  violated  both,  and  Ireland  has  therefore 
armed  to  defend  the  principles  of  the  British  constitution 
against  the  violations  of  the  British  government.  Let 
other  nations  basely  suppose  that  people  were  made  for  gov- 
ernments, Ireland  has  declared  that  governments  were  made 
for  the  people,  and  even  crowns,  those  great  luminaries  whose 
brightness  they  all  reflect,  can  receive  their  cheering  fire  only 


374  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

from  the  pure  flame  of  a  free  constitution.  England  has  the 
plea  of  necessity  for  acknowledging  the  independence  of 
America,  for  admitting  Irish  independence  she  has  the  plea  of 
justice!  America  has  shed  much  English  blood,  and  America 
is  to  be  set  free ;  Ireland  has  shed  her  own  blood  for  England, 
and  is  Ireland  to  remain  in  fetters?  Is  Ireland  to  be  the  only 
nation  whose  liberty  England  will  not  acknowledge,  and  whose 
affections  she  cannot  subdue?  We  have  received  the  civic 
crown  from  our  people,  and  shall  we,  like  slaves,  lay  it  down 
at  the  feet  of  British  sui^remacy?" 

Proceeding  in  the  same  glow  of  language  and  of  reasoning, 
and  amidst  an  universal  cry  of  approbation,  Mr.  Grattan  went 
fully  into  a  detail  of  Irish  rights  and  grievances,  and  con- 
cluded his  statement  by  moving,  as  an  amendment  to  Mr.  Pon- 
sonby's  motion,  "That  an  humble  address  be  presented  to  his 
majesty  to  return  his  majesty  the  thanks  of  this  house  for  his 
most  gracious  message  to  this  house,  delivered  by  his  Grace, 
the  Lord  Lieutenant. 

''To  assure  his  Majesty  of  our  unshaken  attachment  to 
his  Majesty's  person  and  government,  and  of  our  lively  sense 
of  his  paternal  care  in  thus  taking  the  lead  to  administer  con- 
tent to  his  Majesty's  subjects  to  Ireland. 

"That  thus  encouraged  by  his  royal  interposition,  we  shall 
beg  leave,  with  all  duty  and  submission,  to  lay  before  his  Maj- 
esty the  cause  of  all  our  discontents  and  jealousies ;  to  assure 
his  Majesty  that  his  subjects  of  Ireland  are  a  free  people,  that 
the  crown  of  Ireland  is  an  imperial  crown,  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  crown  of  Great  Britain  on  which  connection 
the  interests  and  happiness  of  both  nations  essentially  de- 
pend—but that  the  kingdom  of  Ireland  is  a  distinct  kingdom, 
with  a  parliament  of  her  oivn  the  sole  legislature  thereof— 
that  there  is  no  body  of  men  competent  to  make  laws  to  bind 
the  nation  but  the  King,  Lords  and  Commons  of  Ireland— nor 
any  parliament  which  hath  any  authority  or  power  of  any  sort 
whatever  in  this  country  save  only  the  parliament  of  Ireland 
—to  assure  his  Majesty  that  we  humbly  conceive  that  in  this 
right  the  very  essence  of  our  liberty  exists— a  right  which  we, 
on  the  part  of  the  people  of  Ireland,  do  claim  as  their  birth- 
right, and  which  we  cannot  yield  but  with  our  lives. ' ' 

The  effect  of  this  speech  and  the  concluding  amendment 
was  instantaneous  and  decisive.  A  legislative  declaration  of 
independence  at  once  placed  the  rights  and  determinations  of 
of  Ireland  on  a  footing  too  high  to  be  relinquished  without  an 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  375 

exterminating  contest ;  the  circumstances  of  both  nations  were 
imperative;  Ireland  was  committed  and  must  persist,  and 
Great  Britain  had  lavished  in  America  her  powers  of  resist- 
ance. That  haughty  govermuent,  which  in  all  the  arrogance 
of  superior  force  had  for  so  many  centuries  lorded  over  the 
natural  rights  and  scoffed  at  the  groans  of  her  sister  country, 
at  length  reached  the  highest  climax  of  oppression  and  intoler- 
ance, and  was  necessitated  to  acknowledge  the  wrongs  and  the 
virtues  of  that  people,  and  peaceably  capitulate  to  a  nation 
which,  by  honest  means,  it  might  at  any  time  have  conciliated. 
The  whole  house  in  a  moment  caught  the  patriotic  flame, 
which  seemed  to  issue  from  every  bench  of  the  entire  as- 
sembly. Mr.  Grattan  had  selected,  to  second  and  support  his 
declaration,  a  person  who  gave  it  as  much  influence  as  charac- 
ter and  independence  could  possibly  communicate.  Well 
aware  of  the  great  importance  which  was  attributed  to  the 
accession  of  the  landed  interest  in  parliamentary  measures, 
he  judicially  selected  Mr.  Brownlow,  member  for  the  county 
of  Armagh,  as  one  of  the  first  of  the  country  gentlemen  in 
point  of  wealth  and  reputation. 

No  man  could  better  be  adapted  to  obtain  the  concurrence 
of  the  landed  interest  than  Mr.  Brownlow.  His  own  stake  in 
the  country  was  too  great  to  be  risked  on  giddy  speculations ; 
his  interests  were  entirely  identified  with  those  of  the  coun- 
try; and  having  no  courtly  connections  to  detract  from  his 
independence,  or  aristocratic  trains  to  trifle  with  his  purity, 
everything  he  said,  and  every  measure  he  supported,  carried 
a  certain  portion  of  influence  amongst  the  country  gentlemen, 
and  they  often  followed  his  example  solely  because  they  could 
not  suspect  its  honesty. 

The  great  body  of  the  landed  proprietors  in  parliament, 
though  intrinsically  honest,  were  simple,  prejudiced,  refrac- 
tory, and  gregarious ;  the  Government,  on  ordinary  occasions, 
found  it  not  difficult  to  delude  or  disunite  them ;  and  even  on 
this  day,  without  such  a  leader  as  Mr.  Brownlow,  the  entire 
unanimity  of  their  opinion  on  their  conduct  could  by  no  means 
be  depended  on. 

After  Mr.  Grattan  had  concluded,  Mr.  Brownlow  instantly 
rose— a  great  symptom  of  approbation  ran  through  the  house 
at  perceiving  so  great  an  auxiliary  to  so  decisive  a  declaration 
—his  example  gave  countenance  to  many,  and  confidence  to  all ; 
his  speech  was  short,  but  it  was  decided,  and  expressed  in  such 
terms  as  at  once  determined  the  country  gentlemen  to  adopt 


376  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  measure  in  its  full  extent  without  further  delay,  and  to 
pledge  their  lives  and  fortunes  to  the  support  and  establish- 
ment of  Irish  independence;  he  said,  ''as  he  had  the  honor 
to  second  the  mover  in  adversity,  he  could  not  avoid  main- 
taining the  same  honor  at  a  moment  of  triumph.  He  had 
long  seen  that  things  must  come  to  this ;  the  people  had  learned 
their  rights  and  they  ivould  have  them.  An  end  has  been  pro- 
claimed to  temporizing  expedients,  to  artful  delay,  and  to 
political  junctions;  the  people  have  demanded  their  rights, 
and  the  Irish  parliament  will  support  them  with  their  lives  and 
fortunes.  He  would  leave  the  other  side  of  the  House  to  dis- 
cuss the  subject,  and  if  they  were  anxious  to  atone  for  their 
past  conduct,  he  would  not  check  the  ardor  of  their  patriotism, 
which,  after  being  so  long  restrained,  seemed  ready  to  burst 
forth,  and  he  should  rejoice  in  the  explosion.  As  to  the  declara- 
tion of  rights,  the  honorable  gentleman  would  have  the  eter- 
nal gratification  of  having  reared  this  infant  child,  his  (Mr. 
Brownlow's)  only  merit  would  be,  that,  though  he  could  not 
maintain  it  with  ability,  his  utmost  zeal  should  be  exerted  to 
support  it." 

On  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Brownlow's  speech,  another  short 
pause  ensued;  but  it  was  not  a  pause  of  doubt,  the  measure 
was  obviously  decided,  the  victory  was  complete;  nothing  re- 
mained in  suspense  but  through  whom,  and  by  what  species 
of  declaration  the  Government  could  submit  to  so  strong  a 
measure ;  some  of  the  officers  of  the  Crown  had  been  the  ser- 
vants of  the  last  administration,  and  the  short  period  from 
the  arrival  of  the  Duke  of  Portland  had  given  no  time  to  his 
cabinet  for  consideration  or  concert ;  the  djTiasty  of  diplomatic 
evasion  had  ceased  to  reign ;  and  for  the  first  time  in  the  annals 
of  the  British  history,  the  officers  and  ministers  of  govern- 
ment appeared  to  be  let  loose  upon  the  parliament,  to  recant 
their  principles  and  capitulate  for  their  characters.  .The  first 
they  performed,  the  latter  they  failed  in.  Men  may  pity  the 
feelings  of  a  vanquished  enemy,  but  they  can  never  securely 
trust  to  his  compulsory  repentance,  and  they  who  had  ex- 
pended every  day  of  their  political  life  in  upholding  the  prin- 
ciple of  British  supremacy,  could  hardly  expect  to  receive 
more  confidence  from  the  nation  than  that  which  belongs  to 
the  character  of  defeated  apostates. 

Mr.  George  Ponsonby,  on  the  part  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant, 
submitted  with  as  good  a  grace  as  the  circumstance  would 
admit  of,  to  a  proceeding  which  it  was  impossible  could  be 


In  the  Days  uf  Grattan  ;^77 

pleasing  lo  any  English  ministry.  Mr.  Ponsonby  had  been 
generally  in  opposition  since  the  time  of  his  father's  disagree- 
ment with  Lord  Townsend,  and  his  family  being  entirely  at- 
tached to  the  Whig  interests  of  England,  the  change  of  min- 
istry naturally  brought  to  the  Maniuis  of  Kockingham's  ad- 
ministration and  aid,  the  persons  who  had  been  so  long  in 
opposition  to  his  predecessor.  Mr.  Ponsonby 's  family,  of 
course,  connected  itself  in  Ireland  with  the  Duke  of  Portland, 
and  it  was  exijected  that  he  would  have  been  placed  in  high 
confidence  under  his  Grace's  administration. 

Blending  an  aristocratic  mind  with  patriotic  feelings,  and 
connected  with  a  Viceroy  who  could  himself  hardly  guess  the 
road  he  might  have  to  travel,  Mr.  Ponsonby  could  not  at  such  a 
moment  be  expected  to  play  the  full  game  of  popular  expecta- 
tion. Extensive  and  high  family  connections,  whatever  party 
they  espouse  in  public  transactions,  ever  communicate  some 
tints  of  their  own  coloring,  and  impose  some  portion  of  volun- 
tary restraint  upon  the  free  agency  of  public  characters ;  and 
had  Mr.  Ponsonby  been  an  isolated  man,  he  would  have  been  a 
more  distinguished  personage.  A  nation  may  sometimes  look 
with  confidence  to  individuals,  but  they  are  a  credulous  people 
who  look  with  confidence  to  i^arty.  Individuals  may  be  honest, 
but  gregarious  integrity  would  be  a  phenomenon  in  politics. 
It  is  the  collisions  of  party,  not  their  visionary  virtue,  that  is 
advantageous  to  a  people  who  frequently  acquire  their  rights 
not  through  the  political  purity,  but  through  the  rancorous 
recrimination  of  amibitious  factions. 

On  this  occasion,  however,  Mr.  Ponsonby 's  steady,  judi- 
cious, and  plausible  address  exactly  corresponded  with  the 
exigencies  of  the  Viceroy,  and  gave  a  tinge  of  generous  conces- 
sion to  his  Grace's  accedence,  which  the  volatile  gratitude  of 
the  Irish  nation  for  a  moment  mistook  for  genuine  sincerity. 
Mr.  Ponsonby  sought  to  be  considered  at  the  same  moment  as 
faithful  to  his  country  and  faithful  to  its  government ,  a  union 
which  the  bad  policy  of  England  had  taught  the  Irish  people 
to  consider  as  incompatible.  His  manner  and  his  speech,  how- 
ever, had  the  effect  intended.  His  fair  and  discreet  reputation 
gave  great  weight  to  so  gratifying  a  declaration ;  and  no  im- 
pression could  be  more  favorable  to  the  Duke  of  Portland  than 
that  which  he  derived  from  the  short,  conciliating  observations 
of  Mr.  Ponsonby.  He  stated,  ''that  he  most  willingly  con- 
sented to  the  proposed  amendment,  and  would  answer  that 
the__noble  Lord  who  presided  in  the  government  of  Ireland^ 


378  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

wished  to  do  everything  in  his  power  for  the  satisfaction  of 
the  nation,  and  he  knew  that  the  noble  Duke  would  not  lose 
one  moment  in  forwarding  this  remonstrance  of  parliament  to 
the  Throne,  and  he  would  use  his  utmost  influence  in  obtaining 
the  rights  of  Ireland,  an  object  on  which  he  had  fixed  his 
heart.'* 

This  declaration  was  received  with  the  loudest  cheers  by 
a  great  majority  of  the  House ;  but  there  existed  men  whose 
wise  scejjticism  still  retained  their  doubts  of  his  Excellency's 
unsophisticated  sincerity.  They  reflected  justly,  that  the  irre- 
sistible position  of  Ireland  alone  had  at  length  induced  the 
British  government  to  this  magnanimous  declaration.  Past 
events  had  indisf)utably  decided,  that  whether  cabinets  of 
Whigs  or  cabinets  of  Tories  had  ruled  the  British  councils, 
the  system  of  its  government  had  remained  invariably  adverse 
to  the  rights  of  Ireland ;  high  British  supremacy  had  been  the 
principles  and  the  practice  of  all  its  administrations  and  of  all 
its  princes ;  and  amidst  all  the  changes  and  revolutions  of  Eng- 
land, Ireland  had  never  yet  experienced  one  friendly  ministry. 

On  this  subject  Mr.  Flood  (one  of  the  ablest  men  that  Ire- 
land ever  produced)  was  this  night  silent.  He  saw  further, 
and  thought  deeper  than  any  of  his  contemporaries ;  he  knew 
the  world  and  of  course  was  sceptical.  As  a  popular  orator, 
he  was  inferior  to  Mr.  Grattan,  but  as  a  deliberate  senator  he 
was  vastly  his  superior.  He  knew  that  all  precedent  of  Brit- 
ish cabinets  gave  just  reason  to  attribute  this  sudden  transi- 
tion of  English  policy,  not  to  the  feelings  of  her  liberality, 
but  to  the  extent  of  her  embarrassments ;  and  that  the  Duke  of 
Portland's  having  ''set  his  heart"  upon  obtaining  the  rights 
of  Ireland,  was  only  giving  the  gloss  of  voluntary  merit  to  a 
concession  which  was  in  fact  a  matter  of  absolute  necessity, 
and  without  which  his  Grace  foresaw  that  all  British  authority 
in  Ireland  would  be  extinguished  forever.  Mr.  Flood 's  confi- 
dence, therefore,  never  was  implicit.  Mr.  Grattan,  on  the  con- 
trary, was  deceived  by  his  own  zeal,  and  duped  by  his  own 
honesty;  and  his  friend.  Lord  Charlemont,  was  too  courtly 
a  nobleman  to  suspect  his  Grace  of  such  consummate  insin- 
cerity. But  Mr.  Flood  even  at  that  moment  did  not  stand 
alone  in  this  ungracious  incredulity ;  and  ensuing  events  have 
fully  confirmed  the  wisdom  of  his  scepticism. 

This  speech  of  Mr.  Ponsonby's  is  the  more  remarkable,  be- 
cause it  was  reserved  for  the  same  Mr,  Ponsonby,  seventeen 
years  afterwards,  to  expose,  in  the  clearest  and  most  able  Ian- 


In  the  Day«  of  Gkaitan  379 

gnnp:o,  tliis  very  (lii]ilioity  of  tlio  same  Dnkc  of  Portland;  and 
the  open  avowal  of  liis  Grace  iu  1799,  that  lie  had  "never" 
considered  that  this  concession  of  Eiij>;land,  in  1782,  should  bo 
a  final  adjustment  between  the  two  nations,  leaves  no  room  for 
doubt  as  to  his  Grace's  mental  reservation,  and  the  existence 
of  a  diplomatic  sophistry  which  the  Irish  i)arliament,  gulled 
by  their  own  credulity,  and  enveloi)ed  in  a  cloud  of  gratitude 
and  exultation,  were  at  that  moment  prevented  from  suspect- 
ing. 

Mr.  Hussey  Burgh,  and  some  other  members,  shortly  but 
zealously  supported  this  declaration  of  Irish  independence; 
all  was  unanimity;  not  a  symptom  of  opposition  was  mani- 
fested, but  on  the  close  of  the  proceeding,  a  circumstance  not 
less  remarkable  than  disgusting  occurred. 

Mr.  John  Fitzgibbon,  whose  indigenous  hostility  to  the 
liberties  of  his  country  had  never  omitted  any  opportunity  of 
oi^posing  its  emancipation,  on  a  sudden  became  metamor- 
phosed ,  assumed  a  strange  and  novel  character,  and  professed 
himself  not  only  the  warmest  advocate  of  Irish  freedom,  but 
a  deadly  and  inveterate  foe  to  that  very  system  of  British 
usurj^ation,  to  the  practice  of  which,  till  that  moment,  he  had 
himself  been  an  undeviating  and  virulent  supporter. 

Mr.  Fitzgibbon 's  embarrassment  in  making  this  declaration 
was  too  strong  and  too  new  in  him  to  remain  unnoticed.  The 
unanimity  of  the  House  had  left  him  no  room  for  cavil.  His 
former  conduct  had  left  him  no  room  for  consistence.  His 
haughty  disposition  despised  neutrality,  and  his  overbearing 
mind  revolted  from  submission;  his  stubborn  heart,  though 
humiliated,  was  unsubdued.  But  he  saw  that  he  was  unsup- 
ported by  his  friends,  and  felt  that  he  was  powerless  against 
his  enemies.  To  such  a  mind  the  conflict  was  most  dreadful ; 
a  sovereign  contemjot  for  i3ublic  opinion  was  his  only  solace, 
and  never  did  he  more  fully  require  the  aid  of  that  consola- 
tion. 

This  most  remarkable,  false,  and  inconsistent  of  all  polit- 
ical recantations  ever  pronounced  by  a  confirmed  courtier,  was 
delivered  in  the  tone  of  a  confirmed  patriot.  *'No  man,"  said 
Mr.  Fitzgibbon,  with  an  affected  emphasis,  **can  say  that  the 
Duke  of  Portland  has  power  to  grant  us  that  redress  which 
the  nation  unanimously  demands,  but  as  Ireland  is  committed, 
no  man,  I  trust,  will  shirk  from  her  support,  but  go  through, 
hand  and  heart,  in  the  establishment  of  our  liberties.  As  I 
;was  cautious  in  committing,  so  I  am  now  firm  in  asserting 


380  Ikeland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  rights  of  my  country.  My  declaration,  therefore,  is,  that 
as  the  nation  has  determined  to  obtain  the  restoration  of  her 
liberty,  it  behooves  every  man  in  Ireland  to  stand  firm."  Yet 
this  was  the  Fitzgibbon  who  in  a  few  years  trampled  on  her 
liberties,  and  sold  her  constitution. 

The  effect  produced  by  this  extraordinary  speech  from  a 
man,  the  w^hole  tenor  of  whose  public  life  had  been  in  hostil- 
ity to  its  principles,  neither  added  weight  to  the  measure  nor 
gained  character  for  the  speaker;  disgust  was  the  most  pre- 
valent sensation,  but  had  he  been  a  less  able  man,  contempt 
would  have  been  more  prominent.  All  further  debate  ceased ; 
the  speaker  put  the  question  on  Mr.  Grattan's  amendment;  a 
unanimous  "AYE"  burst  forth  from  every  quarter  of  the 
house ;  he  repeated  the  question,  the  applause  was  redoubled, 
a  moment  of  tumultuous  exultation  followed,  and,  after  cen- 
turies of  oppression,  Ireland  at  length  declared  herself  an 
INDEPENDENT  NATION. 

This  important  event  quickly  reached  the  impatient  crowds 
of  every  rank  of  society,  who,  without  doors,  awaited  the 
decision  of  their  parliament  ;a  cry  of  joy  and  exultation  spread 
with  electric  rapidity  through  the  entire  city;  its  echo  pene- 
trated to  the  very  interior  of  the  house,  everything  gave  way 
to  an  effusion  of  happiness  and  congratulation  that  had  never 
before  been  exhibited  in  that  misgoverned  country. 

Ireland  from  that  moment  assumed  a  new  aspect ;  she  rose 
majestically  from  her  ruins,  and  surveyed  the  author  of  her 
resurrection  with  admiration  and  with  gratitude.  A  young 
barrister,  without  professional  celebrity,  without  family  con- 
nections, possesed  of  no  considerable  fortune,  nor  of  any  per- 
sonal influence,  save  that  which  talent  and  virtue  involun- 
tarily acquire,  leagued  with  no  faction,  supported  individually 
by  no  political  party,  became  the  instrument  of  Providence  to 
liberate  his  country,  and  in  a  single  day  achieved  what  the 
most  able  statesmen,  the  most  elevated  personages,  the  most 
powerful  and  best  connected  parties  never  could  effect.  Aided 
by  the  circumstances  of  the  moment,  he  seized  the  opportunity 
with  promptitude,  vigor  and  perseverence ;  but  whilst  he 
raised  his  country  to  prosperity,  and  himself  to  unexpected 
fortune  and  never-fading  honor,  he  acquired  vindictive 
enemies  by  the  brilliancy  of  his  success,  and  afterwards  fell 
a  temporary  sacrifice  to  the  perseverance  of  their  malice  and 
the  dissimulations  of  their  jealousy. 

Mr.  Connolly  and  Sir  Henry  Cavendish,  also,  on  this  night; 


In  the  Days  of  Cjrattan  381 

as  ardently  snpporiod  ll)0  indopondonoo  of  Troland,  as  if  it 
was  a  principle  grafted  in  tlieir  nature.  Botli  of  them  had 
put  their  signatures  to  a  ''life  and  fortune"  declaration,  to 
uphold  the  perpetual  independence  of  their  country,  but  it 
will  appear  in  the  progress  of  Irish  affairs,  how  little  reliance 
is  to  be  i^laced  on  political  declarations,  where  an  alteration 
of  circumstances  or  connections  so  frequently  operates  as  a 
remuneration  of  principle.  On  the  discussion  of  the  Union  in 
the  year  1800,  Sir  Henry  had  exchanged  the  Duke  of  Devon- 
shire for  an  employment  in  the  treasury,  and  a  new  planet 
had  arisen  to  influence  Mr.  Connolly ;  in  that  year  both  those 
gentlemen  declaimed  as  conscientiously  against  the  independ- 
ence of  the  Irish  nation,  as  if  they  had  never  pledged  their 
''lives  and  fortunes"  for  their  perpetual  support  of  it. 

It  was  impossible  for  any  uninterested  observer  of  the 
character  and  composition  of  the  Irish  Parliament  to  have 
conceived  that  the  apparent  unanimity  of  this  night  could  have 
arisen  from  any  one  principle  of  universal  action.  Men 
were  actuated  by  various  motives,  forming  a  mixed  composi- 
tion of  patriotism  and  of  policy;  it  was  the  unanimous  firm- 
ness of  the  people,  and  not  the  abstract  virtue  of  their  dele- 
gates, which  achieved  this  revolution,  nor  is  it  possible  to 
read  some  of  the  popular  resolutions  of  that  day  without 
feeling  admiration  at  the  happy  union  of  spirit,  of  patriotism, 
and  of  prudence,  which  characterized  their  proceedings. 

When  the  intelligence  of  these  events  was  circulated 
through  the  nation,  the  joy  and  rejoicings  of  the  people  were 
beyond  all  description;  every  city,  town,  and  village  in  Ire- 
land blazed  with  the  emblems  of  exultation,  and  resounded 
with  the  shouts  of  triumph.  The  Volunteers,  however,  were 
not  dazzled  by  the  sunshine  of  the  moment ;  they  became  more 
active  than  more  remiss.  Much,  indeed,  was  faithfully  prom- 
ised, but  still  everything  remained  to  be  actually  performed, 
and  it  soon  appeared,  that  hmnan  life  is  not  more  uncertain 
in  its  duration  than  political  faith  precarious  in  its  sincerity. 
The  fair  intentions  of  one  government  are  generally  called  at 
least  injudicious  by  its  succesors ;  political  honesty  has  often 
vegetated  in  British  Councils,  but  never  yet  did  it  survive  to 
the  period  of  maturity,  and  the  short  existence  of  the  Duke 
of  Portland's  splendid  administration  warranted  the  cautious 
suspicions  of  the  Volunteers,  and  afforded  the  succeeding  min- 
istry an  opportunity  for  attempting  those  insidious  measures 


382 


Ireland's  Crown  or  Thorns  and  Roses 


wbieli  soon  afterwards  characterized  anew  the  dispositions  of 
the  British  Cabinet. 

The  i3arliament  and  the  people,  when  the  paroxysm  of 
their  joy  had  subsided,  waited  with  some  solicitude  for  the 
King's  reply  to  the  declaration  of  their  independence,  and  a 
general  suspension  of  public  business  took  place  until  its  ar- 
rival. It  was,  however,  the  first  pause  of  confidence  and  tran- 
quillity that  Ireland  had  experienced  since  her  connection  with 
Great  Britain ;  little  could  she  then  foresee  that  her  new  pros- 
perity was  but  the  precursor  of  future  evils  and  of  scenes  as 
cruel  and  as  destructive  as  any  she  had  ever  before  expe- 
rienced. The  seeds  of  the  Irish  union  were  sown  by  the  very 
same  event  which  had  procured  her  independence,  so  early  as 
1784.  That  independence  was  assailed  by  a  despotic  minister 
under  color  of  a  commercial  tariff.  In  1789  events  connectedwith 
the  malady  of  the  Monarch  and  the  firm  adherence  of  the  Irish 
Parliaments  to  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  Heir  Apparent 
determined  the  same  minister  in  the  fatal  project  of  extin- 
guishing the  Irish  legislature,  and  in  1798,  a  rebellion  artifi- 
cially permitted  to  terrify  the  country,  and  followed  by  acts 
and  scenes  of  unparalleled  corruption,  for  a  moment  warped 
away  the  minds  of  men  from  the  exercise  of  common  reason, 
and  gave  power  and  pretence  to  the  British  Cabinet  to  effect 
that  extinguishment  at  a  moment  of  national  derangement. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ENGLAND  ANGERED    AT    IRELAND ^S   SUCCESS  — DUKE   OF    PORTLAND'S 
DUPLICITY  — THE  VOLUNTEERS  PREPARE  FOR  ACTION. 

The  foundation  of  Irish  independence  had  now  been  laid, 
by  the  spirit  of  the  Parliament  and  the  unanimity  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  the  stately  structure  of  Irish  liberty  seemed  likely  to 
rise  with  solidity  and  magnificence.  The  laborers  were  nu- 
merous and  indefatigable,  and  nothing  was  to  be  dreaded 
but  contrariety  in  the  plans,  or  jealousy  among  the  architects- 
dangers  which  are  proved  by  the  sequel  of  her  history,  to  be 
the  true  and  substantial  cause  of  Ireland's  annexation.  It  is 
demonstrated  by  facts,  beyond  the  power  of  refutation,  that 
from  the  moment  the  British  ministry  found  it  imperatively 
necessary  to  submit  to  this  declaration  of  Irish  independence, 
no  consideration  was  paramount  in  their  councils  to  the  desire 
of  counteracting  it.  In  furtherance  of  that  object,  from  the 
period  of  the  Duke  of  Portland's  administration  to  that  of 
Lord  Cornwallis,  the  old  system  of  dividing  the  Irish  against 
each  other,  and  jDrofiting  by  their  dissensions,  was  artfully 
pursued  by  the  English  Ministry,  to  re-establish  their  own 
supremacy ;  and  from  that  moment  they  resolved  to  achieve, 
at  any  risk  or  price,  that  disastrous  measure,  which,  at  one 
blow,  has  prostrated  the  pride,  the  power,  and  the  legislature 
of  Ireland,  and  reduced  her  from  the  rank  of  a  nation  to  the 
level  of  a  department.  But  the  people  had  now  no  leisure  for 
suspicious  forethought  or  mature  reflection,  and  the  interval 
between  the  declaration  of  independence  and  the  reply  of  his 
Majesty  to  that  declaration,  though  a  period  of  deep  anxiety, 
neither  awakened  serious  doubts,  nor  produced  implicit  confi- 
dence. 

An  adjournment  for  three  weeks  was  now  proposed  in  the 
Commons,  to  give  time  for  the  arrival  of  His  iSfajesty's  an- 
swer to  their  Address  and  Declaration.  This  motion,  though 
it  gave  rise  to  a  conversation  rather  than  a  debate,  produced 
one  of  the  most  singular  political  phenomenons  that  had  ever 
appeared  in  the  history  of  any  nation. 

Mr.  John  Scott,  then  Attorney  General,  afterwards  Lord 
Clonmel,  whose  despotic  conduct  had  pre\aously  given  rise 
to  so  many  and  severe  animadversions,  took  advantage  on  this 

383 


384  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

occasion  to  recant  his  former  and  favorite  political  principle, 
that  * 'might  constitutes  right."  He  now  declared  his  firm 
and  unqualified  adherence  to  the  claims  of  Ireland,  in  terms 
which,  a  week  before,  he  would  have  prosecuted  as  a  se- 
ditious libel,  and  tendered  his  large  fortune  toward  a  general 
fund,  to  enforce  from  Great  Britain  the  rights  of  his  country, 
if  force  should  become  necessary. 

He  said  that  he  now  felt  it  indispensable  for  him  to 
throw  off  all  equivocal  and  mysterious  silence,  and  declared 
as  his  unchangeable  opinion,  that  Great  Britain  never  had 
any  right  whatever  to  bind  his  country,  and  that  any  acts  she 
had  ever  done  for  that  purpose  were  decided  usurpations. 
That  if  the  tenure  of  his  office  of  Attorney  General  depended 
upon  the  maintenance  of  doctrines  injurious  to  the  rights  and 
independence  of  Ireland,  it  was  an  infamous  tenure;  and  if 
the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  were  determined  to  lord  it 
over  Ireland,  he  was  resolved  not  to  be  their  villain  in  execut- 
ing their  tyranny.  That  if  matters  should  proceed  to  the  ex- 
tremity to  which  he  feared  they  were  verging,  he  should  not 
be  an  insignificant  subscriber  to  the  fund  for  defending  their 
common  rights.  That  a  life  of  much  labor,  together  with  the 
blessing  of  Providence,  and  what  is  commonly  called  good 
luck,  had  given  him  a  landed  property  of  £5,000  per  year,  and 
an  office  of  great  emolument,  all  of  which  should  certainly  be 
devoted  to  the  service  of  his  country.  That  it  would  be  dis- 
graceful, for  the  paltry  emoluments  of  an  office,  to  stand 
watching  the  vibrations  of  the  balance,  when  he  had  deter- 
mined to  throw  his  life  and  fortune  into  the  scale.  "I  know," 
concluded  the  Attorney  General,  ''that  the  public  mind  is  on 
fire ;  I  know  that  the  determination  of  the  people  is  to  be  free, 
and  I  adopt  their  determination. ' ' 

A  speech  of  so  strong  and  stormy  a  nature,  never  having 
before  been  uttered  by  any  Minister  or  Law  Officer  of  the 
British  Empire,  nor  even  by  any  member  of  the  Irish  Par- 
liament, created  a  sensation  which  it  is  scarcely  possible  to 
describe.    One  sentence  conveyed  a  volume  of  information. 

*'If  matters  proceed  to  the  extremities  to  which  I  fear  they 
are  verging,"  was  a  direct  declaration  of  mistrust  in  the  Gov- 
ernment he  served ;  and  such  a  speech,  made  in  Parliament  by 
the  first  confidential  executive  Law  Officer  of  the  Crown,  pos- 
sessed a  character  of  mystery  and  great  importance. 

The  dread  of  an  insurrection  in  Ireland  was  thus,  in  direct 
terms,  announced  by  the  King's  Attorney  General,  and  by  his 


In  the  Days  of  G rattan  385 

intrepid  determination  to  risk  his  life  and  fortune  to  support 
its  objects,  he  afforded  good  reason  to  apprehend  that  his 
Majesty's  reply  was  not  likely  to  be  such  as  would  cultivate 
tranquillity,  and  left  no  doubt  that  the  Attorney  General  fore- 
boded an  unwise  reluctance  in  the  British  Cabinet,  to  a  meas- 
ure so  vital  to  the  peace,  perhaps  to  the  integrity,  of  the 
British  Empire.  This  conduct  of  Mr.  Scott,  coupled  with  the 
previous  secession  of  Mr.  Fitzgibbon,  must  be  looked  on  as 
among  the  most  extraordinary  occurrences  of  these,  or  any 
other,  times  in  Ireland. 

In  the  history  of  nations  and  of  parliaments,  there  is  not 
another  instance  of  two  such  men,  publicly  professing  and 
practicing  the  principles  of  arbitrary  power,  being  so  humbled, 
and  reduced  to  the  abject  condescension  of  feigning  a  public 
virtue  they  had  theretofore  but  ridiculed,  and  assuming  a 
fictitious  patriotism,  the  result,  at  best,  of  their  fears  or  of 
their  policy. 

However,  be  the  motive  what  it  might,  that  most  unpre- 
cedented conduct  taught  the  British  Government  that  they 
could  no  longer  trifle  with  Ireland.  Their  joower  was  then 
extinct,  and  no  course  remained  but  that  of  instantly  relin- 
quishing their  long  vaunted  supremacy,  and  surrendering  at 
discretion  to  the  just  demands  of  a  determined  and  potent 
people;  and  the  splendid,  though  temporary  triumph  achieved 
by  Ireland,  affords  a  glorious  precedent  for  oppressed  nations, 
and  an  instructive  lesson  for  arrogant  usurpation. 

Immediately  on  this  unexpected  turn,  the  Duke  of  Port- 
land sent  off  two  despatches  to  England ;  one  to  the  Cabinet 
as  a  public  document,  and  the  other,  a  i3rivate  and  confidential 
note  to  Mr.  Fox.  The  latter  document  explained  his  reasons 
for  the  necessity  he  felt  of  acceding,  without  any  appearance 
of  reluctance,  to  any  demands  which  might  at  that  moment 
be  made  by  the  Irish  Parliament;  but  intimated  ''that  so 
strong  a  difference  of  opinion  appeared  to  exist  between  some 
gentlemen  of  weight  that  arrangements  more  favorable  to 
England  might  possibly  be  effected  through  their  contro- 
versies, although  he  could  not  venture  to  propose  such,  were 
they  perfectly  unanimous.  He  stated,  in  conclusion,  that  he 
would  omit  no  opportunity  of  cultivating  his  connection  with 
the  Earl  of  Charlemont,  who  appeared  entirely  disposed  to 
place  confidence  in  his  administration,  and  to  give  a  proper 
tone  to  the  armed  bodies  over  which  he  had  the  most  con- 
siderable influence." 


380  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Rosejs 

So  skillfully  did  he  act  upon  these  suggestions,  that  he  in- 
veigled the  good  but  feeble  Earl  Charlemont  entirely  into  his 
trammels,  and  as  long  as  his  Grace  remained  in  the  Irish  Gov- 
ernment, he  not  only  much  influenced  that  nobleman,  but  kept 
him  at  arms  length  from  some  of  the  ablest  statesmen  of  the 
country,  without  their  perceiving  the  insidious  power  that 
caused  the  separation. 

The  other  Ministers  adopted  the  same  principles,  and  they 
did  not  despair,  by  plausible  conduct,  according  to  the  Duke 
of  Portland's  policy,  to  temporize  with  all  parties,  of  playing 
off  the  people  and  the  Parliament  imperceptibly  against  each 
other ;  and,  by  gradually  diminishing  their  mutual  confidence, 
bringing  both  to  a  dependence  upon  the  good  faith  of  the 
British  Ministry,  and  so  indisposing  the  Irish  Parliament 
from  insisting  upon  any  measures  which  might  humble  the 
pride,  or  alarm  the  interests  of  the  British  nation. 

The  British  Cabinet  had  certainly  great  embarrassments 
to  encounter.  They  had  the  difficult  step  to  take  of  gratify- 
ing the  claims  of  Ireland  without  affecting  the  egotism  of 
Great  Britain.  But  the  relative  interests  of  the  two  countries 
being  in  many  points  fundamentally  repugnant,  the  dilemma 
of  Ministers  was  extremely  embarrassing.  It  was  doubly  in- 
creased by  a  declaration  of  rights,  and  a  positive  demand, 
which  anticipated  the  credit  of  a  spontaneous  generosity;  an 
advantage  which  was  now  lost  to  them  forever.  Their  volun- 
tary favors  would  now  be  changed  to  compulsory  grants,  the 
extent  of  which  they  could  neither  foresee  nor  control. 

While  the  British  Cabinet  and  the  Irish  Viceroy  actively 
corresponded,  the  Irish  nation  was  not  idle.  No  relaxation 
was  permitted  in  the  warlike  preparations  of  the  Volunteer 
army.  Reviews  and  discipline  were  continued  with  uninter- 
mitting  ardor  and  emulation.  Their  artillery  was  daily  exer- 
cised in  the  Phoenix  Park,  near  Dublin,  Camp  equipage  was 
preparing  for  actual  service,  and  on  the  day  to  which  the 
parliament  adjourned,  the  whole  of  the  Volunteer  force  of 
the  metropolis  was  under  arms,  and  fully  prepared  for  the 
alternative  (which  the  decision  of  his  Majesty's  Cabinet, 
through  the  speech  of  its  Viceroy,  might  impose  upon  the  peo- 
ple) either  to  return  to  their  homes  for  the  peaceful  enjoy- 
ment of  their  rights  or  instantly  take  the  field.  Musters  had 
been  ordered,  to  ascertain  the  probable  numbers  of  Volunteers 
ready  for  immediate  active  service.  The  returns  had  in- 
creased from  the  former  census  to  about  124,000  ofBcers  and 


In  the  Days  of  Grattax  387 

solillcrs,  of  wliom  upwards  of  100,000  offeotlvos,  woll  nrmod 
and  disciplined,  and  owning  no  superior  but  God  and  their 
country,  would,  on  tlie  first  sound  of  an  hostile  trumpet,  have 
rushed  with  enthusiasm  to  the  standards  of  independence.  The 
Volunteer  regiments  and  corps  were  commanded  by  gentle- 
men of  rank  and  consideration  in  the  country,  and  disciplined 
by  retired  officers  of  the  British  army;  the  sergeants  being 
chiefly  veteran  soldiers  who  had  fought  in  the  American  cam- 
paigns, and  learned  from  their  own  defeats  the  powers  of  a 
people  determined  to  obtain  their  freedom.  The  whole  dis- 
posable military  force  of  Great  Britain  was  at  that  period 
inadequate  to  combat  one  week  with  the  Volunteers  of  Ire- 
land, composing  an  army  which  could  be  increased,  at  a  call, 
by  a  million  of  enthusiasts ;  and  which,  in  case  a  contest  had 
arisen,  would  have  also  been  liberally  recruited  by  the  deser- 
tion of  the  Irish  soldiers  from  the  British  army— nearly  one- 
third  of  that  army  was  composed  of  Irishmen.  The  British 
navy,  too,  was  then  also  manned  by  what  were  generally  de- 
nominated British  tars,  bnt  a  large  proportion  of  whom  were 
in  fact  sailors  of  Irish  birth  and  Irish  feelings,  ready  to  shed 
their  blood  in  the  service  of  Great  Britain  whilst  she  remained 
the  friend  of  Ireland,  but  as  ready  to  seize  and  to  steer  the 
British  navy  into  Irish  ports,  if  she  declared  against  their 
country— and  thus  it  will  ever  be. 

The  safety  of  England  was  then  clearly  in  the  hands  of 
Ireland,  and  one  hostile  step,  at  that  perilous  crisis  of  the 
two  nations,  must  have  terminated  their  unity,  and  of  course 
the  power  of  the  British  empire.  But  the  Cabinet  at  length 
considered  that  resistance  to  the  just  demands  of  Ireland 
would  be  unavailing,  and  that  she  was  then  too  powerful  for 
England  to  hazard  an  insurrection,  which,  if  once  excited,  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  suppress. 

Too  cautious  to  risk  a  danger  so  imminent,  they  yielded 
to  existing  circumstances,  and  determined  to  concede;  a  sys- 
tem of  conduct,  which  is  called  perfidy  in  private  life  and 
policy  by  Governments,  which  has  been  very  generally  and 
very  successfully  resorted  to  in  important  political  dilemmas, 
and  they  adopted  the  low  and  cunning  course  of  yielding  with 
affected  candor,  and  counteracting  with  deep  duplicity. 

The  Cabinet  reflected,  also,  that  times  and  circumstances 
cannot  always  remain  unchanged,  and  that  the  political  vicis- 
situdes to  which  every  State  is  subject  frequently  enable  con- 
ceding powers  to  re-assume  usurpation;  and,  when  restored 


388  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

to  strength  and  vigor,  again  to  forget  the  law  of  nations  and 
of  justice,  and  explain  away  or  deny  the  spirit  of  those  en- 
gagements which  their  feebleness  had  contracted.  The  events 
which  have  since  occurred  in  Ireland,  and  the  conduct  and 
equivocation  of  the  British  Ministers  in  1799  and  1800,  proved 
to  the  world  that  such  were  the  premeditated  and  ulterior 
views  of  the  British  Cabinet,  in  1782;  and  that  the  Duke  of 
Portland  was  well  aware  of  its  objects,  and  freely  lent  him- 
self to  their  preparation. 

Mr.  Fox  never  had  any  especial  predilection  for  Ireland. 
He  was  ignorant  equally  of  her  rights  and  her  localities,  and 
he  considered  her  only  as  the  segment  of  a  great  circle,  which 
he  labored  to  encompass.  He  wielded  the  grievances  of  Ire- 
land only  as  a  weapon  of  offence  against  the  ministry.  He 
was  a  great  man,  with  a  popular  ambition,  and  assumed  the 
hereditary  title  of  Whig,  when  its  purest  principles  had  near- 
ly become  obsolete.  Mr.  Pitt  had  in  view  the  very  same  object, 
to  rule,  and  they  only  differed  in  the  means  of  affecting  it. 
The  one  wished  to  rise  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  people ;  the 
other,  to  be  elevated  upon  those  of  the  aristocracy.  But  the 
ambition  of  both  was  to  govern  the  Empire.  Their  rivalry 
was  of  party,  and  their  struggle  was  for  power,  but  the  inter- 
nal prosperity  of  Ireland,  as  a  distinct  abstract  consideration, 
gave  not  one  hour's  solicitude  to  either  one  or  the  other  of 
those  celebrated  Ministers,  though  its  resources  were  in  part 
an  object  to  both. 

The  Duke  of  Portland  was  not  of  sufficient  talent  or  weight 
to  lead  the  Ministry,  but  he  had  enough  of  both  to  be  an  effi- 
cient accessory.  A  man  of  plain,  fair,  undistinguished  repu- 
tation can  effect  important  acts  of  duplicity,  with  less  sus- 
picion and  more  facility  than  more  prominent  and  energetic 
personages,  and  when  the  moment  of  development  arrives,  he 
can  plead  the  honesty  of  his  character,  and  the  error  of  his 
judgment;  or,  at  the  worst,  he  may  gain  a  great  point,  and 
can  only  lose  a  narrow  reputation. 

These  observations  may  be  interesting,  as  decidedly  appli- 
cable to  the  administration  of  the  Duke  of  Portland.  His 
Grace's  conduct  and  speeches  on  the  question  of  the  Union, 
in  1800,  leave  no  doubt  that  the  whole  tenor  of  his  conduct,  in 
1782,  must  have  been  a  premeditated  tissue  of  dissimilation. 

The  Irish  House  met,  pursuant  to  the  adjournment,  on 
the  27th  of  May,  1782,  a  day  teeming  with  importance  to  the 
fate  of  Ireland  and  the  character  of  Great  Britain.    It  is  not 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  389 

easy  to  imagine  the  solicitude  and  impatience  with  which  the 
peo2:>le  awaited  the  decision  of  Great  Britain  on  its  claims. 

On  the  morning  of  that  memorable  day,  the  Volunteers 
were  under  arms  at  an  early  hour.  Their  artillery,  under 
the  order  of  James  Napper  Tandy,  was  stationed  on  the  quays, 
and  commanded  all  the  bridges  leading  from  the  Military 
Barracks  to  the  House  of  Parliament.  The  other  corps,  horse 
and  foot,  were  posted  at  different  stations  of  communication 
in  the  city,  while  some  regular  troops,  formed  in  treble  files, 
lined  the  streets  for  the  passage  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant.  But 
though  neither  party  knew  what  would  be  the  result  of  that 
day's  proceedings,  nor  whether  war  or  peace  would  be  pro- 
claimed by  the  British  Ministry,  not  a  sjTuptom  of  hostile  feel- 
ing appeared  on  any  side.  The  Volunteers  and  the  regular 
troops  saluted  each  other  as  they  passed,  and  reciprocally 
showed  every  mark  of  military  courtesy.  The  strictest  order 
prevailed,  and  the  whole,  by  a  combination  most  interesting 
and  extraordinary,  formed  a  scene  to  which  history  affords 
no  parallel. 

The  Duke  of  Portland  had  not  a  very  dignified  demeanor, 
but  unfortunately,  everybody  then  considered  him  as  a  man 
of  political  integrity.  His  time,  during  the  recess,  had  been 
skillfully  employed,  to  gain  upon  the  country  gentlemen  by 
flattering  attention  and  courtly  blandishment. 

His  Grace  had  learned,  from  Earl  Charlemont,  the  char- 
acter of  Mr.  Grattan,  before  he  saw  him.  He  was  fully  ap- 
prised of  his  spirit  and  patriotism,  and  knew  that  neither 
could  be  conquered;  but  he  conceived  that  by  oi)erating  on 
the  moderation  and  generous  confidence  of  that  virtuous  Irish- 
man, he  might  eventually  divide  the  Parliament,  chill  the  gen- 
eral enthusiasm  of  the  people,  and  effect  the  objects  of  the 
British  Government,  and,  before  the  meeting  of  Parliament, 
his  Grace  had  made  great  progress  in  exciting  shades  of  differ- 
ence in  the  opinions  of  those  who  should  have  been  unanimous. 
A  premature  gratitude  and  credulous  confidence  had  already 
prepared  the  House  for  his  reception,  and  he  delivered  the 
speech  from  the  throne,  with  a  well  affected  honesty  of  em- 
phasis, and  an  imposing  appearance  of  individual  gratifica- 
tion. 

The  Viceroy's  speech  gave  rise  to  a  debate  of  the  very 
highest  importance,  not  only  as  affecting  the  interests  and 
feelings  of  that  day,  but  as  influencing  the  subsequent  events 
and  destiny  of  the  Irish  nation. 


390  Ireland's  Ckown  oy  Thorns  and  Roses 

''My  Lords  and  Gentlemen;  It  gives  me  the  utmost  satis- 
faction, that  the  first  time  I  have  occasion  to  address  you,  I 
find  myself  enabled,  by  the  magnanimity  of  the  King  and 
the  wisdom  of  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  to  assure  you 
that  immediate  attention  has  been  paid  to  your  representa- 
tions, and  that  the  British  Legislature  have  concurred  in 
resolution  to  remove  the  causes  of  your  discontents  and  jeal- 
ousies, are  united  in  a  desire  to  gratify  every  wish  expressed 
in  your  late  Addresses  to  the  Throne. 

''If  anything  could  add  to  the  pleasure  I  feel  in  giving  you 
those  assurances,  it  is  that  I  can  accompany  them  with  my 
congratulations  on  the  important  and  decisive  victory  gained 
by  the  fleets  of  his  Majesty  over  those  of  the  common  enemy 
in  the  West  Indies,  and  by  the  signal  advantage  obtained  by 
his  Majesty's  arms  in  the  Island  of  Ceylon  and  on  the  coast 
of  Coromandel. 

"By  the  papers  which,  in  obedience  to  his  Majesty's  com- 
mands, I  have  directed  to  be  laid  before  you,  you  will  receive 
the  most  convincing  testimonials  of  the  cordial  reception  which 
your  representatives  have  met  with  from  the  Legislature  of 
Great  Britain;  but  his  Majesty,  whose  first  and  most  anxious 
wish  is  to  exercise  His  Eoyal  Prerogative  in  such  a  manner 
as  may  be  most  conducive  to  the  welfare  of  his  faithful  sub- 
jects, has  further  given  it  me  in  command  to  assure  you  of 
His  gracious  disposition  to  give  His  Royal  Assent  to  Acts  to 
prevent  the  suppression  of  Bills  in  the  Privy  Council  of  this 
Kingdom,  and  the  alternation  of  them  anj^iere,  and  to  limit 
the  duration  of  the  Act  for  the  better  Regulation  and  x\ccom- 
modation  of  His  Majesty's  Forces  in  this  Kingdom,  to  the 
term  of  two  years. 

"These  benevolent  intentions  of  His  Majesty,  and  the 
willingness  of  his  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  to  second  his 
gracious  purposes,  are  unaccompanied  by  any  stipulation  or 
condition  whatever. 

"The  good  faith,  the  generosity,  and  the  honor  of  this  na- 
tion affords  them  the  surest  pledge  of  a  corresponding  dis- 
position, on  your  part,  to  promote  and  perpetuate  the  har- 
mony, the  stability,  and  the  glory  of  the  Empire. 

' '  On  my  own  part,  I  entertain  not  the  least  doubt  but  that 
the  same  spirit  which  urged  you  to  share  the  freedom  of  Great 
Britain,  will  confirm  you  in  your  determination  to  share  her 
fate  also,  standing  and  falling  with  the  British  Empire." 

Mr,   Grattan  immediately  rose.     His  unsuspecting  and 


In  the  Days  ur  (Juattan  3'Jl 

grateful  miud,  tbougli  congenial  to  the  honest  liberality  of  a 
patriot,  was  quite  too  conceding  and  inexperienced  to  meet 
the  ways  and  wiles  of  deceptions  statesmen.  Misled  by  the 
api^arent  sincerity  of  that  speech,  and  the  plain  and  plausible 
demeanor  of  the  Duke  of  Portland,  he  lost  sight  of  every- 
thing but  confidence  and  gratitude,  and  left  to  deeper  politi- 
cians to  discover  the  snare  that  lay  concealed  amidst  the 
soothing  and  honorable  language  of  the  Viceroy. 

He  said:  "That  as  Great  Britain  had  given  up  every 
claim  to  authority  over  Ireland,  he  had  not  the  least  idea 
that  she  should  be  also  bound  to  make  any  declaration  that 
she  had  formerly  usurped  that  power.  This  would  be  a  fool- 
ish caution,  a  dishonorable  condition.  The  nation  that  in- 
sists upon  the  humiliation  of  another  is  a  foolish  nation,  and 
Ireland  is  not  a  foolish  nation.  I  move  you,  to  assure  his 
Majesty  of  our  unfeigned  affection  to  His  Royal  Person  and 
Government,  that  we  feel,  most  sensibly,  the  attention  our 
representations  have  received  from  the  magnanimity  of  His 
Majesty,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain ; 
to  assure  His  Majesty,  that  we  conceive  the  resolution  for  an 
unqualified,  unconditional  repeal  of  the  6th  George  the  First 
to  be  a  measure  of  consummate  wisdom  and  justice,  suitable 
to  the  dignity  and  eminence  of  both  Nations,  exalting  the  char- 
acter of  both,  and  furnishing  a  perpetual  pledge  of  mutual 
amity;  to  assure  His  Majesty  that  we  are  sensibly  affected 
by  his  virtuous  determination  to  accede  to  the  wishes  of  His 
faithful  subjects,  and  to  exercise  His  Royal  prerogative  in 
the  manner  most  conducive  to  their  welfare.  That,  gratified 
in  those  particulars,  we  do  assure  His  Majesty  that  no  consti- 
tutional question  between  the  tivo  nations  will  any  longer  exist 
to  interrupt  their  harmony,  and  that  Great  Britain,  as  she  ap- 
proved of  our  fiminess,  may  rely  on  our  affection,  and  that 
we  remember,  and  do  repeat  our  determination,  to  stand  or 
fall  with  the  British  nation." 

When  Mr.  Grattan  concluded  the  Address,  which  was 
seconded  by  Mr.  Brownlow,  a  most  animated  and  interesting, 
though  desultory  debate,  immediately  ensued— a  debate  too 
much  connected  with  the  subsequent  transactions  on  the  Union 
not  to  be  particularly  noticed  in  this  stage  of  the  history. 

The  Recorder  of,  and  member  for,  Dublin,  Sir  Samuel 
Bradstreet,  a  strong-minded,  public-spirited  man,  an  able  law- 
yer and  independent  Member  of  Parliament— of  a  rough,  de- 
cisive, firm  deportment— was  the  first  who  ventured  to  insin- 


392  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

uate  his  dissent  from  the  Address,  and  his  suspicions  of  the 
Duke's  sincerity.  He  entirely  objected  to  that  sweep- 
ing clause  of  Mr.  Grattan's  Address— "That  all  constitutional 
questions  between  the  two  countries  were  at  an  end."  He 
stated  that  many  were  not  yet  touched  upon,  many  that  were 
vital  to  Irish  independence  still  remained  unnoticed;  for  he 
insisted  that  the  Irish  Parliament  actually  sat  at  that  mo- 
ment under  an  English  Statute,  and  that  the  Address,  as 
moved,  was  in  some  instance  premature— in  others  too  com- 
prehensive—in all,  defective.  Subsequent  events  have  since 
proved  the  soundness  and  the  acuteness  of  his  judgment  and 
aforesight. 

Mr.  Flood  said  but  a  few  words,  and  they  were  rather  in- 
sinuating than  insisting  on  his  dissent.  He  started  some  diffi- 
culty on  the  subject  of  external  legislation;  he  expressed  his 
opinon,  that  matters  were  not  yet  sufficiently  advanced  to 
form  a  decided  judgment  upon  the  extent  and  modifications 
of  the  proposed  arrangements;  but  it  was  obvious  that  this 
great  man  was  neither  confident  nor  satisfied,  and  that  he  con- 
ceived, that  though  the  chief  demand  had  been  made,  and  that 
grant  acceded  to,  yet  that  it  would  require  profound  considera- 
tion, and  a  steady,  comprehensive  system,  to  secure  the  tenure. 
He  publicly  anticipated  nothing,  but  his  own  want  of  faith  in 
the  British  Cabinet  was  obvious  and  comprehensive. 

Mr.  David  Walshe,  an  able,  pertinacious  lawyer,  coura- 
geous and  not  conciliating,  was  a  still  more  determined 
sceptic.  He  had  a  clear  head,  a  suspicious,  perverse  mind, 
and  a  temper  that  never  would  outstretch  itself  to  meet  pacific 
objects.  He  debated  well,  but  was  too  intemperate  to  acquire 
or  maintain  a  general  popularity.  A  part  of  his  speech  on 
this  memorable  night  is  also  of  great  importance.  He  fol- 
lowed Sir  Samuel  Bradstreet  on  the  point  of  external  legisla- 
tion, and  concluded  with  these  remarkable  expressions : 

"I  repeat  it,  that  until  England  declares  unequivocally, 
by  an  act  of  her  own  legislature,  that  she  had  no  right,  in  any 
instance,  to  make  laws  to  bind  Ireland,  the  usurped  power  of 
English  legislation  never  can  be  considered  by  us  as  relin- 
quished. We  want  not  the  concessions  of  England  to  restore 
us  our  liberties.  If  we  are  true  to  ourselves,  we  possess  the 
fortitude,  we  possess  the  will,  and,  thank  God,  we  possess  the 
power,  to  assert  our  rights  as  men,  and  accomplish  our  inde- 
pendence as  a  nation." 

The  gauntlet  was  now  thrown,  the  vital  question  was 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  393 

started— England  was  put  on  her  defence,  and  Ireland  on  her 
trial. 

The  great  point  of  confirming  Irish  independence  and  the 
constitution  being  once  started,  never  could  be  relinquished; 
it  must  be  decided— the  suspicion  of  English  sincerity  once 
raised,  must  be  satisfied;  and  it  appeared  in  a  moment,  that 
Mr.  Grattan 's  address  could  never  be  considered  either  secure 
or  conclusive.  But  even  those  who  thought  so,  did  not  con- 
ceive that  the  moment  had  as  yet  arrived  when  that  subject 
should  be  so  warmly  discussed. 

Those  who  feared  that  a  difference  at  so  early  a  period 
might  defeat  all  their  expectation,  chose  rather  to  accede  to  an 
address  they  did  not  approve  of,  than  hazard  a  dis-union 
which  might  never  be  remedied. 

Mr.  Yelverton  strongly  recommended  unanimity  at  that 
moment.  It  seemed,  for  prudential  reasons,  to  be  the  general 
wish,  and  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  the  Viceroy's  secretary,  artfully 
seized  on  the  moment  of  inconsiderate  gratitude,  and  threw 
out  a  defiance  to  those  who  endeavored  to  diminish  its  unanim- 
ity. This  to  such  a  temper  as  Mr.  Wal she's,  had  the  effect 
intended,  of  causing  a  division— and  the  skillful  secretary  suc- 
ceeded in  his  object. 

On  the  division,  the  Recorder  and  Mr.  Walshe  alone 
divided  on  the  minority,  and  Mr.  Grattan 's  address  was  trium- 
phantly carried,  with  all  its  imperfections ;  and  a  short  period 
proved  that  these  imperfections  were  neither  few  nor  unim- 
portant. The  House  adjourned  amidst  the  universal  acclama- 
tions of  the  ignorant  and  credulous  people,  and  the  constitu- 
tional arrangements  between  the  two  countries  were  fatally 
supposed,  from  the  tenor  of  the  speech  and  the  address,  to 
have  been  entirely  and  forever  arranged  to  their  mutual  satis- 
faction. 

It  is  here  proper  to  pause  and  reflect  upon  the  embarras- 
sing situation  into  which  this  day's  debate  had  thrown  both 
nations;  an  embarrassment  which,  since  that  day,  has  never 
yet  been  completely  terminated,  and  probably  never  will. 

The  transcendant  merits  of  Mr.  Grattan,  the  unparalleled 
brilliancy  of  his  language,  in  moving  the  declaration  of  rights, 
his  firmness  and  his  patriotism  had  raised  him  above  all  his 
countrjTnen.  That  declaration,  it  was  believed,  had  restored 
the  liberties  of  his  country,  and  given  him  a  just  claim  to  all 
the  rewards  and  honors  which  even  the  glowing  gratitude  of 
that  country  could  confer  upon  him.    But,  unfortunately,  his 


394 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


own  honesty  led  him  to  a  mistaken  confidence  in  that  of 
others.  The  courtly  patriotism  of  Earl  Charlemont,  always 
inclining  him  to  a  blind  principle  of  conciliation,  had  its  in- 
fluence on  Mr.  Grattan,  who  was  a  statesman,  great  in  prin- 
ciple, but  inefficient  in  detail;  and  the  moderation  of  Lord 
Charlemont  was  not  ineffective  nor  merely  passive,  when  re- 
straining the  vigor  of  a  mind  that  seemed  to  be  created  to 
think  greatly  and  act  decidedly,  only  upon  great  and  decisive 
occasions. 


Composed  from  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  X. 

CREDULITY    OF    THE    IRISH    PARLIAMENT  — POPULARITY    OF    HENRY 
GRATTAN— HE  IS  OFFERED  LARGE  REWARDS  FOR  HIS  SERVICES. 

It  is  as  extraordinary  as  it  is  true,  that  the  weakness  and 
foibles  of  Irish  character  were  more  strikingly  displayed  dur- 
ing this  important  discussion  than  upon  any  former  occasion. 
A  generous,  ardent,  credulous,  unstatesmanlike  sensibility  ap- 
peared to  have  seized  upon  the  whole  assembly,  and  even  the 
natural  quickness  of  perception  and  acuteness  of  intellect, 
which  the  members  of  that  House  displayed  on  ordinary  and 
trivial  subjects,  seemed  totally  to  have  forsaken  them  during 
this  memorable  debate— of  more  vital  importance  to  the  nation 
than  any  other  that  had  taken  place  in  the  Irish  Parliament. 

The  country  gentlemen  of  Ireland,  at  all  times  bad  casuists 
and  worse  lawyers,  appeared  on  this  occasion  to  close  both 
their  ears  and  their  eyes,  and  to  resign,  with  one  accord,  all 
exercise  of  judgment  and  discrimination.  The  word  '' una- 
nimity" operated  as  a  talisman  amongst  them,  and  silenced  all 
objections.  The  very  important  observations  of  Sir  Samuel 
Bradstreet  and  of  Mr.  Walshe  were  hardly  listened  to  with 
patience.  Mr.  Flood  himself  seemed  to  be  overwhelmed  and 
manacled;  and  those  axioms  and  that  reasoning  which  were 
ultimately  acceded  to  and  adopted  even  by  the  British  Min- 
isters themselves,  were  on  this  night  considered  as  a  species 
of  treason  against  the  purity  of  the  British  Government,  and 
the  sincerity  of  the  Irish  Viceroy.  No  voice  but  that  of  con- 
gratulation, joy  and  confidence,  could  make  itself  heard.  No 
suspicions  durst  be  suggested,  no  murmurs  durst  be  uttered. 
The  scene  was  new  to  Ireland,  and  exultation  took  precedence 
for  a  time,  of  both  reason  and  reflection. 

Beauchamp  Bagenal,  representative  for  Carlow  county,  so 
soon  as  the  flurry  of  mutual  congratulations  had  a  little  sub- 
sided in  the  House,  proposed  a  motion  well  adapted  to  that 
moment,  and  most  happily  coincident  with  the  sentiments  of 
the  people.  How  far  it  had  been  premeditated,  or  arose  from 
the  impulse  of  the  moment,  no  person  acquainted  with  the 
character  and  eccentricities  of  Mr.  Bagenal  could  possibly 

determine. 

He  was  one  of  those  men,  who,  born  to  a  large  inheritance, 

395 


396  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

and  having  no  profession  to  interrupt  their  propensities,  gen- 
erally made  in  those  times  the  grand  tour  of  Europe,  as  the 
finishing  parts  of  a  gentleman's  education.  Mr.  Bagenal  fol- 
lowed the  general  course,  and  on  that  tour  had  made  himself 
very  conspicuous.  He  had  visited  every  capital  of  Europe, 
and  had  exhibited  the  native  original  character  of  the  Irish 
gentleman  at  every  place  he  visited.  In  the  splendor  of  his 
travelling  establishment,  he  quite  eclipsed  the  petty  poten- 
tates with  whom  Germany  was  garnished.  His  person  was 
fine,  his  manners  open  and  generous,  his  spirit  high,  and  his 
liberality  profuse.  During  his  tour,  he  had  performed  a  va- 
riety of  feats  which  were  emblazoned  in  Ireland,  and  endeared 
him  to  his  countrymen.  He  had  fought  a  prince,  jilted  a  prin- 
cess, intoxicated  the  Doge  of  Venice,  carried  off  a  Duchess 
from  Madrid,  scaled  the  walls  of  a  convent  in  Italy,  narrowly 
escaped  the  Inquisition  at  Lisbon,  concluded  his  exploits  by 
a  celebrated  fencing  match  at  Paris,  and  he  returned  to  Ire- 
land with  a  sovereign  contempt  for  all  continental  men  and 
manners,  and  an  inveterate  antipathy  to  all  despotic  kings 
and  arbitrary  governments. 

Domesticated  in  his  own  mansion  at  Dunleckny,  sur- 
rounded by  a  numerous  and  devoted  tenantry,  and  possessed 
of  a  great  territory,  Mr.  Bagenal  determined  to  spend  the  resi- 
due of  his  days  on  his  native  soil,  according  to  the  usages  and 
customs  of  country  gentlemen,  and  he  was  shortly  afterwards 
returned  a  representative  to  Parliament  for  the  county  of 
Carlow,  by  universal  acclamation. 

Though  Mr.  Bagenal  did  not  take  any  active  part  in  the 
general  business  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  he  at  least  gave  it 
a  good  example  of  public  spirit  and  high-minded  independence. 
His  natural  talents  were  far  above  mediocrity,  but  his  singu- 
larities, in  themselves  extravagant,  were  increased  by  the  in- 
temperance of  those  times,  and  an  excellent  capacity  was  neu- 
tralized by  inordinate  dissipation.  Prodigally  hospitable, 
irregular,  extravagant,  uncertain,  vivacious;  the  chase,  the 
turf,  the  sod  and  the  bottle  divided  a  great  portion  of  his  in- 
tellect between  them,  and  generally  left  for  the  use  of  Parlia- 
ment only  so  much  as  he  could  spare  from  his  other  occupa- 
tions. 

However,  in  supporting  the  independence  and  prosperity 
of  Ireland,  he  always  stood  in  the  foremost  ranks. 

Liberal  and  friendly,  but  obstinate  and  refractory,  above 
all  his  contemporaries,  he  had  a  perfect  indifference  for  the 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  :i<»7 

opinions  of  tlio  world,  when  they  at  all  differed  from  Lis  own, 
and  lie  never  failed  to  perform  whatever  came  uppermost  in 
his  thoughts,  with  the  most  perfect  contempt  as  to  the  notions 
which  might  be  formed  either  of  his  rectitude  or  impropriety. 

He  was  one  of  the  first  country  gentlemen  who  raised  a 
Volunteer  regiment  in  the  county  of  Carlow.  He  commanded 
several  military  corps,  and  was  one  of  the  last  Volunteer  Col- 
onels in  Ireland  who  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  discontinue 
the  reviews  of  their  regiments,  or  to  relinquish  that  noble,  pa- 
triotic, and  unprecedented  institution.  However,  he  was,  on 
this  occasion,  as  politically  short-sighted  as  he  was  nationally 
credulous.  He  could  see  nothing  but  sincerity  in  the  Viceroy, 
honor  in  the  British  Cabinet,  and  an  eternal  cordiality  be- 
tween the  two  nations ;  and  before  the  constitutional  arrange- 
ment was  well  begun,  he  fancied  it  was  completely  concluded. 
His  admiration  of  Mr.  Grattan  was  unqualified  and  extrava- 
gant, and  it  was  with  an  honest  zeal  and  pure  sincerity  he 
rose  to  propose  a  measure,  at  that  period  the  most  popular 
and  gratifying  to  the  Irish  nation. 

Having  passed  many  eulogiums  on  Mr.  Grattan 's  services 
to  Ireland,  he  gave  notice  of  an  intended  motion, ' '  that  a  com- 
mittee should  be  ajDpointed,  to  consider  and  report  what  sum 
the  Irish  Parliament  should  grant,  to  build  a  suitable  mansion 
and  purchase  an  estate  for  their  deliverer. ' ' 

In  prefacing  this  notice,  Mr.  Bagenal,  full  of  candor  and 
credulity,  used  some  expressions,  so  unfortunately  anti-pro- 
phetic, as  to  render  them  worthy  of  marked  observation.  He 
said  that  Mr.  Grattan  had  saved  the  country  from  an  iron 
age,  and  unequivocally  restored  a  golden  one  to  his  own  coun- 
try forever.  ''By  our  affectionate  alliance  with  Great  Brit- 
ain, we  shall  not  only  be  benefited  ourselves,  but  shall  see  a 
beloved  sister  revive  from  her  misfortunes.  This  great  man 
has  crowned  the  work  forever ;  under  his  auspices  the  throne 
of  freedom  is  fixed  on  a  basis  so  firm,  and  which  will  always 
be  so  well  supported  by  the  influence  the  people  must  acquire 
under  his  system,  that,  with  the  help  of  God,  there  is  no  dan- 
ger, even  of  Parliament  itself  ever  being  able  to  shake  it ;  nor 
shall  any  Parliament  be  ever  again  profanely  styled  omnip- 
otent." * 

Mr.  Grattan  attempted  to  make  some  observations,  but 
his  voice  was  drowned  in  the  general  applause ;  and  the  House 
adjourned  without  further  observations. 

He  alone  now  occupied  the  entire  hearts  of  the  people. 


398  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

They  had  no  room  for  any  other  individual.  Almost 
frantic  with  gratitude  to  their  deliverer,  they  cried  out  that 
the  doctrines  of  Molyneux  had  triumphed  in  the  same  place 
where  they  had  before  been  consigned  to  infamy.  But  the 
day  of  those  pure  and  lofty  feelings  had  passed  away.  A 
broken  down  constitution  seldom  recovers  its  joristine  elas- 
ticity; and  that  enthusiastic,  proud,  patriotic  spirit  which 
signalized  the  Irish  nation  in  1782,  driven  to  its  tomb  by 
misrule  and  by  misfortune,  can  never  rise  again  but  on  some 
congenial  crisis. 

The  British  Ministry  and  Parliament  now  began  to  feel 
their  own  weakness.  Their  intolerance  degenerated  into  fear; 
and  responsibility  began  to  stare  them  in  the  face.  The  loss 
of  America  had  been  got  over  by  their  predecessors  without 
an  impeachment;  but  that  of  Ireland  would  not  have  passed 
over  with  the  same  impunity.  The  British  Cabinet  had 
already  signed  the  capitulation,  and  thought  it  impossible  to 
carry  it  too  soon  into  execution.  Bills  to  enact  the  conces- 
sions demanded  by  Ireland  were  therefore  prepared  with  an 
expedition  nearly  bordering  on  precipitancy.  The  6th  of 
George  the  First,  declaratory  of,  and  establishing  the  su- 
premacy of  England,  and  the  eternal  dependence  of  Ireland 
on  the  Parliament  and  Cabinet  of  Great  Britain,  was  now 
hastily  repealed,  without  debate,  or  any  qualification  by  the 
British  Legislature.  This  repeal  received  the  royal  assent, 
and  a  copy  was  instantly  transmitted  to  the  Irish  Viceroy, 
and  communicated  by  circulars  to  the  Volunteer  commanders. 

Chap.  LIII.  An  Act,  to  repeal  an  act  made  in  the  sixth  year 
of  the  reign  of  his  late  Majesty  King  George  the  First,  in- 
tituled. An  Act  for  the  better  securing  the  dependency  of  the 
kingdom  of  Ireland  upon  tUe  crown  of  Great  Britain. 

Whereas,  an  act  was  passed  in  the  sixth  year  of  the  reign 
of  His  late  Majesty  King  George  the  First,  intituled:  An 
Act  for  the  better  securing  the  dependency  of  the  kingdom  of 
Ireland  upon  the  crown  of  Great  Britain;  may  it  please  your 
Most  Excellent  Majesty,  that  it  may  be  enacted,  and  be  it  en- 
acted, by  the  King's  Most  Excellent  Majesty,  by  and  with  the 
consent  and  advice  of  the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  and 
commons,  in  this  present  parliament  assembled,  and  by  the 
authority  of  the  same,  that  from  and  after  the  passing  of  this 
Act,  the  above  mentioned  Act,  and  the  several  matters  and 
things  therein  contained,  shall  he,  and  is,  and  are  hereby  re- 
pealed. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan'  3()<) 

Thus,  tbe  doctrine  of  Blackstonc,  that  venerated  Druid  of 
English  jurisprudence,  who  by  his  dictum  had  tried  to  seal 
the  slavery  of  the  Irish  people,  was  surrendered  as  unconsti- 
tutional, and  renounced  by  the  very  same  legislature  that  had 
enacted  it.  As  England  drooped,  Ireland  raised  her  head; 
and  for  a  moment  she  was  arrayed  with  all  the  exterior  in- 
signia of  an  independent  nation. 

On  the  30th  of  May,  1782,  Mr.  Bagenal  resumed  the  subject 
of  the  reward  to  Mr.  Grattan ;  and  after  a  short  but  animated 
speech,  moved  that  '* £100,000  should  be  granted  by  parlia- 
ment, to  purchase  an  estate,  and  build  a  suitable  mansion,  as 
the  reward  of  gratitude  by  the  Irish  nation,  for  his  eminent 
services  to  his  country."  No  member  could  directly  oppose 
a  measure  so  merited,  so  popular,  and  so  honorable  to  the 
nation.  No  absolute  murmur  was  heard;  but  the  magnitude 
of  the  sum  gave  rise  to  many  incidental  observations;  and 
some  friends  of  Mr.  Grattan  endeavored  to  impress  the 
house  with  the  idea  that  he  was  altogether  adverse  to  the 
measure,  and  conceived  that  his  honors  and  gratification 
would  be  greater  by  the  feeling  of  having  served  his  country 
without  reward  than  that  arising  from  its  pure  and  unsophis- 
ticated enjoyemnt. 

This  idea  in  modern  times,  and  under  Mr.  Grattan 's  pe- 
culiar circumstances,  was  considered  less  the  result  of  a  true 
pride  than  of  a  patriotic  vanity.  Roman  precedents  were  not 
applicable  to  Ireland,  and  his  paternal  estates  were  not  suf- 
ficiently ample  to  support  so  distinguished  a  man  in  the  dig- 
nity of  his  station.  And  the  wisest  ♦friends  of  ]\Ir.  Grattan 
considered  such  a  grant  not  as  a  mercenary  recompense,  but 
the  reward  of  a  patriotic  virtue,  conferred  by  the  gratitude  of 
a  nation  to  elevate  a  deliverer. 

While  the  House  seemed  to  hesitate  as  to  the  wisest  course 
of  carrying  the  proposed  grant  into  immdiate  execution,  a 
most  unexpected  circumstance  took  place,  which,  though  in 
its  results  of  no  important  consequence,  forms  one  of  the  most 
interesting  anecdotes  of  Irish  events,  develops  the  insidious 
artifices  to  which  the  Government  resorted,  and  forms  an  epi- 
sode without  a  precedent  in  ancient  or  modern  annals. 

Mr.  Thomas  Connolly,  who,  as  a  leading  member  of  the 
Whig  party,  had  entirely  connected  himself  with  i\ife  Duke  of 
Portland,  and  though  not  liolding  any  ministerial  office,  was 
a  Privy  Councillor,  and  considered  to  be  particularly  confi- 
dential in  the  councils  of  the  Viceroy,  after  many  eulogimns 


400  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

upon  Mr.  Grattan's  unparalleled  services  to  Ireland,  stated, 
''That  the  Duke  of  Portland  felt  equally  with  the  Irish  peo- 
ple, the  high  value  of  those  services ;  and  that  he  was  author- 
ized by  the  Lord  Lieutenant  to  express  in  the  strongest  terms, 
the  sense  he  entertained  of  the  public  virtue  of  Mr.  Grattan, 
and  of  his  eminent  and  important  services  to  Ireland ;  and  as 
the  highest  proof  he  could  give  of  his  admiration  and  respect 
for  that  distinguished  personage,  he  (the  Lord  Lieutenant) 
begged  to  offer,  as  a  part  of  the  intended  grant  to  Mr.  Grat- 
tan, the  Viceregal  Palace  in  the  Phoenix  Park,  to  be  settled 
on  Mr.  Grattan  and  his  heirs  forever,  as  a  suitable  residence 
for  so  meritorious  a  person." 

The  Viceroy  of  His  Britannic  Majesty  offering  to  a  pri- 
vate individual  a  grant  forever  of  the  King's  best  palace  in 
Ireland  was  repugnant  to  the  principle  of  Monarchial  Gov- 
ernments; while  Mr.  Bagenal's  proposal  of  a  grant  by  the 
House  of  Commons,  as  a  reward  for  the  public  services  of  one 
of  their  own  independent  members,  appeared  to  the  Viceroy 
as  making  the  people  everything  and  the  administration  noth- 
ing. He  saw  clearly  that  the  public  spirit  was  irresistible, 
and  that  the  grant  must  pass ;  and  the  Viceroy  determined,  at 
any  sacrifice,  to  give  it  a  tinge  of  ministerial  generosity,  and 
thereby  deaden  as  much  as  possible  the  brilliancy  and  effect 
of  a  popular  proceeding.  He  knew  that  if  his  proposal 
through  Mr.  Connolly  should  be  accepted,  the  grant  would 
have  very  considerably  changed  its  democratic  complexion, 
the  prerogative  would  be  somewhat  preserved,  and  Mr.  Grat- 
tan no  longer  considered  as  deriving  his  reward  exclusively 
from  the  gratitude  of  his  countrjnnen ;  the  Crown  would  have 
its  share  in  a  claim  to  his  acknowledgments;  and  thus  the 
merit  of  the  favor  be  divided  between  the  people  and  the 
minister. 

This  magnificent  and  unexampled  offer,  at  first  view,  ap- 
peared flattering  and  showy;  at  the  second,  it  appeared  de- 
ceptions; and  at  the  third,  inadmissible.  Delicacy  prevented 
any  debate  on  the  subject,  and  it  would  have  died  away  with- 
out a  remark  or  observation,  and  would  have  been  rejected 
by  a  judicious  silence,  had  not  the  indiscretion  of  Colonel 
Fitzpatrick  betrayed  the  whole  feeling  and  duplicity  of  the 
Government,  and  opened  the  eyes  of  many  to  the  jealousy  and 
designs  of  his  Grace's  administration.  Though  the  secretary 
was  extremely  disposed  to  serve  Mr.  Grattan  individually, 
the  entire  failure  of  the  plan,  and  the  frigid  manner  in  which 


In  the  Days  of  CJ rattan  101 

the  royal  offer  had  been  received  on  every  side,  Imrt  his  of- 
ficial pride,  and  affected  him  extremely.  He  recollected  his 
ministry  but  forgot  his  discretion,  and  he  could  no  longer  re- 
strain himself  from  some  observations  equally  ill-timed  and 
injudicious. 

Colonel  Fitzpatrick  was  the  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Upper 
Ossory.  Though  not  an  expert  diplomatist,  he  was  well  se- 
lected to  make  his  way  amongst  the  Irish  gentry,  and  conse- 
quently carry  into  effect  the  objects  of  the  British  ministers, 
and  the  deceptions  of  the  Duke  of  Portland.  He  was  in- 
genuous and  convivial,  friendly  and  familiar,  and  theoret- 
ically honest,  even  in  politics.  His  name  was  musical  to  the 
ear  of  that  short-sighted  community  (the  Irish  gentry),  and 
his  casual  indiscretions  in  Parliament  were  kindly  attributed 
to  his  undesigning  nature;  and  of  all  qualities,  an  appear- 
ance of  unguarded  openness  is  most  imposing  upon  the  Irish 
people.  But  the  office  of  a  minister  or  of  a  secretary  is  too 
well  adapted  to  alter,  if  not  the  nature,  at  least  the  habits  of 
a  private  gentleman;  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  he  relin- 
quishes his  candor  when  he  commences  his  diplomacy. 

Whatever  his  individual  feelings  might  hnve  been  as  Colo- 
nel Fitzpatrick,  it  is  impossible  that  in  his  capacity  of  sec- 
retary, Mr.  Bageual  's  motion  could  have  given  him  any  grati- 
fication. He  declared  that  "he  conceived  the  power  of  re- 
warding eminent  men  was  one  of  the  noblest  of  the  Royal 
Prerogatives,  which  were  certainly  a  part  of  the  constitution. 
He  did  not  wish  to  be  considered  as  giving  a  sullen  acquies- 
cence, but  he  conceived  that  marks  of  favor  of  this  nature 
always  appertained  to  the  Crown  alone,  and  he  should  have 
wished  that  this  grant  had  come  from  the  Royal  hand ;  but, 
as  the  man  was  unprecedented,  so  was  the  grant;  and  he 
hoped  this  would  not  be  considered  as  a  precedent  on  future 
occasions." 

By  these  few  but  comprehensive  observations  of  the  sec- 
retary, the  apparent  magnificent  liberality  of  the  Viceroy  ap- 
peared in  its  real  character,  and  dwindled  into  a  narrow  sub- 
terfuge of  ministerial  jealousy.  Mr.  Connolly  appeared  to 
have  traveled  out  of  his  station,  and  officiously  to  have  as- 
sumed the  office  of  a  minister,  for  a  deceptive  purpose,  and 
lent  himself  to  a  little  artifice,  to  trepan  the  Pariiament  and 
humiliate  the  people. 

By  this  rejected  tender  the  Whig  administration  gained  no 
credit ;  they  evinced  a  disposition  to  humble  the  Crown  with- 


402  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

out  elevating  the  people,  and  to  wind  the  laurels  of  both 
around  their  own  temples. 

The  Viceroy  considered  a  grant  by  the  Commons  too  demo- 
cratic; and  the  Parliament  considered  the  Viceroy's  tender 
too  ministerial.  Mr.  Grattan  was  a  servant  of  the  Irish  peo- 
ple, and  was  utterly  unconnected  with  the  British  Govern- 
ment. In  every  point  of  view,  therefore,  the  Viceroy's  offer, 
at  that  moment,  was  improper,  and  derogatory  alike  to  the 
Crown  and  the  individual.  The  Viceroy  of  Ireland  propos- 
ing on  behalf  of  the  King  of  England,  to  Ireland's  great  pa- 
triot to  reward  his  services  for  having  emancipated  his  coun- 
try from  the  domination  of  Great  Britain,  was  an  incident  as 
extraordinary  as  had  ever  occurred  in  any  government,  and, 
emanating  from  that  of  England,  told,  in  a  single  sentence, 
the  whole  history  of  her  terrors,  her  jealousy,  her  shallow 
artifice  and  humbled  arrogance. 

This  projDOsal  was  linked  with  many  other  insidious  ob- 
jects, but  they  were  too  obvious  to  be  successful,  and  only 
disclosed  a  shallow  cunning.  His  Excellency  had  perceived 
in  Ireland  the  phenomena  of  a  governing  peojjle,  without  a 
ruling  democracy,— an  armed  and  unrestrained  population, 
possessing,  without  abusing,  the  powers  of  sovereignty,  and 
turning  their  authority  not  to  the  purposes  of  turbulence  or 
sedition,  but  to  those  of  Constitution,  order  and  tranquillity. 
These  armed  associations,  however  irreproachable  in  their 
conduct,  were  unprecedented  in  their  formation,  and  were 
fairly  considered  by  His  Grace  with  a  lively  jealousy,  as  tend- 
ing to  establish  a  species  of  popular  aristocracy,  dangerous 
to  the  very  nature  of  the  British  Constitution. 

Many  friends  of  Mr.  Grattan,  or  those  who  professed  to 
be  so,  declared  he  would  not  accept  of  so  large  a  sum  as  that 
proposed  by  Mr.  Bagenal ;  but  this  was  a  mistaken  or  an  af- 
fected view  of  that  subject.  In  fact  the  grant  itself,  not  its 
amount,  was  the  only  point  for  dignified  consideration.  How- 
ever, after  a  considerable  discussion,  it  was  diminished,  by 
Mr.  Grattan 's  friends,  to  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  pounds, 
which  was  unanimously  voted  to  him;  and  never  had  a  re- 
ward more  merited  or  more  honorable  been  conferred  on  any 
patriot  by  any  nation. 

The  times  when  civic  crowns  conferred  honors  no  longer 
existed ;  the  property  had  become  essential  for  importance  in 
society.  The  Irish  Parliament  had  before  them  a  sad 'and 
recent  example  of  the  necessity  of  such  a  reward,  in  the  fate 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  403 

of  Dr.  Lucas,  one  of  the  best  friends  of  Ireland,  wlio  had  sac- 
rificed himself  to  support  his  principles;  a  man  who  had,  so 
far  as  his  talents  admitted,  propagated  and  applied  the  doc- 
trines of  the  great  Molyneux;  and,  like  him,  was  banished, 
and,  like  him,  declared  a  traitor;  who  had  sat  a  Representa- 
tive for  the  metropolis  of  Ireland;  and  whose  statue  still 
adorns  the  Royal  Exchange  of  Dublin;  a  venerable  Senator, 
sinking  under  the  pressure  of  years  and  of  infirmity,  car- 
ried into  their  House  to  support  its  liberty,— sickening  in 
their  cause  and  expiring  in  their  service;  a  rare  example  of 
patriotism  and  independence ;  yet  suffered  to  die  in  indigence, 
and  leave  an  orphan  offspring  to  become  the  prey  of  famine. 
With  such  a  reproachable  warning  before  the  nation,  it  was 
for  the  people,  not  for  the  Crown,  to  take  care  that  they  never 
should  be  disgraced  by  similar  ingratitude.  In  these  degen- 
erate times,  honors  give  no  sustenance;  and  in  the  perverted 
practices  of  modern  policy,  it  is  not  the  province  of  the 
Monarch  to  reward  the  patriot.  And  this  event  leads  the  his- 
torian to  others  still  more  important. 

Upon  every  important  debate  on  the  claims  of  Ireland  in 
the  British  and  Imperial  Parliaments,  the  native  character 
and  political  propensities  of  the  Irish  people  had  been  uni- 
formly made  a  subject  of  animated  discusion ;  and  the  loyalty 
of  that  Nation  to  her  Kings  had  been  put  directly  in  issue, 
by  both  her  friends  and  her  enemies ;  by  the  latter  as  a  pre- 
text for  having  abrogated  her  Constitution ;  by  the  former  as 
a  defense  against  libel  and  exaggeration;  each  party  asserting 
that  the  past  events  of  Irish  history  justify  their  reasoning, 
and  afford  evidence  of  their  allegations. 

It  is,  therefore,  at  this  important  epoch  highly  expedient 
that  this  controversy  of  opinions  as  to  the  loyalty  of  the  Irish 
people,  though  probably  digressive,  should  be  decided  by  un- 
equivocal historic  matters  of  fact,  undeniable  by  either  party, 
and  thereby,  that  the  true  principles  of  a  long  persecuted  and 
calumniated  people  should  be  no  longer  mistaken  nor  mis- 
represented. 

A  reference  to  the  authentic  Annals  and  Records  of  Irish 
History  indisputably  proves  that  the  unrelenting  cruelties  and 
misruling  of  their  British  Governors  in  early  ages,  goading 
the  wretched  natives  to  insurrection,  formed  the  first  pretext 
for  afterwards  branding  them  with  an  imputation  of  indige- 
nous disloyalty,  thereby  exciting  an  inveterate  prejudice 
against  the  Irish  people;  which,  becoming  hereditary,  has 


404  Irelaxd's  Crown  of  Thorxs  and  Roses 

descended,  tbougli  with  dinoinished  virulence,  from  father 
to  son  throughout  the  English  nation. 

These  calumnies  had  their  full  and  fatal  operation,  as  an 
argument  in  urging  the  necessity  of  a  Legislative  Union;  an 
argument  at  once  refuted  by  reference  even  in  the  modern 
events  of  1782,  and  to  the  unexampled  moderation,  forbear- 
ance and  loyalty  of  the  Irish  nation,  who  sought  only  a  full 
l^articipation  in  the  British  Constitution,  though  the  moral 
and  physical  power  of  that  ardent  people  were  then  consoli- 
dated by  their  patriotism,  and  rendered  irresistible  by  their 
numbers,  their  discipline  and  their  energy. 

At  that  awful  crisis  of  the  British  Empire,  the  Irish  were 
an  armed  and  triumphant  peoi^le— England  a  defeated  and 
trembling  nation.  Ireland  was  in  the  bloom  of  energy  and  of 
vigor;  England  on  the  couch  of  discomfiture  and  malady.  And 
if  the  spirit  of  indigenous  disaffection,  so  falsely  imputed  to 
the  Irish  nation,  had,  in  reality,  existed,  she  had  then  full 
scope  and  ample  powers  to  pursue  and  effect  all  its  disposi- 
tion for  an  eternal  separation. 

It  is  not,  however,  by  modern  or  isolated  events  alone,  that 
a  fair  judgment  can  be  formed  of  the  characteristic  attributes 
of  any  nation,  still  less  so  of  a  worried  and  misgoverned  peo- 
ple. It  is  only  by  recurring  to  remoter  periods,  thence  trac- 
ing, step  by  step,  the  conduct  of  Ireland  throughout  all  her 
provocations,  her  miseries  and  her  persecutions,  and  then 
comparing  the  extent  of  their  sufferings,  her  endurance,  and 
her  loyalty  with  those  of  her  sister  countries  during  the  same 
periods,  that  the  comparative  character  of  both  can  be  justly 
appreciated,  and  those  calumnies  which  have  weighed  so  heav- 
ily on  her  reputation  can  be  effectually  refuted. 

It  is  a  m.atter  of  indisiDutable  fact,  that  during  the  twenty 
reigns  which  succeeded  the  first  submission  of  the  Irish 
princes,  the  fidelity  of  Ireland  to  the  British  monarchs  was 
but  seldom  interrupted,  and  that  Irish  soldiers  were  not  un- 
frequently  brought  over  to  England  to  defend  their  English 
sovereigns  against  the  insurrections  of  the  English  rebels. 

But  when  we  peruse  the  authenticated  facts  of  British 
annals  during  the  same  twenty  reigns,  we  find  an  unextin- 
guishable  spirit  of  disaffection  to  their  princes,  and  that  an 
insatiable  thirst  for  rebellion  and  disloyalty  signalized  every 
reign,  and  almost  every  year  of  British  history,  during  the 
same  period;  that  above  thirty  civil  wars  raged  within  the 
English  nation ;  four  of  their  monarchs  were  dethroned ;  three 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  405 

of  their  kings  were  murdered,  and  during  four  centuries  the 
standard  of  rebellion  scarcely  ever  ceased  to  wave  over  some 
portion  of  that  distracted  island;  and  so  deeply  had  disloy- 
alty been  grafted  in  the  very  nature  of  the  British  nobles  and 
the  British  people,  that  insurrection  and  regicide,  if  not  the 
certain,  were  the  expected  consequences  of  every  coronation. 

Through  these  observations,  the  eye  of  England  will  at 
length  be  directed  to  these  events.  Tliey  will  then  be  con- 
vinced that  there  lurked  within  the  bosom  of  Great  Britain 
herself  the  germs  of  a  disquietude  more  unremitting,  a  licen- 
tiousness more  inflammatory,  a  fanaticism  more  intolerant, 
and  a  political  agitation  more  dangerous  and  unjustifiable, 
than  any  which  even  her  most  inveterate  foes  can  justly  ex- 
tract from  an  impartial  history  of  the  libelled  country. 

The  short  digression  must  have  the  advantage  of  illustrat- 
ing the  principles  which  have  led  to  the  transactions  of  1798 
and  1800,  those  gloomy  epochs  of  Irish  calamity;  it  may  en- 
lighten that  dark  and  profound  ignorance  of  Irish  history  and 
transactions  which  still  obscures  the  intellect  of  the  Irish  peo- 
j)le,  and  even  leads  members  of  the  United  Parliament  to  avow 
their  utter  ignorance  of  the  very  country  and  people  for  whom 
they  are  at  the  same  moment  so  severely  legislating.  Those 
men  are  surely  the  most  injurious  to  the  general  tranquillity 
of  a  state,  the  collected  power  of  united  nations  and  the 
safety  of  the  common  weal,  whose  prejudices,  ignorance  and 
bigotry  lead  them  by  wanton  irritation  to  engender  uncon- 
genial feelings  in  eight  millions  of  so  powerful,  ardent  and 
generous  a  portion  of  the  empire. 


CHAPTER  XL 

COMPAEISON  OF  GEATTAN  AND  FLOOD  — CHARACTEE  OF  JOHN  PHIL- 
POT    CURKAN. 

Mr.  Flood  had  become  most  prominent  amongst  the  Irish 
patriots.    He  was  a  man  of  profound  abilities,  high  manners 
and  great  experience  in  the  affairs  of  Ireland.    He  had  deep 
information,  and  extensive  capacity,  and  a  solid  judgment. 
His  experience  made  him  sceptical-Mr.  Grattan's  honesty 
made  him  credulous.    Mr.  Grattan  was  a  great  patriot- Mr. 
Flood  was  a  great  statesman.     The  first  was  qualified  to 
achieve  the  liberties  of  a  country-the  latter  to  entangle  a 
complicated   constitution.     Grattan  was  the  more  brilhant 
man,  Flood  the  able  senator.    Flood  was  the  wiser  politician, 
Grattan  was  the  purer.    The  one  used  more  logic,  the  other 
made  more  proselytes.    Unrivaled,  save  by  each  other,  they 
were  equal  in  their  fortitude;  but  Grattan  was  the  more  im- 
petuous.   Flood  had  qualities  for  a  great  prince,  Grattan  for 
a  virtuous  one ;  and  a  combination  of  both  would  have  made  a 
glorious  monarch.    They  were  great  enough  to  be  m  contest; 
but  they  were  not  great  enough  to  be  in  harmony;  both  were 
too  proud;  but  neither  had  sufficient  magnanimity  to  merge 
his  jealousies  in  the  cause  of  his  country. 

It  was  deeply  lamented  that  at  a  moment,  critical  and  vital 
to  Ireland  beyond  all  former  precedent,  an  inveterate  and 
almost  vulgar  hostility  should  have  prevented  the  co-opera- 
tion of  men  whose  counsels  and  talents  would  have  secured  its 
independence.  But  that  jealous  lust  for  undivided  honor,  the 
eternal  enemy  of  patriots  and  of  liberty,  led  them  away  even 
beyond  the  ordinary  limits  of  Parliamentary  decorum  The 
old  courtiers  fanned  the  flame,  the  new  ones  added  fuel  to  it, 
and  the  independence  of  Ireland  was  eventually  lost  by  the 
distracting  result  of  their  animosities,  which  m  a  few  years 
was  used  as  an  instrument  to  annihilate  that  very  legislature, 
the  preservation  of  which  had  been  the  theme  of  their  hos- 
tilities. .    .         ,     J.  X  f 

This  irreconcilable  difference  of  opinion  between  two  ot 
the  ablest  men  of  Ireland  generated  the  most  ruinous  conse- 
quences for  that  ill-fated  country.  Both  had  their  adherents, 
as  pertinacious  as  themselves.    The  simple  repeal  had  con- 

407 


408  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

tented  Mr.  Grattan  and  Earl  Cliarlemont;  the  Renunciation 
Act  was  enforced  by  the  perseverance  of  Mr.  Flood  and  the 
people,  and  still  considered  inconclusive.  Both  parties  ad- 
hered to  their  own  conviction;  nothing  could  warp  the  opin- 
ions of  either;  and  to  the  day  of  their  death  their  opinions 
remained  unaltered  and  events  i:)roved  that  both  were  mis- 
taken. 

By  those  two  statutes,  by  daily  political  discussions 
amongst  the  Volunteers,  and  by  a  multitude  of  literary  publi- 
cations, circulated  with  activity,  the  people  were  at  length 
informed  of  the  plain,  true  facts  of  their  own  case  and  situa- 
tion. They  were  reminded,  as  at  their  first  formation,  that 
Great  Britain  had  long  usurped  the  power  of  binding  Ireland 
by  acts  of  Parliament,  and  that  Ireland  had  thereby  been  re- 
duced to  a  state  of  constitutional  slavery;  that  the  British 
Government,  intending  to  carry  its  usual  usurpation  to  an  ex- 
traordinary length,  had  passed  an  Act  in  ''the  British  Par- 
liament," during  the  reign  of  George  I.,  "binding  Ireland  by 
British  statutes,"  cutting  off  at  once  every  branch  of  Irish 
liberty;  that  this  statute  did  not  affect  to  originate  any  new 
power  by  England,  but  declared  peremptorily  that  such  a 
right  had  always  existed  in  the  English  Parliament,  and  al- 
ways would  be  acted  upon  when  it  suited  the  convenience  of 
the  British  Ministry.  They  were  reminded  that  when  the 
Irish  nation  became  too  wise  and  too  powerful  to  be  longer 
retained  in  subjection,  England  (in  order  to  pacify  the  Irish 
nation)  had  herself  voluntarily  repealed  that  statute  declara- 
tory of  her  pre-existing  power;  but  did  not,  by  that  repeal, 
renounce  the  right  which  she  had  so  long  exercised,  nor  did 
she  is  any  way  declare  that  she  would  never  re-enact  it;  that 
the  same  right  remained,  in  abeyance;  nor  had  England  ad- 
mitted in  any  way  that  she  had  been  originally  erroneous  in 
enacting  it. 

These  being  the  plain  and  undisputed  facts  of  the  case,  it 
was  thence  argued  that  the  mere  repeal  of  the  declaratory 
statute,  so  far  from  definitively  renouncing  the  existing  right 
of  legislation  over  Ireland  confirmed  it;  and,  by  repealing, 
only  enacted  the  expediency  of  discontinuing  its  exercise  un- 
der existing  circumstances.  The  statue  which  had  declared 
that  there  existed  such  a  pre-existing  right  in  England  to  bind 
Ireland,  was  indeed  repealed  by  England;  but  still  though 
tKe  declaration  was  repealed,  the  right  was  not  renounced, 


In  the  Days  of  Gkattan  409 

and  remained  only  dormant  till  it  might  be  advisable,  under  a 
change  of  circumstances,  to  re-declare  it  by  a  new  statute. 

The  simple  repeal  of  any  statute  certainly  leaves  the  orig- 
inal jurisdiction  untouched,  exactly  in  the  same  situation  as 
before  it,  and  with  an  undiminished  right  to  re-enact  it  as 
might  be  convenient ;  and  the  6th  of  George  1.,  its  enactments 
and  its  repeal,  stood  exactly  in  the  same  situation  as  any  en- 
actment and  repeal  of  any  ordinary  statute  of  the  same  mon- 
arch. It  was  therefore  argued  that  it  had  become  indispen- 
sably necessary  for  the  security  of  Ireland  that  the  British 
Parliament  should,  by  statutes  of  their  own,  not  only  repeal 
the  Act  declaratory  of  Irish  independence,  but  also  expressly 
and  forever  renounce  the  existence  of  any  such  legislative 
authority  over  Ireland,  or  future  renewal  of  such  usurpation, 
without  which  renunciation  Ireland  had  no  guarantee  for  the 
constitution. 

Had  the  statute  of  George  I.  been  an  assumjjtion  of  a  new 
authority  to  legislate  for  Ireland,  its  simple  repeal  would  have 
at  once  admitted  the  usurpation  of  such  modern  assumption; 
but  as  that  statute  was  the  recognition  and  declaration  of 
pre-existing  authority,  coeval  with  the  British  Parliament  it- 
self, a  repeal  could  not  be  binding  on  any  future  Parliament, 
which  might  at  any  future  time  be  disposed  to  re-enact  it. 

But  a  statute  of  the  British  Parliament  and  the  King  of 
England,  by  his  royal  assent,  directly  renouncing  the  p re- 
existence  of  such  assumed  right  by  England,  pledged  all  fu- 
ture Parliaments  (as  far  as  Parliaments  can  be  pledged)  to 
the  same  principle,  and  also  definitely  pledged  all  future 
Kings  of  England  against  any  future  re-assumption  or  exer- 
cise of  such  power  over  the  Kingdom  of  Ireland ;  and  though 
the  Kings  of  England  and  Ireland  must  always  be  the  same 
individual,  the  realms  were  totally  distinct,  their  crowns  were 
distinct,  though  on  the  same  head;  and  Ireland,  possessing 
her  own  independent  legislature,  any  such  future  attempt  by 
a  King  of  England  would  then  be  a  direct  breach  of  the  law 
of  nations,  and  a  dereliction  of  his  Irish  office  by  the  King  of 
Ireland. 

These  arguments  became  a  universal  subject  of  discussion; 
and  were  rendered  of  still  greater  interest  by  debates,  which 
every  day  arose  on  other  points  interwoven  with  the  argu- 
ments. Numerous  British  statutes  had  been  enacted,  ex- 
pressly naming  and  legislating  for  Ireland,  as  if  enacted  by  its 
own  Parliaments.    All  these  remained  still  in  acti\'ity,  and 


410  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

great  inconvenience  must  necessarily  have  arisen  from  an  im- 
mediate and  indiscriminate  suspension  of  their  operation. 
None  were  enacted  in  Ireland  to  supply  their  places ;  and  great 
difficulties  were  occurring.  Modern  England  could  not  be 
humiliated  by  generously  declaring  that  her  ancestors  had 
exceeded  their  constitutional  authority  as  to  Ireland.  On  the 
contrary,  it  should  have  been  her  proudest  boast  to  have  done 
justice  by  avowing  it.  This  was  not  humiliation— it  was  true 
glory;  and  when  England,  shortly  afterwards,  actually  re- 
nounced forever,  by  the  act  of  her  own  legislature,  her  domi- 
nation over  Ireland,  she  could  not  have  been  much  gratified 
by  the  temporizing  complaisance  of  the  Irish  Parliament. 

It  is  also  very  remarkable  that,  though  Mr.  Walshe  and 
the  Recorder  alone  divided  against  the  address  of  Mr.  Grat- 
tan,  in  a  very  short  time  afterwards  there  was  scarcely  a 
member  of  Parliament,  or  a  man  in  Ireland  who  did  not  con- 
cur decidedly  in  their  opinions,  and  even  the  British  ministry 
and  the  British  legislature,  by  their  own  voluntary  act,  con- 
firmed their  doctrine.  Public  discussions  on  one  great  sub- 
ject seldom  fail  to  involve  reflections  upon  others,  and  these 
naturally  brought  the  Irish  people  to  discuss  the  imperfec- 
tions of  their  own  Commons  House  of  Parliament,  and  to  per- 
ceive that  without  a  comprehensive  reform  of  that  depart- 
ment, there  was  no  secunty  against  the  instability  of  events 
and  the  duplicity  of  England. 

The  following  letter,  however,  from  Mr.  Grattan  to  the 
author,  appears  to  throw  new  and  material  light  upon  the 
subject,  and  to  develop  the  individual  views  and  politics  of 
Mr.  Grattan  himself,  more  clearly  than  any  speech  or  docu- 
ment heretofore  published. 

This  letter  also  proves,  more  than  volumes,  the  insincer- 
ity of  the  Duke  of  Portland  and  the  English  Government,  and 
their  distinction  between  the  words  ** recognized"  and  "estab- 
lished, ' '  leaves  their  political  reservation  beyond  the  reach  of 
scepticism. 

This  letter  shows  probably  the  ruin  that  a  want  of  co-ope- 
ration between  two  great  men  brought  upon  the  country ;  and, 
above  all,  it  incidentally  exposes  the  courtly,  credulous  and 
feeble  politics  of  Earl  Charlemont,  so  injurious  to  the  public 
cause,  and  so  depressing  to  the  vigor  and  energies  of  its 
greatest  advocate. 

To  Mr.  Ponsonby*s  chance  remissness  on  a  future  crisis  is 
attributable  the  public  loss  of  the  Irish  legislature,  as  Lord 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  411 

Charlemont's  political  courtesy  was,  on  this,  fatal  to  its  se- 
curity. Patriots  without  energy,  as  bees  without  stings,  may 
buzz  in  sunshine,  but  can  neither  defend  their  hive  nor  assail 

their  enemy. 

"House  of  Commons,  London,  March  2nd. 

"My  Dear  Barrington. 

"I  am  excessively  sorry  that  your  health  has  been  im- 
paired, and  I  hope  it  will  soon  be  restored. 

"I  will  get  you  the  Whig-Cluh  resolution.  They  proposed 
to  obtain  an  internal  refonn  of  Parliament,  in  which  they 
partly  succeeded;  they  proposed  to  prevent  an  union,  in  which 
they  failed. 

"The  address  that  declared  no  political  question  remained 
between  the  two  countries,  had  in  view  to  stop  the  growth  of 
demand,  and  preserve  entire  the  annexation  of  the  Crown. 
It  was,  to  us,  an  object  to  prevent  any  future  political  discus- 
sion touching  the  relative  state  of  the  two  countries ;  because 
we  might  not  be  so  strong  at  that  moment.  And  it  was  an 
object  to  us  and  to  the  English  Minister,  to  guard  against  any 
discussion  that  might  shake  the  connection  to  which  we  were 
equally  attached.  Fox  wished  sincerely  for  the  liberty  of  Ire- 
land without  reserve.  He  was  an  enemy  to  an  union,  and 
wished  for  the  freedom  to  be  annexed  to  his  name. 

"The  Act  of  Repeal  was  a  part  of  a  treaty  with  England. 
A  declaratory  Act  of  title  is  the  affirmance  of  the  existence  of 
a  former  title ;  the  repeal  is  a  disaffirmance  of  any  such  title ; 
the  more  so  when  accompanied  by  a  transfer  of  the  posses- 
sion, viz.,  the  transfer  of  the  final  judicature  and  the  legisla- 
tion for  the  colony-trade  of  the  new-acquired  islands,  made  in 
consequence  of  a  protest  by  Ireland  against  the  claim  of 

England. 

"The  repeal  was  not  any  confession  of  usurpation— it  was 
a  disclaimer  of  any  right.  You  may  suppose  what  I  have  said, 
unsaid.  A  man  of  spirit  may  say  that;  but  he  will  hesitate  to 
unsay  icord  hy  word.  That  was  the  case  of  England.  She 
would  not  in  so  many  words  confess  her  usurpation,  nor  did 
she;  on  the  contrary,  when  they  pressed  her,  she  exercised  the 
power  and  said,  'The  constitution  of  Ireland  is  established 
and  ascertained  in  future  by  the  authority  of  the  British  Par- 
liament.' It  was  proposed  in  the  House  of  Commons  to  change 
the  words  and  say,  'recognized  forever.'  They  agreed  to  the 
.word  'forever,'  and  refused  the  word  'recognized,'  and  kept 


412  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

in  the^word-lestablished.'    Tliis  I  call  making  Ireland  free 
with  a  vengeance; 

*'I  wish,  in  your  History,  you  would  put  down  the  argu- 
ment on  both  sides.  I  can  get  you  Flood's  published  by  his 
authority. 

' '  I  am  excessively  thankful  for  the  many  handsome  things 
you  have  said  of  me. 

''Yours  most  truly, 

"Henry  Grattan. 

** Chevalier  Barrington,  Boulogne,  pres  Paris." 

Their  late  constitutional  acquirements,  though  apparently 
confirmed  beyond  the  power  of  revocation,  might  be  yet  a  pre- 
carious tenure,  whilst  Ireland  had  a  House  of  Commons,  so 
framed  and  elected  as  to  be  susceptible  of  relapse  into  its  for- 
mer degradation;  and  though  their  constitution  was  not  in 
any  state  of  present  danger,  future  insecurity  must  be  the 
necessary  consequence  of  a  feeble  or  corrupt  representation. 

Over  the  Lords  and  over  the  Crown,  the  control  of  the 
people  was  insufficint  and  uncertain.  It  was  just,  therefore, 
that  they  should  have  a  counterpoise,  by  a  House  of  Commons 
of  their  own  free  selection ;  and  events  have  since  proved  that 
the  suspicions  were  prophetic. 

These,  and  such  like  reflections,  led  the  Irish  people  grad- 
ually, according  to  their  capacities,  into  a  train  of  constitu- 
tional deductions ;  and  suggested  topics  as  to  the  reform  and 
purity  of  Parliament,  which  they  had  never  before  thought  of. 

The  great  body  of  a  people  can  never  be  capable  of  that 
cruel  and  discriminating  course  of  reasoning,  which  individ- 
uals or  limited  delegations  are  capable  of  exercising,  hence 
they  too  frequently,  in  great  general  assemblies,  follow, 
whether  right  or  wrong,  the  sentiments  of  those  who  reason 
more  plausibly  than  themselves,  or  whose  elocution  grasps  at 
their  feelings  and  gives  them  a  factitious  superiority  over 
ordinary  understandings. 

It  was  impossible  that  the  great  body  of  the  Irish  Volun- 
teers, which  had  now  asumed  the  guardianship  of  Ireland, 
could  be  capable  of  methodical,  deep,  systematic  reasoning, 
or  of  unerring  political  deduction,  from  arguments  of  enthu- 
siastic and  heated  orators ;  but  a  great  proportion  reasoned 
by  that  instinctive  power  which  nature  confers  on  shrewd,  un- 
cultivated capacities,  and  on  none  more  than  the  humble  or- 
ders of  the  Irish  people;  they  caught  the  strong  features  of 
their  case  and  their  constitution  l  they  knew  that  they,  had 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  413 

contributed  by  their  arms  and  by  tlioir  energy,  to  the  common 
cause  of  their  country ;  they  felt  that  they  had  been  victorious ; 
they  listened  attentively  to  their  ofificers,  who,  more  learned 
than  the  soldiers,  endeavored  to  adapt  their  explanations  to 
the  strong,  coarse  minds  which  they  sought  to  enlighten ;  they 
instructed  them  as  to  existing  circumstances,  and  to  future 
possibilities,  and  thus  endeavored  to  teach  those  whom  they 
commanded,  not  only  how  to  act,  but  why  that  principle  of 
action  was  demanded  by  their  country. 

At  this  time,  the  visionary  and  impracticable  theories  of 
modern  days  had  no  place  among  the  objects  of  the  armed  so- 
cieties of  Ireland;  but  the  naturally  shrewd  and  intelligent 
capacities  of  the  Irish  people  were  easily  convinced,  that,  with- 
out some  constitutional  reform  in  the  mode  of  electing  the 
Commons  House  of  Parliament,  they  could  have  no  adequate 
security  for  permanent  independence.  They  learned  that  par- 
oxysms of  liberty  which  give  rise  to  revolutions  do  not  en- 
dure for  ever,  and  that  the  spirit  of  Irish  freedom,  which  had 
affected  the  liberation  of  their  country,  might  expire;  that 
the  independence  of  the  constitution,  unless  protected  by  a 
free  parliament  never  could  be  secure ;  that  the  enemy  might 
attempt  to  regain  her  position  and  that  the  battle  would  then 
be  fought  again  under  multiplied  disadvantages. 

Such  a  reform,  therefore,  as  might  insure  the  uninflu- 
enced election  and  individual  independence  of  the  Irish  repre- 
sentatives, appeared  to  be  indispensable,  not  as  a  theoretical 
innovation,  nor  of  a  revolutionary  complexion,  but  as  a  practi- 
cal recurrence  to  the  first  and  finest  elements  of  the  constitu- 
tion as  it  then  existed,  without  any  deviation  from  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  it  had  been  with  so  much  wisdom  originally 
constructed.     This  species  of  reformation,  and  none  other, 
was  that  which  the  Irish  nation  so  judiciously  sought  for;  nor 
were  they  without  high  authority  and  precedent  to  counte- 
nance that  requisition.    ^Ir.  Pitt,  that  great  but  mischievous 
and  mistaken  statesman,  at  that  time  professed  himself  to  be 
a  reforming  patriot,  but  it  was  profession  only-his  deep  and 
solid  intellect  was  soon  perverted  by  the  pride  of  his  suc- 
cesses, and  confidence  in  his  omnipotence.    He  reigned  at  an 
unexampled  era;  his  fertile  and  aspiring  but  arrogant  genius 
led  him  into  a  series  of  grand  and  magnificent  delusions,  gen- 
erating systems  and  measures  which,  while    professmg    to 
save,  sapped  the  outworks  of  the  British  constitution,  and 
accelerated,  if  not  caused  the  financial  ruin  m  which  he  lett 


414  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

his  conntry.  He,  however,  lived  long  enough  to  rule  as  a  min- 
ister by  that  system  of  corruption  which,  as  a  patriot,  he  had 
reprobated;  and  to  extinguish  the  Irish  Parliament,  by  the 
loyalty  and  attachment  of  which  his  government  had  been  uni- 
formly supported. 

The  Irish  people  coincided  with  Mr.  Pitt,  as  to  the  neces- 
sity of  a  reform ;  nor  did  the  leading  reformers  of  Ireland  ma- 
terially differ  with  him  in  the  details  of  that  reformation ;  the 
principle  was  admitted  by  both  nations,  but  Mr.  Flood  was 
undisguised,  and  Mr.  Pitt  was  in  masquerade. 

The  course  of  reasoning  which  led  the  armed  associations 
of  Ireland  at  that  period  to  decide  upon  the  imperative  neces- 
sity of  a  reform  of  Parliament,  was  of  that  sober  and  convinc- 
ing nature,  which  without  sophism  or  declamation,  proves 
itself  by  the  force  of  uncontrovertible  premises,  and  of  plain 
and  simple  deductions. 

1st.  It  could  not  be  denied  that  the  fundamental  principle 
of  the  British  constitution  is  a  perfect  relative  equipoise  and 
distinctiveness  of  its  three  component  estates,  the  King,  the 
Lords,  and  the  representatives  of  the  people. 

2nd.  It  could  not  be  denied  that  any  deviation  from  the 
equipoise  and  distinctiveness  necessarily  altered  the  political 
symmetry  of  the  whole  and  destroyed  that  counteracting  qual- 
ity of  the  three  estates,  and  on  the  preservation  of  which  pub- 
lic liberty  entirely  depended. 

3rd.  It  could  not  be  denied  that  the  Members  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  forming  the  third  estate,  should,  by  the  theory 
of  the  constitution,  be  persons  freely  selected  by  the  people 
themselves,  to  guard  above  all  things  against  any  coalition  of 
the  other  estates  (the  Crown  and  the  Peers),  which  coalition 
must  endanger  the  liberties  of  the  people,  by  extending  the 
prerogatives  and  powers  of  the  Executive  Government  be- 
yond the  limits  the  constitution  restrains  them  to. 

4th.  It  could  not  be  denied  that  any  one  individual  arro- 
gating to  himself  and  actually  exercising  a  power  to  nomi- 
nate, and  by  his  own  sole  will  elect  and  return  representatives 
to  the  House  of  Commons,  sent  them  into  that  assembly,  not 
to  speak  the  sentiments  of  the  people,  but  the  sentiments  of 
the  individual  who  nominated  them,  and  caused  an  immediate 
deviation  from  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  British  con- 
stitution ;  but  where  members  of  the  House  of  Peers  so  nomi- 
nated and  returned  persons  to  sit  and  vote  as  members  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  it  was,  in  fact,  the  House  of  Peers  voting 


In  the  Days  of  C  rattan  415 

by  proxy  in  the  House  of  Commons;  thereby  destroying  at 
once  the  independence  and  distinctiveness  of  the  third  estate, 
and  enabling  the  Crown  and  the  Peers,  by  coalition,  to  con- 
trol the  Commons,  and  establish  a  despotic  throne  and  an 
arbitrary  aristocracy. 

The  power,  therefore,  constitutionally  conferred  on  the 
King  by  his  Royal  prerogative  of  creating  Peers,  coupled 
with  the  power  unconstitutionally  practiced  by  the  Peers,  of 
creating  Commoners,  left  the  people  no  sufficiently  counter- 
acting constitutional  protection  for  their  liberties. 

5th.  It  could  not  be  denied  that  purchasing  the  representa- 
tion of  the  people  in  the  Commons  House  of  Parliament  for 
money  and  selling  the  exercise  of  that  representation  for  of- 
fice, was  a  constitutional  crime  of  great  magTiitude ;  and  that 
when  such  a  practice  was  publicly  countenanced  it,  of  course, 
destroyed  the  purity  of  Parliament,  the  principle  of  rep- 
resentation and  safeguard  of  the  constitution. 

But  if  these  purchases  were  made  by  servants  of  the  Ex- 
ecutive Government,  in  trust,  for  the  uses  and  purposes  of 
its  ministers  to  enable  them  to  carry  measures  through  the 
legislature,  which  their  naked  strength,  official  character  or 
the  merits  of  the  measure  might  be  unable  to  affect,  it  was 
unequivocal  that  such  practices  put  an  end  totally  to  all  se- 
curity in  the  constitution  and  that  the  people  must  owe  the 
enjoyment  of  their  liberties  only  to  the  timidity,  the  forbear- 
ance or  the  possible  wisdom  of  an  official  oligarchy. 

The  Volunteers  now  examined  existing  matters  of  fact  in 
Ireland  as  applicable  to  these  premises,  and  comparing  the 
one  with  the  other,  the  conclusion  became  so  plain  and  obvious 
to  the  humblest  capacities,  that  the  necessity  of  reform  or 
modification  in  the  mode  of  electing  members  for  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Ireland  required  no  further  agreement. 

To  ascertain  the  relative  matters  of  fact,  as  applicable  to 
these  premises,  the  Volunteers  caused  to  be  printed  and  pub- 
lished lists  of  their  House  of  Commons,  designating  the  mode 
of  election  of  every  individual ;  the  individual  by  whose  per- 
sonal influence  each  representative  was  elected ;  the  number  of 
persons  who  nominally  returned  the  member,  and,  as  far  as 
could  be  ascertained,  the  money  or  valuable  consideration 
paid  for  such  unconstitutional  representation.  The  result  of 
the  inquiry  left  no  room  to  doubt  the  applicability  of  those 
inquiries  to  a  great  proportion  of  the  Commons  House  of 
Parliament.    The  Earl  of  Ely  nominated  nine  members  to  the 


410  Ireland's  Crovv^  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

House  of  Coinmons.  The  Earl  of  Shannon  nominated  seven; 
and  above  twenty  other  members  of  the  House  of  Lords  nomi- 
nated and  elected  members  for  the  House  of  Commons.  Many 
individuals  openly  sold  their  patronage  for  money  to  the  best 
bidder,  others  returned  members  at  the  nomination  of  the 
Viceroy  or  his  secretary ;  and  it  appeared  that  the  number  of 
representatives  elected  freely  by  the  people,  upon  constitu- 
tional principles,  did  not  compose  one-fourth  of  the  Irish 
Commons. 

An  internal  reform  of  Parliament  was,  on  full  considera- 
tion, deemed  quite  incomjDetent  to  meet  the  danger.  Numer- 
ous statutes  had  been  passed  to  punish,  as  a  public  crime,  the 
bribery  of  an  elector,  but  no  law  reached  the  individual  who 
possessed  and  exercised  an  influence  over  electors,  and  then 
secretly  sold  that  influence  for  money  or  for  title.  The  elector 
who  corruply  voted  was  considered  as  a  criminal ;  but  the  man 
who  corruptly  bought  and  sold  his  vote  was  tolerated.  On  the 
fullest  investigation,  therefore,  it  appeared  that  in  Ireland 
the  third  estate  was,  in  a  considerable  degree,  nominated  by 
the  second  estate ;  that  both  the  second  and  third  estates  were 
influenced  by  the  first  estate,  and  that  the  whole  symmetry  and 
equipoise  of  the  constitution  were  theoretic,  but  had  no  solid 
or  permanent  existence. 

The  Volunteers  at  length  determined  to  demand  a  reform 
of  Parliament  and  to  bring  the  measure  before  the  existing 
Commons  in  a  garb  which  they  conceived  would  render  it 
irresistible;  and  from  the  determination  arose  the  formation 
of  a  national  representative  convention  of  patriotic  delegates 
selected  from  the  armed  reigments— the  most  extraordinary, 
animating,  but  unprecedented  assembly  ever  yet  beheld  in  the 
midst  of  a  people,  at  the  moment  enjoj^ing  an  ascertained 
constitution. 

Had  this  assembly  been  conducted  with  discriminating 
caution  and  unflinching  firmness,  it  might  have  attained  all 
its  objects,  and  have  affected  a  complete  renovation  of  the 
British  constitution,  through  the  Irish  people.  England  would 
not  long  have  delayed  acting  on  the  successful  precedent  of 
Ireland.  This  extraordinary  meeting,  however,  though  its 
objects  were  not  effectuated,  brought  forward  a  great  mass 
of  talent  and  of  patriotism  which  had  theretofore  lain  dor- 
mant. 

During  the  progress  of  all  political  refonns  and  revolu- 
tions, men  have  been  frequently  found  pressing  themselves 


JOHN  PHILPOT  CURRAX. 


In  the  Days  of  CI  rattan  417 

forward  into  public  notice,  solely  by  the  strength  of  their  tal- 
ents and  the  power  of  their  energies;  springing  at  once  from 
the  humblest  ranks  of  obscurity  to  the  highest  class  of  repu- 
tation. 

One  of  those  luminaries  was  about  this  period  seen  arising 
in  Ireland,  whose  celebrity  in  that  country  had  no  competitor. 

John  Philpot  Curran,  a  person  of  humble  origin,  of  care- 
less habits,  and  comtemptible  exterior,  rose  at  once  to  give  a 
new  lustre  and  spirit  to  an  already  highly  enlightened  and 
spirited  profession.  He  had  passed  through  the  University 
of  Dublin  unsignalized  by  any  very  peculiar  honors,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  Irish  bar,  scarcely  known  and  totally  unpat- 
ronized.  With  the  higher  orders  he  had  no  intercourse,  and 
had  contracted  manners  and  adopted  a  kind  of  society  tending 
rather  to  disqualify  him  for  advancement,  but  whatever  dis- 
advantages he  suffered  from  humble  birth  were  soon  lost 
sight  of  amid  the  brilliancy  of  his  talents,  and  a  comparison 
of  what  he  had  been  with  what  he  rose  to,  rendered  the  at- 
tainments of  his  genius  the  more  justly  celebrated.  Never  did 
eloquence  appear  in  so  many  luminous  forms,  or  so  many  af- 
fecting modulations,  as  in  that  gifted  personage.  Every  qual- 
ity which  could  form  a  popular  orator  was  in  him  combined, 
and  it  seemed  as  if  nature  had  stolen  some  splendid  attribute 
from  all  former  declaimers  to  deck  out  and  embellish  her 
adopted  favorite.  On  ordinary  occasions  his  language  was 
copious,  frequently  eloquent,  yet  generally  unequal,  but,  on 
great  ones  the  variety  of  his  elocution,  its  luxuriance,  its  ef- 
fect, were  quite  unrivaled,  solemn,  ludicrous,  dramatic,  ar- 
gumentive,  humorous,  sublime,  in  irony  invincible,  in  pathos 
overwhelming,  in  the  alterations  of  bitter  invective  and  of 
splendid  eulogy,  totally  unparalleled;  wit  relieved  the  monot- 
ony of  narrative,  and  classic  imagery  elevated  the  rank  of 
forensic  declamation.  The  wise,  the  weak,  the  vulgar,  the 
elevated,  the  ignorant,  the  learned  heard  and  were  affected; 
he  had  language  for  them  all.  He  commanded,  alternately, 
the  tear  or  the  laugh,  and  at  all  times  acquired  a  despotic  as- 
cendancy over  the  most  varied  auditory. 

These  were  the  endowments  of  early  Curran;  and  these 
were  the  qualities,  which,  united  to  an  extraordinary  profes- 
sional versatility,  enabled  him  to  shoot  like  a  meteor  beyond 
the  sphere  of  all  his  contemporaries. 

In  private  and  convi\nal  society  many  of  his  public  quali- 
ties accompanied  him  in  their  fullest  vigor.    His  wit  was  in- 


4lS  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns^  and  Roses 

finite  and  indefatigable.  A  dramatic  eye  anticipated  the 
flights  of  an  unbounded  fancy ;  but  the  flashes  of  his  wit  never 
wounded  the  feelings  of  his  society;  except,  perhaps,  those 
minds  of  contracted  jealousy,  which  shrink  up  from  the  re- 
luctant consciousness  of  inferiority.  He  was,  however,  at 
times,  very  unequal.  As  in  a  great  metropolis  (to  use  one  of 
his  own  illustrations),  ^'the  palace  and  the  hovel,  splendor 
and  squalidness,  magnificence  and  misery,  are  seen  grouped 
and  contrasted  within  the  same  precincts";  there  were  occa- 
sions when  his  wit  sunk  into  ribaldry;  his  sublimity  degene- 
rated to  grossness,  and  his  eloquence  to  vulgarity;  yet  his 
strength  was  evident  even  in  his  weakness.  Hercules,  spin- 
ning as  a  concubine,  still  was  Hercules;  and,  probably,  had 
Curran  been  devoid  of  these  singular  contrarieties,  he  might 
have  glided  into  a  brilliant  sameness,  and,  like  his  great  con- 
temporary. Burgh,  though  a  more  admired  man,  he  would 
probably  have  been  a  less  celebrated  personage. 

The  innumerable  difficulties  he  had  to  encounter  in  early 
life  were  not  easy  to  conquer,  but  once  conquered,  they  added 
an  imjjetus  to  his  progress.  His  ordinary,  mean,  and  trifling 
person;  his  culpable  negligence  of  dress,  and  all  those  dis- 
advantageous attributes  of  early  indigence  were  impercepti- 
ble or  forgotten  amidst  his  talent,  which  seldom  failed  to  gain 
a  decided  victory  over  the  prejudices  even  of  those  who  were 
predetermined  to  condemn  him. 

His  political  life  was  unvaried;  from  the  moment  he  be- 
came a  member  of  the  Irish  Parliament  his  temperature  never 
changed.  He  pursued  the  same  course,  founded  on  the  same 
principles.  He  had  closely  connected  himself  in  party  and  in 
friendship  with  Mr.  George  Ponsonby;  but  he  more  than 
equalled  that  gentleman  in  the  sincerity  of  his  politics.  From 
the  commencement  to  the  conclusion  of  his  public  life  he  was 
the  invariable  advocate  of  the  Irish  people;  he  never  for  a 
moment  deserted  their  interest  or  abandoned  their  defense. 
He  started  from  obscurity  with  the  love  of  Ireland  in  his 
heart,  and  while  that  heart  beat  it  was  his  ruling  passion. 

As  a  mere  lawyer,  he  was  in  no  estimation;  but,  as  an  able 
advocate  he  had  no  rival,  and,  in  his  skill  and  powers  of  in- 
terrogation, he  vastly  excelled  all  his  rivals.  He  never  failed 
to  uphold  the  rights  and  independence  of  the  Irish  bar  on 
every  occasion  where  its  privileges  were  trenched  upon;  and 
the  bench  trembled  before  him  when  it  merited  his  animad- 


In  the  Days  of  Orattan 


419 


versions.  None  ever  assailed  him  publicly  who  was  not  over- 
thrown in  the  contest,  and  even  the  haughty  arrogance  of 
Fitzgibbon  seldom  hazarded  -an  attack,  being  certain  of  this 
discomfiture. 

Mr.  Curran  was  appointed  Master  of  the  Rolls  (Mr.  Pon- 
sonby  then  Lord  Chancellor).  He  was  disappointed  in  not 
obtaining  a  legal  situation  more  adapted  to  his  description  of 
talents.  He  was  also  chagrined  at  not  having  obtained  a  seat 
in  the  Imperial  Parliament  and  at  length  resigned  his  office 
upon  a  pension  of  £2,700  per  annum.  He  died  at  Brompton 
on  the  14th  of  October,  1817,  after  a  short  illness,  and  now 
"not  a  stone  tells  where  he  lies."  His  funeral  was  private 
and  he  was  buried  in  the  yard  of  Paddington  Church.  He 
was  never  fond  of  show  and  in  his  latter  days  he  both  sought 
and  obtained  obscurity.  Of  the  close  of  his  life  we  have  heard 
much  and  credit  little. 


Composed  from  the  Book  o{  Kells. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    KING    RECEIVES    THE    VOLUNTEERS  — IRELAND    IS    HAPPY    AND 
PROSPEROUS— CALL  FOR  A  NATIONAL  CONVENTION. 

That  unparalleled  army,  the  Irish  Volunteers,  had  now 
ascended  to  the  zenith  of  their  character  and  prosperity. 
They  had  liberated  their  country  from  a  thralldom  of  seven 
centuries;  their  numbers,  their  attitude,  and  respectability, 
had  won  their  independence  from  a  more  powerful  nation 
without  bloodshed.  The  King  received  at  his  court  and 
his  levies,  with  apparent  cordiality.  Volunteer  Officers  and 
soldiers  who,  without  his  authority,  formed  an  army  uncon- 
nected with  his  Crown  and  independent  of  his  Government; 
they  acted  without  pay  and  submitted  to  discipline  without 
coercion. 

The  regular  forces  paid  them  military  honors ;  the  Parlia- 
ment repeatedly  thanked  them  for  supporting  a  constitution 
upon  which  their  establishment  had  undoubtedly  encroached. 
They  were  adored  by  the  people,  dreaded  by  the  Minister, 
honored  by  the  King  and  celebrated  through  Europe.  They 
had  raised  their  country  from  slavery  and  they  supported 
their  Monarch  against  his  enemies.  They  were  loyal  but  de- 
termined to  be  free ;  and  if  their  Parliament  had  been  honest, 
Ireland  would  have  kept  her  rank  and  the  nation  preserved  its 
tranquillity.  The  rise  and  porgress  of  that  institution  has 
been  already  traced;  its  decline  and  fall  must  now  be  re- 
corded. 

At  this  period  Ireland  appeared  to  have  nothing  to  desire 
but  capital  and  industry.  She  was  free,  she  was  independent, 
populous,  powerful  and  patriotic ;  her  debt  did  not  exceed  her 
means  of  payment;  but  of  trading  capital  she  had  insufficient 
means,  and  her  industry  was  cramped  by  the  narrowness  of 
her  resources.  All  the  materials  and  elements  of  industry 
were  within  her  own  realm  and  the  freedom  of  trade  she  had 
acquired  now  promised  a  stimulus  to  her  commerce  which  she 
had  never  before  experienced.  The  people  were  united ;  Cath- 
olic and  Protestant  were  on  the  most  cordial  terms ;  the  voice 
of  patriotism  had  exorcised  the  spirit  of  discord,  the  Catholic 

421 


422  Ireland's  Cuuwn  of  Thokns  and  Ruses 

for  the  moment  forgot  his  chains  and  the  Protestant  recol- 
lected his  ascendancy ;  peace,  order  and  security  extended  over 
the  whole  island ;  no  army  was  required  to  defend  the  coasts, 
no  police  was  wanted  to  preserve  tranquillity,  neither  foreign 
nor  domestic  enemies  could  succeed  against  a  prospering  and 
united  people. 

Had  the  ardent  nature  of  Ireland  been  then  tempered  by 
calm  and  preserving  judgment,  had  ordinary  foresight  con- 
trolled or  guided  her  zeal,  and  had  rational  scepticism  moder- 
ated her  enthusiasm,  one  short  session  of  her  own  Parliament 
might  have  entrenched  her  independence  and  established  her 
constitution,  beyond  the  power  or  the  influence  of  all  her 
enemies. 

Untoward  destiny,  however,  had  decreed  that  unfortunate 
and  ever  mal-governed  island  to  fall  into  the  error  by  which 
individuals  so  often  meet  their  ruin.  Having  obtained  suc- 
cesses beyond  their  expectation,  a  mist  obscures  their  vision ; 
they  know  not  where  to  stop,  they  rush  blindly  to  the  dangers 
that  surround  them  and  lose  by  indiscretion  what  they  had 
achieved  by  fortitude. 

It  was  justly  feared  that  the  too  sensitive,  credulous  and 
enthusiastic  Irish,  in  a  fallacious  paroxysm  of  gratitude, 
might  raise  the  draw-bridge  of  their  fortress  for  the  admission 
of  their  enemies,  and,  amidst  the  dissensions  of  the  most 
able  and  honest  of  their  warders,  those  who  sought  their  over- 
throw might  again  penetrate  into  her  citadel. 

The  unfortunate  differences  of  sentiments  between  Mr. 
Flood  and  Mr.  Grattan,  by  enfeebling  the  authority  of  both, 
had  diminished  the  security  of  the  nation.  Mr.  Flood's  diffi- 
dence of  government  was  most  congenial  to  the  prospective  in- 
terests of  a  people  long  enslaved.  The  energy  of  patriots  had 
achieved,  but  it  required  the  wisdom  of  statesmen  to  secure 
their  newly-acquired  constitution.  Both,  however,  united  in 
opinion  as  to  the  necessity  as  to  the  free  and  independent  Par- 
liament to  protect  that  constitution;  but  no  unanimity  existed 
between  them  or  throughout  the  country,  as  to  the  details  of 
that  measure. 

By  these  unfortunate  collisions,  courtiers  obtained  breath- 
ing time,  and  the  Minister  acquired  hope.  The  hundred  eyes 
of  the  British  Argus  were  keen  to  discover  the  failings  and 
frailties  of  the  Irish  patriots ;  nor  did  they  watch  long  in  vain ; 
for  a  measure,  which  forms  one  of  the  most  remarkable  inci- 


In  the  Da\«  of  Gkattan  423 

dents  of  Irish  history,  soon  gave  the  English  Government  an 
opportunity  of  resuming  its  operations  against  that  devoted 
country. 

The  line  of  reasoning  already  described  as  to  the  state  of 
the  Parliament,  and  the  necessity  for  its  reform,  made  a  deep 
and  general  impression,  and  was  indefatigably  circulated 
throughout  the  whole  nation.  Discontent  quickly  sprang  up 
amongst  the  people,  and  their  meetings  increased.  At  length 
delegates  from  several  Volunteer  Regiments  again  assembled 
at  Dungannon  to  consider  the  expediency  and  means  of  an  im- 
mediate reform  of  Parliament.  Hence  originated  one  of  the 
most  extraordinary  scenes  in  the  annals  of  any  country. 

Mr.  Flood  was  now  considered  the  most  able  leader  of  the 
Irish  patriots.  Those  who  supported  his  opinion  still  perti- 
naciously contended  that  the  measures  already  conceded  were 
not,  in  themselves,  guaranteed  for  the  constitution  which  had 
been  acquired,  or  in  any  respect  sufficient  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  independence ;  that  confidence  in  the  existing  state  of 
her  Parliament  would  lull  the  nation  into  a  fatal  slumber, 
from  which  she  might  be  awakened  only  by  a  new  assault  upon 
her  freedom;  and  that  no  arrangement,  without  an  explicit, 
formal  and  unequivocal  recantation  by  England  of  her  orig- 
inal usurpations  ought  to  have  been  accepted.  They  urged 
that  such  an  avowal  would  certainly  have  been  obtained,  if 
the  Parliament  had  not  been  corrupted  or  deceived.  They 
contended  that  if  England  should  refuse  such  a  declaration 
that  in  itself  would  be  positive  proof  of  her  general  insincer- 
ity;  and  that  if  she  haughtily  persisted  in  retaining  the  theory 
of  her  usurpation  after  the  practice  of  it  had  been  relinquished 
it  was  evident  she  would  watch  the  first  favorable  moment  to 
impose  still  stronger  chains  than  those  which  she  had  loos- 
ened. 

This  strong  language  had  already  been  freely  used  to  rouse 
the  friends  of  Ireland  to  a  conviction  of  the  versatility  which 
her  Representatives  had  given  such  practical  proofs  of.  It 
vras  most  assiduously  disseminated,  and  not  without  founda- 
tion, that  the  Irish  Parliament,  in  its  recent  proceedings,  had 
clearly  evinced  more  talent  than  prudence,  and  less  wisdom 
than  declamation;  that  whilst  patriots  were  debating  in  the 
House,  the  Secretary  was  negotiating  in  the  corridor;  and 
therefore  it  was  necessary  to  the  public  safety  to  strangle 
corruption  in  its  cradle,  and  give  the  people  a  due  confidence 
in  the  integrity  of  their  Representatives. 


424  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

It  was  considered  by  many  men  of  influence  and  fortune 
that  a  reform  of  the  Commons  House  of  Parliament  was  at- 
tainable and  should  be  then  attained.  The  national  arrange- 
ments daily  appeared  more  imperfect,  for  they  had  not  been 
conducted  with  the  sound  principles  of  cautious  statesmen, 
nor  had  satisfactory  guarantees  been  established  for  their  fu- 
ture security.  As  Parliament  was  then  returned,  no  well- 
founded  confidence  could  be  placed  in  its  permanent  protec- 
tion; and  it  was  most  judiciously  stated  by  Mr.  Flood,  that 
the  speech  of  a  puzzled  Minister,  put  into  the  mouth  of  an 
embarrassed  Monarch,  was  at  that  moment  the  only  security 
for  the  continuance  of  Ireland  as  an  independent  nation;  and 
such  independence  might  rest  solely  upon  a  single  word  of 
two  syllables,  on  which  every  future  Minister  might  found 
fallacious  reasoning,  and  place  his  own  equivocal  construc- 
tion.   This  was,  in  truth,  prophetic. 

It  was  also  more  than  insinuated,  by  men  of  clear  and  dis- 
passionate judgment,  that  the  struggles  in  Parliament  were 
becoming  rather  for  the  supremacy  of  men  and  party  than 
for  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution;  that  they  were 
blind,  rancorous,  and  ill-timed  individual  contests,  dangerous 
to  the  state  and  irritating  to  the  people.  They  argued  that 
the  piercing  eye  of  the  British  Minister  would  not  fail  to 
watch  for  the  moment  when,  the  Irish  being  enfeebled  by  their 
dissensions,  he  might  destroy  that  independence  which  the 
architects  of  1782  had  attempted  to  establish,  without  guard- 
ing against  the  insecurity  of  the  foundation.  So  far  these 
arguments  were  true,  but  men  stopped  not  here.  It  was  sug- 
gested that  a  requisition  to  the  Parliament  to  reform  itself, 
urged  by  the  people  in  their  civil  capacities  only,  might  not 
have  sufficient  weight  to  command  attention.  If,  however, 
300  delegates  were  chosen  by  Volunteer  regiments,  from  men 
of  fortune,  influence  and  character,  it  would  prove  to  the  Par- 
liament that  a  reform  was  required  by  those  who  had  a  right 
to  require  it,  and  could  enforce  it.  They  might  send  the  heads 
of  a  Bill  to  Parliament  through  the  hands  of  their  own  mem- 
bers ;  such  a  mode  of  presentation  could  create  no  cavil ;  and, 
above  all,  the  very  same  men  who  would  deliberate  as  volun- 
teer delegates  and  prepare  such  a  bill  would  be,  in  a  great 
measure,  those  who,  in  their  civil  capacities,  composed  the 
several  grand  juries  of  the  nation,  many  of  them  being  mem- 
bers of  the  Legislature.  The  measure  was  almost  unani- 
mously determined  upon. 


In  the  Day6  of  Geattan  425 

Three  hundred  delegates  were  now  chosen  by  different 
corps,  and  the  10th  of  November  (1783)  was  proelamied  for 
the  first  sitting  of  the  Grand  National  Convention  of  Ireland, 
within  the  precincts  of  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament,  the 
members  of  which  were  at  the  same  time  exercising  their 
legislative  functions.  Never  was  any  country  placed  in  a 
more  extraordinary  or  critical  condition. 

This  state  of  affairs  in  Ireland  was  then  seriously  felt  by 
the  English  Cabinet;  it  became  alarmed.  Ireland  now  stood 
in  a  high  situation.  No  longer  (in  the  language  of  Mr.  Gib- 
bon) a  remote  and  obscure  island,  she  formed  a  new  feature 
on  the  face  of  Europe,  and  might  assert  her  rank  amongst  the 
second  order  of  European  nations.  In  constitution  and  in 
laws,  municipal  and  international,  she  was  fundamentally  the 
same  as  England;  her  legislature  was,  in  theory,  altogether 
independent.  The  individuality  of  their  joint  Monarch  con- 
stituted the  indefeasible  basis  of  their  federative  connection ; 
but  their  respective  Parliaments  alone  could  make  laws  to 
bind  their  respective  people,  to  regulate  their  own  commerce, 
and  to  pay  their  own  armies.  Ireland  had  wisely  and  mag- 
nanimously recorded  her  loyalty,  and  proclaimed  her  deter- 
mination, that  "whilst  she  shared  the  liberty,  she  would  share 
the  fate  of  the  British  nation";  but  the  compact  was  recip- 
rocal,  and  she  had  bound  herself  no  further. 

England  could  not  with  apathy  regard  a  military  conven- 
tion, meeting  and  operating  on  political  subjects,  in  the  cen- 
tre of  the  Irish  metropolis. 

The  attention  of  England  was  by  the  adoption  of  these  ex- 
traordinary proceedings  naturally  roused  to  a  more  detailed 
review  of  the  statistical  circumstances  of  Ireland.  By  the 
acquisition  of  a  free  commerce  and  of  unshackled  manufac- 
tures, the  revenue  and  resources  of  Ireland  consequently  be- 
came susceptible  of  extraordinary  improvement,  and  might 
soon  have  equaled  those  of  many  continental  nations  and 
solely  at  her  own  disposal  and  approbation. 

In  the  capability  of  military  power  also  she  had  few  rivals ; 
at  that  period  she  contained  (and  continues  to  contain)  more 
fighting  men,  or  men  who  love  fighting,  and  who  might  be  col- 
lected in  a  week,  than  any  other  state  in  Europe.  The  power- 
ful and  elevated  position  she  was  then  about  to  occupy,  and 
the  unprecedented  steps  by  which  she  had  mounted  to  that 
eminence,  could  not  be  regarded  mthout  strong  feelings  of 
solicitude  by  the  sister  country. 


42G  Ireland's  Ckowx  of  Thorns  aed  Roses 

The  example  of  Ireland  had  afforded  a  grave  and  instruct- 
ive lesson  to  an  oppressed  and  vassal  people,  and  a  whole- 
some lecture  to  griping  and  monopolizing  governments.  Of 
all  the  extraordinary  circumstances  which  the  state  of  Ire- 
land then  displayed,  none  was  beheld  at  that  critical  period 
with  such  mingled  wonder  and  alarm  by  England  as  the  rapid 
progress  of  the  Volunteer  associations.  And  the  bold  step  of 
a  delegated  convention,  the  increasing  numbers,  discipline 
and  energy  of  that  military  institution  had  no  precedent,  nor 
in  the  changed  state  of  Europe  can  the  phenomenon  ever  ap- 
pear in  any  country. 

The  Volunteers,  now  actually  armed  and  disciplined,  and 
whose  delegates  were  now  to  be  assembled,  were  said  to  ex- 
ceed 150,000  organized  men.  But  whatever  the  force  then 
was,  the  Volunteer  recruits,  if  called  on,  would  have  com- 
prised the  male  inhabitants  of  nearly  the  whole  island,  includ- 
ing every  rank,  religion  and  occupation. 

Such  a  force,  though  self-levied,  self-officered  and  utterly 
independent  of  any  control  or  subjection,  save  to  their  own 
chosen  chiefs,  still  remained  in  perfect  harmony  amongst 
themselves,  in  entire  obedience  to  the  municiapl  laws  of  the 
country,  holding  the  most  friendly  and  intimate  intercourse 
with  the  regular  forces,  and  by  their  activity  and  local  knowl- 
edge, preserving  that  country  in  a  state  of  general  and  un- 
precedented tranquillity. 

This  extraordinary  military  body,  equally  ready  to  shed 
their  blood  in  opposing  a  foreign  enemy,  supporting  their  own 
liberties,  or  defending  those  of  England,  combining  the  moral 
and  physical  powers,  and  nearly  the  entire  wealth  of  an  im- 
mense population,  nothing  could  have  resisted ;  and  whatever 
ground  of  alarm  the  British  Government  might  have  then  felt, 
had  ministers  been  mad  enough  at  that  period  to  attempt  its 
direct  or  compulsory  suppression,  instead  of  its  atttachment 
to  the  sister  country,  the  result  would  inevitably  have  been  a 
prompt  separation  of  the  two  islands. 

Ireland  was  in  this  state  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  Na- 
tional Convention,  and  the  Parliament  asembled  about  the 
same  time.  The  Volunteer  elections  were  quickly  ended  with- 
out tumult  or  opposition,  and  their  300  delegates,  each  es- 
corted by  a  detachment  of  Volunteers  from  their  respective 
counties,  entered  the  metropolis  and  were  universally  received 
with  a  respect  and  cordiality  impossible  to  be  depicted;  yet 


In  the  Days  of  Gkattan  427 

all  was  harmony  and  i)eace.  Many  men  of  large  fortune, 
many  of  great  talent  and  many  members  of  the  Lords  and 
Commons  had  been  elected  delegates  by  the  Volunteers,  and 
took  upon  themselves  the  double  functions  of  Parliament  and 
of  the  Convention. 

The  Eoyal  Exchange  of  Dublin  was  first  selected  for  the 
meeting  of  the  Volunteer  delegates.  Wlioever  has  seen  the 
metropolis  of  Ireland  must  admire  the  external  architecture 
of  that  building ;  but  it  was  found  inadequate  to  the  accommo- 
dation of  a  very  large  deliberative  assembly.  It  was  therefore 
determined  that  the  Rotunda  (being  then  the  finest  room  in 
Ireland)  was  best  adapted  for  the  meeting  of  the  National 
Convention.  This  was  and  continues  to  be  the  great  assem- 
bly-room of  Dublin.  It  consists  of  a  circular  saloon  of  very 
large  dimensions,  connected  with  numerous  and  very 
spacious  chambers,  and  terminates  Sackville  street,  the  finest 
of  the  Irish  metropolis.  It  is  surmounted  by  a  dome,  exceed- 
ing in  diameter  the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  and  was  per- 
fectly adapted  to  the  accommodation  of  a  popular  assembly. 

This  saloon  and  the  connected  chambers  had  been  fitted 
up  for  the  important  purpose  to  which  they  were  to  be  ap- 
propriated. But  little  did  they  conceive  that  what  they  then 
considered  as  the  proudest  day  their  nation  ever  had  seen, 
only  preceded  a  little  time  her  national  dissolution,  and  even 
prepared  the  grave  in  which  her  new-gained  independence  was 
to  be  inhumated.  Every  measure,  however,  had  been  pre- 
viously taken  to  ]^repare  that  splendid  chamber  for  this  un- 
paralleled assembly  and  to  receive  the  delegates  and  their 
escorts  with  every  possible  mark  of  respect  and  dignity. 
Volunteer  grenadiers  were  ordered  to  attend  on  the  conven- 
tion as  a  guard  of  honor  during  their  sittings,  and  to  mount 
an  ofiicer's  guard  at  the  house  of  the  President;  whilst  Volun- 
teer dragoons  patrolled  during  the  sittings,  in  the  utmost 
tranquillity,  throughout  the  entire  city.  The  detachments  of 
country  corps  who  had  escorted  their  delegates,  having  a 
great  emulation  as  to  their  apearance  and  equipments  on  this 
grand  occasion,  had  new  dresses  and  accoutrements,  and  it 
was  agreeable  to  see  the  noble  hunters  on  which  a  great  pro- 
portion of  the  cavalry  was  mounted.  The  horse  had  entered 
Dublin  in  small  detachments,  from  exceedingly  numerous 
corps,  and  when  occasionally  formed  into  line  the  great  va- 
riety of  their  dresses,  ensigns  and  equipments  presented  a 
splendid  but  very  striking  and  singular  appearance. 


428  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

The  citizens  of  Dublin  excelled  in  tlieir  hospitality,  they 
appeared  in  crowds  everywhere,  forcing  their  invitations  on 
the  country  Volunteers,  every  soldier  had  numerous  billets 
pressed  into  his  hand,  every  householder  who  could  afford  it 
vied  with  entertaining  his  guests  with  zeal  and  cordiality. 
Everything  was  secure  and  tranquil,  but  when  it  was  consid- 
ered that  300  members  had  virtually  proclaimed  a  concurrent 
Parliament,  under  the  title  of  a  National  Convention  and 
were  about  to  lead  a  splendid  procession  through  the  body 
of  the  city,  to  hold  its  sittings  within  view  of  the  House  of 
Legislature,  the  affairs  of  Ireland  seemed  drawing  fast  to 
some  decisive  catastrophe.  But  it  was  also  considered  that 
the  Convention  was  an  assembly  of  men  of  rank,  of  fortune 
and  of  talent.  The  Convention,  therefore,  possessed  an  im- 
portance and  a  consistence  that  seemed  to  render  some  mo- 
mentous consequence  absolutely  inevitable;  the  crisis  did 
arrive,  but  it  was  unfortunate ;  Ireland  tottered,  retrograded 
and  has  fallen. 

The  firing  of  twenty-one  cannon  announced  the  first  move- 
ment of  the  delegates  from  the  Royal  Exchange  to  the  Ro- 
tunda, a  troop  of  the  Rathdown  cavalry,  commanded  by  Col- 
onel Edwards,  of  Old  Court,  County  of  Wicklow,  commenced 
the  procession;  the  Liberty  Brigade  of  Artillery,  commanded 
by  Napper  Tandy,  with  a  band,  succeeded.  A  company  of  the 
Barristers'  grenadiers,  headed  by  Colonel  Pedder,  with  a 
national  standard  for  Ireland,  borne  by  a  captain  of  grena- 
diers and  surrounded  by  a  company  of  the  finest  men  of  the 
regiment,  came  after,  their  muskets  slung  and  bright  battle- 
axes  borne  on  their  shoulders.  A  battalion  of  infantry,  with  a 
band,  followed,  and  then  the  delegates,  two  by  two,  with  side- 
arms,  carrying  banners  with  mottoes  and  in  their  resi)ective 
uniforms ;  broad  green  ribands  were  worn  across  their  shoul- 
ders. Another  band  followed  playing  a  special  air  adopted 
by  the  Volunteers  for  marching  and  review.  The  champions 
of  the  different  regiments  in  tlieir  cassocks,  marched  each 
with  his  respective  corj^s,  giving  solenmity  to  the  procession, 
and  as  if  invoking  the  blessing  of  Heaven  on  their  efforts, 
which  had  a  wonderful  effect  on  the  surrounding  multitude. 
Several  standards  and  colors  were  borne  by  the  different 
corps  of  horse  and  foot,  and  another  brigade  of  artillery, 
commanded  by  Counsellor  Calbeck,  with  labels  on  the  can- 
nons' mouths,  was  escorted  by  the  Barristers'  corps  in  scarlet 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  429 

and  gold  (the  full  dress  uniform  of  the  King's  guards) ;  the 
motto  on  their  buttons  being  ''Vox  populi  siiprema  lex  est."— 
''The  voice  of  the  people  is  the  supreme  law." 

The  procession  itself  was  interesting,  but  the  surrounding 
scene  was  still  more  effecting.  Their  line  of  march  from  the 
Exchange  to  the  Rotunda  was  through  the  most  spacious 
streets  and  quays  of  the  city,  open  on  both  sides  to  the  river, 
and  capable  of  containing  a  vastly  larger  assemblage  of  peo- 
ple than  any  part  of  the  metropolis  of  England.  An  iimnense 
body  of  spectators,  crowding  every  window  and  housetop, 
would  be  but  an  ordinary  occurrence,  and  might  be  seen  and 
described  without  novelty  or  interest,  but,  on  this  occasion, 
every  countenance  spoke  zeal,  every  eye  expressed  solici- 
tude, and  every  action  proclaimed  triumph;  green  ribands 
and  handkerchiefs  were  waved  from  every  window  by  the  en- 
thusiasm of  its  fair  occupants ;  crowds  seemed  to  move  on  the 
housetops,  ribands  were  flung  upon  the  delegates  as  they 
passed ;  yet  it  was  a  loud  and  boisterous,  but  a  firm  enthusi- 
asm. It  was  not  the  effervescence  of  a  heated  crowd,  it  was  not 
the  fiery  ebullition  of  a  glowing  people,  it  was  not  sedition,  it 
was  liberty  that  inspired  them,  the  heart  bounded  though  the 
tongue  was  motionless,  those  who  did  not  see  or  who  do  not 
recollect  that  splendid  day,  must  have  the  mortification  of 
reflecting  that  (under  all  its  circumstances)  no  man  did  be- 
fore, and  no  man  ever  will  ''behold  its  like  again." 

The  entrance  of  the  delegates  into  the  Rotunda  was  more 
than  interesting— it  was  awful.  Each  doffed  his  helmet  or 
his  hat,  as  if  he  felt  the  influence  of  that  sacred  place  where 
he  was  about  to  sacrifice  at  the  shrine  of  Freedom.  Every 
man  knew  he  was,  in  some  respects,  overstepping  the  boun- 
daries of  the  Constitution,  but  he  considered  that  his  trespass 
was  for  the  purpose  only  of  adding  security  to  that  Constitu- 
tion which  he  seemed  to  transgress. 

Such  a  state  of  things  never  existed  in  any  other  country, 
consistent  with  perfect  tranquillity.  Ireland,  however,  proved 
on  that  occasion  her  superior  loyalty  and  gave  the  retort  cour- 
teous to  all  her  calumniators.  It  was  a  matter  of  fact  that 
the  independence  of  Ireland  had  been  achieved,  that  it  had 
been  proclaimed  in  Ireland  and  in  England,  that  it  had  been 
solemnly  ratified  and  confirmed  forever  by  his  Majesty  from 
his  throne,  as  monarch  of  both  countries.  That  compact  was 
therefore  firm,  because  it  was  federal  and  final,  and  the  dele- 


430  Irei.wd's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Ro  ,es 

gates  sought  what  their  own  Parliament  alone  was  competent 
to  discuss,  and  over  which  England  had  no  control.  A  partial 
form  of  the  representation  was  a  measure  which  the  British 
minister  himself  had  the  duplicity  of  proposing  in  England, 
yet  of  undermining  in  the  sister  country,  even  in  the  face  of 
his  own  renunciation  of  all  innovation  and  acknowledgment  of 
the  former  usurpation. 

These  would  at  any  other  time  have  been  subjects  for  de- 
liberate consideration,  but  it  was  too  late  to  reflect,  the  die 
w^as  thrown  and  as  if  everything  conspired  to  increase  the 
peculiarities  of  the  scene,  even  the  site  of  the  Rotunda,  where 
the  Convention  assembled,  exactly  terminated  the  street  and 
front  of  the  river,  on  the  other  side  of  which,  in  a  direct  line, 
was  seen  the  magnificent  dome  of  the  Commons  House  of 
Parliament,  where  300  members  returned  as  representatives 
of  the  Irish  people,  according  to  the  practice  of  the  constitu- 
tion, were  also  deliberating. 

Those  localities  excited  in  every  rational  mind  something 
like  a  dread  of  possible  collision ;  it  was  also  a  grave  and  curi- 
ous consideration  that  the  avowed  object  of  the  Volunteer 
delegation  was,  in  fact,  to  degrade  the  character  of  the  Par- 
liamentary delegates  and,  under  the  name  of  reform,  convict 
them  of  corruption. 

It  was  impossible  not  to  perceive  that  both  were  placed  in 
a  sitiation  which  must  necessarily  terminate  in  the  humilia- 
tion of  one  of  them. 

It  was  also  remarkable  that  the  Volunteers,  who  had  thus 
sent  their  delegates  to  reform  the  Commons  House  of  Par- 
liament, had  been  themselves  solemnly  thanked  the  preceding 
session  for  their  support  to  the  Constitution  by  the  very  same 
House  of  Commons  which  they  now  determined  to  reorganize 
and  reform. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  contrast  this  national  convention  of 
Ireland  with  the  democratic  assemblies  which,  in  later  days 
overwhelmed  so  many  thrones  and  countries.  With  what 
pride  must  an  Irishman  call  to  his  recollection  the  concentra- 
tion of  rank  and  fortune,  and  patriotism  and  royalty,  which 
composed  that  convention  of  the  Irish  people!  With  what 
pride  must  the  few  survivors  remember  the  300  Irish  nobles 
and  gentlemen,  assembling  peaceably  and  loyally  to  demand  a 
reform,  an  object  of  all  others  the  nearest  to  their  hearts, 
and  the  most  necessary  to  their  independence ! 


In  the  Day.s  of  Giiattan  4,'jl 

Yet  the  collection  of  that  assembly  must  also  cast  a  dark 
shade  over  the  History  of  Ireland,  by  transferring  a  reflection 
on  its  proud  birth  to  its  humble  termination. 

A  delineation  of  those  scenes  may  appear  to  modern  read- 
ers an  exaggerated  episode.  That  generation  which  beheld 
or  acted  in  those  days,  is  drawing  fast  to  a  close;  and  whilst  a 
few  contemporaries  exist  it  would  be  unpardonable  to  leave 
the  scenes  altogether  to  future  historians,  who  convey  but  an 
imperfect  recital  of  actions  they  had  never  seen,  and  frigid 
ideas  of  feelings  they  had  never  experienced.  The  results  of 
that  extraordinary  measure  may  enable  posterity  to  do  some 
justice  to  calumniated  Ireland,  where  loyalty  appears  to  have 
wonderfully  retained  its  influence  over  a  powerful,  proud  and 
patriotic  assembly,  and  over  an  armed  and  irresistible  popu- 
lation, under  circumstances  the  most  dangerous  and  irritat- 
ing that  had  ever  terminated  with  tranquillity  in  any  nation. 

The  Artillery  had  scarcely  announced  the  entry  of  the 
delegates  into  the  Rotunda  when  that  silent  respect  which 
had  pervaded  the  entire  population  during  the  procession 
yielded  to  more  lively  feelings ;  no  longer  could  the  people  re- 
strain their  joy.  At  first,  a  low  murmur  seemed  to  proceed 
from  different  quarters,  which  soon  increasiuig-  in  its  fervor,  at 
length  burst  into  a  universal  cheer  of  triumph,  like  distant 
thunder,  gradually  rolling  on,  till  one  great  and  continued  peal 
burst  upon  the  senses ;  the  loud  and  incessant  cheering  of  the 
people  soon  reverberated  from  street  to  street,  contributing 
the  whole  powers  of  acclamation  to  glorify  an  assembly  which 
they  vainly  conceived  must  be  omnipotent ;  it  was  an  acclama- 
tion, long,  sincere  and  unanimous,  and  occasionally  died  away, 
only  to  be  renewed  with  redoubled  energy.  The  vivid  interest 
excited  by  this  extraordinary  and  affecting  scene  can  never 
be  conceived,  save  by  those  who  were  present,  and  partici- 
pated in  its  feelings,  nor  can  time  or  age  obliterate  it  from 
the  memory. 

It  is  not  unworthy  of  remark  that  a  wonderful  proportion 
of  female  voices  was  distinguishable  amidst  these  plaudits. 
A  general  illumination  took  place  throughout  the  city,  bands 
of  music  were  heard  everywhere  and  never  did  a  day  and 
night  of  rejoicing  so  truly  express  the  unsophisticated  grati- 
fication of  an  entire  population.  The  government  was  as- 
tounded, the  Pri^y  Council  had  sat,  but  were  far  from  unani- 
mous, and  had  separated  without  decision.    The  old  courtiers 


432 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


called  the  scene  frantic,  but  it  was  not  the  frenzy  of  a  mob,  it 
was  the  triumph  of  a  nation,  incomprehensible  to  the  vulgar 
meetings  of  another  country. 

The  scene  within  was  still  more  novel  and  impressive.  The 
varied  uniforms  of  the  delegates  had  a  very  singular  appear- 
ance; sent  from  different  regiments,  no  two  of  them  were 
dressed  or  armed  alike;  cavalry,  infantry,  grenadiers,  artil- 
lery, generals,  colonels,  sergeants,  privates ;  in  fine,  all  possi- 
ble varieties  of  military  dress  and  rank  were  collected  in  one 
general  body,  destined  to  act  solely  in  a  civil  capacity. 

The  cheers,  the  cannon,  the  music,  the  musketry,  combined 
to  prevent  any  procedure  that  day,  save  that  of  the  members 
giving  in  their  delegation  and  nominating  some  officers  to  act 
during  the  session. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  CONVENTION — BRILLIANT  SCENES. 

Previous  to  the  meeting  of  the  delegates,  the  Bishop  of 
Derry  had  determined  to  convince  the  Irish  people,  that  he 
was  no  lukewarm  ijrofessor  of  adherence  to  their  interests; 
his  character  is  confirmed  by  every  act  of  his  life  when  in 
Ireland.  He  took  his  seat  amongst  the  Irish  delegates,  at  the 
Rotunda,  with  the  greatest  splendor,  and,  to  prove  that  he 
preferred  the  claims  of  the  Irish  Volunteers  to  both  his 
English  rank  as  Earl  of  Bristol  and  his  Irish  rank  as  a 
spiritual  noble,  he  entered  Dublin  in  royal  state,  drew  up  his 
equipage  at  the  entrance  to  the  House  of  Lords,  as  if  he 
halted  to  teach  the  Peers  their  duty  to  their  country,  and 
then  moved  forward  to  take  his  seat  at  the  Rotunda,  as  an 
Irish  delegate  in  the  National  Convention.  Such  a  circum- 
stance can  be  scarcely  credited  in  England ;  but  had  not  Lord 
Charlemont's  temporizing  neutralized  his  spirit,  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  Convention  might  have  succeeded  in  its  objects. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  wonderful,  that  a  British  Peer,  an  Eng- 
lishman, and,  above  all,  a  Bishop,  taking  so  decided  a  part 
in  the  cause  of  Ireland,  should  gain  a  popularity  that  few 
before  him  ever  had  so  fully,  or,  perhaps,  more  justly,  expe- 
rienced. He  certainly  was  sincere;  his  proceedings  on  this 
occasion  were  extraordinary,  and  not  unworthy  of  a  special 
notice. 

The  Lords  had  taken  their  seats  in  the  House  of  Peers 
when  the  Bishop  of  Derry  began  his  procession  to  take  his 
seat  in  the  Convention.  He  had  several  carriages  in  his 
suite,  and  sat  in  an  open  landau,  drawn  by  six  beautiful 
horses,  caparisoned  with  purple  ribands.  He  was  dressed  in 
purple,  his  horses,  equipages,  and  servants  being  in  the  most 
splendid  trappings  and  liveries.  He  had  brought  to  Dublin, 
as  his  escort,  a  troop  of  light  cavalry,  raised  by  his  unfor- 
tunate and  guilty  nephew,  George  Robert  Fitzgerald;  they 
were  splendidly  dressed  and  accoutred,  and  were  mounted 
on  the  finest  chargers  that  the  Bishop  or  their  commander 
could  procure.  A  part  of  these  dragoons  led  the  procession, 
another  closed  it,  and  some  rode  on  each  side  of  his  Lord- 

433 


434  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ship's  carriage.  Trumpets  announced  his  approach,  and 
detachments  from  several  Volunteer  corps  of  Dublin  joined 
his  Lordship's  cavalcade.  He  never  ceased  making  dignified 
obeisances  to  the  multitude;  his  salutations  were  enthusias- 
tically returned  on  every  side;  "Long  live  the  Bishop"  was 
heard  from  every  window;  yet  all  was  peace  and  harmony, 
and  never  did  there  appear  so  extraordinary  a  procession 
within  the  realm  of  Ireland. 

This  cavalcade  marched  slowly  through  the  different 
streets,  till  it  arrived  at  the  portico  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
which  adjoined  that  of  the  Commons.  A  short  halt  was  then 
made,  the  trumpets  sounded,  the  sudden  and  unexpected 
clangor  of  which  echoed  throughout  the  long  corridors.  Both 
Houses  had  just  finished  prayers,  and  were  proceeding  to 
business,  and,  totally  unconscious  of  the  cause,  several  mem- 
bers rushed  to  the  entrance.  The  Bishop  saluted  all  with 
royal  dignity,  the  Volunteers  presented  arms,  and  the  bands 
played  the  Volunteer's  march.  Of  a  sudden  another  clangor 
of  trumpets  was  heard;  the  astonished  Lords  and  Commons, 
unable  to  divine  what  was  to  ensue,  or  the  reason  of  the 
extraordinary  appearance  of  the  Bishop,  retired  to  their 
respective  chambers  and  with  great  solicitude  awaited  the 
result. 

The  Bishop,  however,  had  done  what  he  intended ;  he  had 
astonished  both  Houses,  and  had  proved  to  them  his  principles 
and  his  determination;  amidst  the  shouts  and  cheers  of  thou- 
sands, he  proceeded  to  the  Rotunda,  where,  in  point  of  dignity 
and  importance,  he  certainly  appeared  to  surpass  the  whole 
of  his  brother  delegates.  He  entered  the  chamber  in  the 
greatest  form,  presented  his  credentials,  took  his  seat,  con- 
versed a  few  moments  with  all  the  ceremom^  of  a  temporal 
prince,  and  then,  with  the  excess  of  that  dignified  courtesy  of 
which  he  was  a  perfect  master,  he  retired  as  he  had  entered, 
and  drove  away  in  the  same  majestic  style,  and  amidst 
reiterated  applauses,  to  his  house,  where  the  Volunteers  had 
previously  mounted  a  guard  of  honor.  He  entertained  a  great 
number  of  persons  of  rank  at  a  magnificent  dinner,  and  the 
ensuing  day  began  his  course  amongst  the  delegates,  as  an 
ordinary  man  of  business. 

The  personal  appearance  of  the  Bishop  was  extremely 
prepossessing;  rather  under  the  middle  size,  he  was  peculiar- 
ly well  made,  his  countenance  fair,  handsome,  and  intelligent, 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  435 

but  rather  expressive  of  a  rapidity  of  thought  than  of  the 
deliberation  of  judgment;  his  hair,  receding  from  his  fore- 
head, gave  a  peculiar  trait  of  respectability  to  his  appear- 
ance. 

His  manner  appeared  zealous  and  earnest,  and  rather 
more  quick  than  is  consistent  with  perfect  dignity;  but  he 
seemed  to  be  particularly  well  bred  and  courteous;  and  alto- 
gether he  could  not  be  viewed  without  an  impression  that  he 
was  a  jDcrson  of  talent  and  of  eminence. 

He  appeared  always  dressed  with  peculiar  care  and  neat- 
ness; in  general,  entirely  in  purple,  and  he  wore  diamond 
knee  and  shoe  buckles.  But  what  I  most  observed  in  his 
dress  was,  that  he  wore  white  gloves,  with  gold  fringe  round 
the  wrists,  and  large  gold  tassels  hanging  from  them. 

The  author  was  then  too  young,  and  too  unimportant,  to 
have  the  honor  of  any  personal  acquaintance  with  that  dis- 
tinguished prelate;  but  the  singularity  of  his  habits,  his 
patriotic  conduct,  popular  character,  and  impressive  appear- 
ance, excited  a  satisfaction  in  beholding  him,  and  impressed 
him  strongly  on  my  recollection. 

The  Bishop,  in  devoting  himself  to  the  service  of  the  Irish 
people,  could  have  no  personal  object  but  popularity.  He 
could  be  no  greater  in  title ;  he  was  rich,  and  in  health,  vigor, 
and  spirits ;  his  learning  was  rare,  his  talents  very  consider- 
able—in all  respects  he  was  an  able  man.  From  the  moment 
he  became  an  Irish  Bishop  he  adopted  Ireland,  built  an  im- 
mense palace  in  a  remote  and  singular  situation,  and  did 
numerous  acts  which  nobody  could  account  for.  He  had  many 
of  those  qualities  in  an  eminent  degree,  which  our  more 
ancient  histories  have  attributed  to  the  proudest  churchmen; 
but  they  were  in  him  so  blended  with  liberality,  so  tempered  by 
enlightened  principles,  that  they  excited  a  very  different  mode 
of  conduct  from  his  episcopal  predecessors.  However,  his 
ambition  for  popularity  obviously  knew  no  bounds,  and  his 
efforts  to  gain  that  popularity  found  no  limits.  His  great 
failing  was  a  portion  of  natural  versatility,  which  frequently 
enfeebled  the  confidence  of  his  adherents.  It  was  supposed 
that  the  gentle,  lambient  flame  of  Charlemont  would  soon  be 
quenched  in  the  rolling,  rapid  torrent  of  the  Bishop's  popu- 
larity, and  that  the  epigrammatic  eloquence  of  Mr.  Grattan, 
cramped  or  overpowered  by  the  influence  of  his  splendor, 
would  probably  be  withdrawn  from  the  scene  of  action.    The 


436  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Bishop  soon  adopted  his  course;  he  paid  his  whole  attention 
to  Mr.  Flood.  In  this  he  was  right.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  Mr.  Flood  was,  at  least,  the  best  educated  and  deep- 
est statesman,  and  the  most  able  partisan,  in  the  Irish  Senate. 

AVhilst  these  extraordinary  and  brilliant  scenes  were  pro- 
ceeding in  Ireland,  the  embarrassment  of  the  British  Min- 
isters must  necessarily  be  on  the  increase,  if  possible.  They 
well  knew  that  if  the  Convention  succeeded  in  reforming  the 
Commons  House  of  Parliament,  the  British  Government 
would  lose  the  use  of  the  only  instrument  through  which  they 
ever  could  hope  to  regain  their  ascendency;  and  with  this 
view,  and  at  this  critical  period,  the  plot  was  suggested  and 
the  conspiracy  formed  to  replace  Ireland  within  the  trammels 
of  the  sister  country  whenever  a  feasible  opportunity  should 
offer.  The  sequence  of  Irish  events  leaves  no  doubt  of  the 
truth  of  his  observation. 

These  collisions  were,  to  England,  a  golden  opportunity; 
plans  against  the  Volunteer  Associations  were  deeply  laid, 
and  with  considerable  prospect  of  eventually  succeeding,  first 
by  working  upon  the  courtly  moderation  and  courteous  feeble- 
ness of  the  short-sighted  Charlemont,  and  credulity  of  Grat- 
tan,  to  dismiss  the  Convention,  and  thereby  divide  and  dis- 
pirit the  Volunteers.  And,  next,  by  corrupting  Parliament 
and  seducing  the  Irish  gentlemen,  under  pretense  of  up- 
holding the  British  Constitution,  to  recapture  the  Irish  inde- 
13endence.  Wlioever  reads  the  political  history  of  those 
realms  from  1782  to  1800,  cannot  doubt  that  this  object,  from 
that  period  to  the  completion  of  the  legislative  Union,  was 
never  lost  sight  of. 

The  British  Minister  had  also  reasons  nearer  home  for 
determining  to  undermine  the  reforming  spirit  of  the  Irish 
Volunteers.  He  knew  that  if  a  reform  of  Parliament  were 
effected  in  Ireland,  though  the  same  reasons  did  not  exist, 
yet  the  same  measure  could  not  be  long  withheld  from  the 
English  nation;  and  as  the  Parliament  was  at  that  era  sup- 
posed to  be  ruled  absolutely  by  the  influence  of  the  Crown, 
the  control  of  the  Minister  would  receive  a  vital  blow  which 
it  never  could  recover. 

The  commercial  system  of  England,  too,  whilst  without 
external  rivalship,  had  no  necessity  for  a  special  protection. 
But  now  she  had  a  rival  in  the  free  trade  of  Ireland,  a  sub- 
ject which    soon    after   came    under   full    discussion.     The 


Ix  THE  Days  of  Grattan  437 

jealousy  of  England  was  proved  by  lier  commercial  proposi- 
tions, and  the  Irish  Parliament  had  yet  sufficient  honesty  to 
resist  that  inroad. 

But  as  a  body  that  had  labored  long  and  much,  a  lassitude 
and  relaxation  were  obviously  commencing  in  the  Irish  Sen- 
ate, how  long  that  spirit,  which  had  acquired  their  rights, 
might  retain  its  vigor  to  protect  them,  depended  on  the  purity 
of  the  representatives,  and  this  was  the  true  reason  for  con- 
sidering a  reform  imperative  in  Ireland. 

Whilst,  therefore,  the  subject  of  Reform  is  under  dis- 
cussion, it  may  be  proper  to  see  how  far  the  then  existing 
state  of  Ireland  substantially  required  that  measure,  or  war- 
ranted that  conclusion.  She  was  to  commence  as  a  trading 
country,  and  a  situation  on  the  map  of  the  world  seemed  to 
combine  many  defects  and  many  advantages.  She  appears 
partially  secluded  from  that  general  intercourse  which  other 
states  of  Europe  enjoy  from  their  localities.  England,  on 
the  east,  intervenes  between  her  and  the  British  Channel  and 
German  Ocean;  Scotland  intercepts  the  Northern  Seas;  and 
though  the  most  western  point  of  Europe,  and  of  course  well 
situated  for  the  western  commerce,  the  enterprise  and  great 
capital,  or  jealousy,  of  England,  could  have  excluded  her  at 
pleasure,  if  unprotected  by  her  own  Parliament,  from  any 
proportional  participation  in  the  colonial  trade.  On  a  view 
of  the  whole,  her  position  might  have  entitled  her  to  have 
become  a  considerable  emporium,  but  jealousy  is  natural  to 
commercial  nations,  and  Ireland  would  probably  have  pos- 
sessed the  same  lust  for  monopoly  had  she  been  circum- 
stanced as  Great  Britain.  But  the  non-importation  resolu- 
tions of  Ireland  had  alarmed  Great  Britain,  and  proved  to 
her  to  what  a  zeal  of  retaliation  the  Irish  people  might  be 
urged  by  any  future  measures  of  injustice. 

The  situation  of  Ireland  places  her  comparatively  out  of 
the  pale  of  busy  Europe,  by  the  absence  of  that  political 
interest  which  the  powers  of  Europe  take  in  the  commerce  of 
other  and  inferior  countries.  This  was  a  deprivation  which 
nothing  could  ever  remedy  or  counteract,  but  a  local  legis- 
lature, constantly  resident,  and  constantly  alive  to  the  foreign 
and  domestic  interests  of  their  country. 

These  were  some  of  the  causes  which  rendered  a  pure  and 
independent  Parliament  more  necessary  to  Ireland  than  to 
her  sister  country.    Ireland  never  had  been  a  nation  of  exten- 


438  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

sive  commerce,  yet  even  the  narrow  channels  of  her  trade 
were  ever  contracted  by  the  jealousies  and  monopoly  of  Eng- 
land; and  this  in  public  opinion  rendered  a  pure  Parliament 
indispensable,  as  the  only  ample  security  against  such  inter- 
ference. 

To  constitute  an  Irish  Parliament,  therefore,  as  much  as 
possible  free  from  every  tinge  of  English  commercial  or  politi- 
cal influence,  was  plausibly  considered  essential  to  the  security 
of  the  former  country.  The  necessity,  in  point  of  facts,  can 
only  be  judged  of  by  this  view  of  the  external  state  of  Ireland 
at  the  crisis,  when  a  military  convention  to  discuss  Reform 
surprised  every  nation  of  Europe,  that  would  condescend  or 
take  the  trouble  to  think  about  an  island  so  secluded. 

The  public  characters  of  the  Bishop  of  Derry  and  his 
more  moderate  rival  were  so  extremely  dissimilar,  and  their 
composition  so  totally  repugnant,  that  any  amalgamation  of 
sentiment  was  utterly  impossible.  A  cautious  attachment  to 
regularity  and  order,  a  sincere  love  for  the  people,  a  polished, 
courtly  respect  for  the  aristocracy,  with  a  degree  of  popular 
ambition  and  a  proportion  of  individual  vanity,  were  the 
governing  principles  of  Lord  Charlemont  during  the  whole  of 
his  political  conduct.  But,  unfortunately,  these  were  accom- 
panied by  a  strong  taint  of  that  religious  intolerance  which 
has  since  proved  the  interruption  of  Irish  tranquillity. 

No  man  in  Ireland  could  do  the  honors  of  a  review  better ; 
and  though  his  personal  courage  was  undoubted,  no  man  in 
Ireland  was  likely  to  do  the  duties  of  a  battle  worse  than 
Lord  Charlemont.  He  guessed  the  extent  of  his  own  powers, 
and  sedulously  avoided  any  situation  to  which  they  might 
prove  inadequate.  If  the  people  had  not  respected  his  vir- 
tues, they  would  not  have  submitted  to  his  weakness;  and 
if  he  had  not  loved  the  people,  he  would  not  have  sacrificed 
his  tranquillity  to  command  them.  He  was  an  excellent 
nurse,  tender  of  the  constitution,  but  dreading  every  effective 
remedy  prescribed  for  its  disorders. 

Lord  Charlemont  saw  clearly  that  the  Presidency  of  the 
National  Convention  was  of  vital  consequence  to  the  country, 
and  the  master-key  of  his  own  importance.  He  had  his  little 
as  well  as  his  great  feelings,  and  both  were  set  into  action  by 
this  dilemma.  He  knew  full  well  that  if  the  bold  and  enter- 
prising Prelate  were  at  the  head  of  that  Convention,  he  would 
lose  all  weight  with  the  Government,  and  all  influence  with 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  439 

tlic  people.  The  measure  was  altogether  too  strong  for  the 
character  of  Lord  Chariomont;  he  knew  he  would  be  incap- 
able of  governing  that  body  if  it  once  got  into  any  leading- 
strings  but  his  own,  and  it  was  obvious  that  if  his  Lordship 
should  get  one  step  beyond  his  depth  he  never  could  regain 
his  position.  His  friends,  therefore,  anticipated  every  means 
to  ensure  his  nomination  to  the  Presidency,  and  the  Bishop 
of  Derry,  before  he  was  aware  that  there  would  be  any 
effectual  opposition  to  himself,  found  Lord  Charlemont 
actually  placed  in  that  situation  where  he  might  restrain,  if 
not  counteract,  the  ultra  energies  of  the  reforming  party. 
This  was  the  very  step  the  Government  desired ;  Earl  Charle- 
mont might  be  managed,  but  the  Bishop  of  Derry  would  have 
been  intractable.  Lord  Charlemont  involuntarily  became  the 
tool  of  Government,  whilst  he  fancied  he  was  laboring  in  the 
service  of  the  people.  From  this  moment  the  neutralizing 
system  by  which  its  President  wished  to  conduct  that  assembly 
became  obvious.  Everybody  might  foresee  that  not  only  the 
Convention,  but  perhaps  the  Volunteer  Associations  were 
likely  to  droop. 

Many  sensible  men  had  apprehended  that  the  Bishop's 
politics  might  be  too  strong;  the  very  act  of  his  attaching 
himself  to  Ireland  proved  at  once  their  vigor  and  eccentricity ; 
and  hence  the  Presidency  of  the  Convention,  in  every  point 
of  view,  became  a  measure  of  extreme  importance. 

A  few  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  had 
declined  their  election  to  the  Convention,  but  some  of  the 
ablest  and  most  respectable  members  performed  their  duties 
alternately  in  both  assemblies.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  and  his 
Privy  Council  at  the  same  time  held  their  sittings  at  the 
Castle,  exactly  midway  between  the  two  Parliaments;  they 
received  alternate  reports  from  each,  and  undecided  whether 
the  strong  or  the  passive  system  were  least,  or  rather  most, 
fraught  with  danger,  they  at  length  wisely  adopted  their 
accustomed  course,  and  determined  to  take  advantage  of  the 
chances  of  division,  and  of  the  moderation,  ductility,  and  pride 
of  Lord  Charlemont. 

It  was  artfully  insinuated  to  Lord  Charlemont,  by  the 
friends  of  the  Government,  that  the  peace  of  the  country  was 
considered  to  be  in  his  hands,  that  he  had  accepted  a  situation 
of  the  most  responsible  nature,  and  that  if  he  did  not  possess 
sufficient  influence  to  curb  the  Convention,  he  ought  at  once 


440  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

to  resign  tlie  trust,  and  thereby  give  the  Parliament  a  ground 
of  requiring  the  immediate  dissolution  of  its  constitutional 
rival. 

Lord  Charlemont  found  himself  in  a  situation  of  great 
embarrassment.  If  he  held  the  Presidency  he  was  respons- 
ible for  its  proceedings;  if  he  resigned  it,  he  w^ould  still  be 
responsible  for  having  countenanced  the  organization  of  the 
assembly;  the  Bishop  would  succeed  him  in  his  chair,  and 
he  would  still  be  considered  the  inceptive  promoter  of  what- 
ever might  be  adopted  by  his  successor.  Lord  Charlemont 's 
pride  resisted  his  resignation.  He  was  too  high  to  be  com- 
manded, he  was  too  feeble  to  control,  and  he  found  himself 
in  a  state  of  great  perplexity.  After  much  deliberation,  he 
adopted  the  suggestions  of  the  courtiers  and  was  led  blind- 
folded to  that  deceptions  course  which  might  answer  his 
tranquil  objects  for  the  moment,  but  was  beneath  his  char- 
acter, and  must  eventually  have  extinguished  all  the  popular 
influence  of  the  Volunteers  and  have  destroyed  that  of  the 
country.  In  fine,  he  lost  himself;  he  sacrificed  his  country, 
and  determined  on  a  line  of  proceeding  entirely  unworthy  of 
his  former  conduct;  if  he  could  not  govern,  he  resolved  to 
temporize,  divide,  neutralize,  and  dissolve  the  assembly. 

This  fatal  system  was  eventually  successful,  and  his  Lord- 
ship effected  the  dissolution  of  that  body  whose  confidence 
had  raised  him  to  so  glorious  an  eminence,  by  which  the 
British  Government  now  foresaw  the  possibility  of  recaptur- 
ing Irish  independence.  Lord  Charlemont  had  been  seized 
with  a  nervous  dread  of  that  very  institution  he  had  orig- 
inally been  so  active  in  creating;  and  entirely,  though  uncon- 
sciously, surrendered  himself  to  the  darling  objects  of  a  deep 
and  treacherous  administration. 

And  here  let  it  be  remarked,  that  the  independence  of  Ire- 
land, which  certainly  was  first  achieved  by  the  exertions  of 
the  Whigs,  was  now  left  unguarded,  and  afterwards  destroyed 
by  the  corrupt  tergiversation  of  many  members  of  that  same 
party.  The  inconsistent  conduct  of  some  of  the  Whigs,  and 
their  Place  Bill  in  1794,  were  the  proximate  means  through 
which  the  Union  was  ultimately  effected. 

The  proceedings  of  the  Convention  were  carried  on  for 
some  time  with  the  utmost  regularity.  The  rules  and  orders 
and  customs  of  Parliament  were  adopted,  and  the  meetings 
were  held  and  continued  without  any  material  interruption. 


In  the  Day«  of  Grattan  441 

But  when  such  an  assembly  bad  boon  delegated  for  tlie  pur- 
pose of  requiring  the  Parliament  to  purify  itself,  and  remodel 
its  constitution,  it  could  not  be  expected  that  every  member 
could  possess  similar  views  or  similar  feelings,  or  perhaps 
observe  the  most  uninterrupted  order  and  discipline  in  dis- 
cussions. But  the  decorum  and  regularity  of  the  Convention 
may  be  best  exemplified  by  observing  that  there  was  not  any 
meeting  or  discussion  of  the  National  Convention  of  Ireland, 
from  its  first  to  its  last  meeting,  more  confused  or  boisterous 
than  what  has  very  frequently  been  witnessed  in  the  Com- 
mons House  of  the  Imperial  Parliament. 

A  strong  opposition  soon  arose  to  the  imbecile  system  of 
Lord  Charlemont.  Superior  public  characters  at  length 
assumed  their  stations,  and  effectively  overwhelmed  that 
childish  affectation  of  delicacy  so  utterly  incompatible  with 
the  circumstances  of  the  times  and  the  spirit  of  the  patriots. 
Yet,  unfortunately,  Lord  Charlemont  was  elected  and  took 
the  chair  as  President. 

The  Bishop,  disappointed  of  the  chair,  lost  no  time  in 
rendering  it  a  seat  of  thorns.  He  took  to  his  council  the  man 
of  all  others  best  adapted  to  give  weight  and  dignity  to  the 
measure  of  Parliamentary  reform.  Lord  Charlemont  sup- 
ported reform  most  sincerely.  Mr.  Grattan  was  also  a  sincere 
and  honest  friend  to  a  purification  of  Parliament;  but  his 
favorite  scheme,  as  he  said,  to  begin  with,  was  an  internal 
reform.  He  partially  accomplished  that  object  of  the  Place 
Bill,  whilst  by  one  of  its  clauses  he  most  certainly  lost  both 
the  Parliament  and  the  Constitution. 

The  Bishop  and  Mr.  Flood  soon  gained  a  full  ascendency 
in  the  Convention,  and  many  men  of  the  very  first  rank,  for- 
tune, and  influence  took  part  in  its  deliberations.  Numerous 
plans  were  proposed,  and  reform,  of  all  others  the  most  dif- 
ficult of  political  measures,  was  sought  to  be  too  promptly 
decided  in  a  heated  and  impatient  assembly. 

By  the  imprudence  of  both  parties  the  Convention  and  the 
Parliament  were  driven  into  a  direct  collision.  After  much 
deliberation,  a  plan  of  reform,  framed  by  Mr.  Flood  and 
approved  by  the  Convention,  was  directed  by  them  to  be  pre- 
sented to  Parliament  forthwith,  and  the  sittings  of  the  Con- 
vention were  made  permanent  till  the  Parliament  had  decided 
the  question.  Mr.  Flood  obeyed  his  instructions,  and  moved 
for  leave  to  bring  in  the  Bill  to  reform  the  Parliament. 


442  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

The  Government  felt  that  a  collision  of  the  two  assemblies 
was  unavoidable.  The  crisis,  however,  afforded  no  oppor- 
tunity for  mature  consideration,  and  it  was  not  long  before 
the  danger  of  so  hasty  a  proceeding  was  fatally  experienced. 
Government  had  yielded  to  the  Volunteers  when  it  could  not 
resist  them;  but  it  was  not  x>i"obable  that  the  Parliament 
would  quietly  capitulate  to  the  Convention ;  whilst  the  triumph 
of  the  Parliament  unplied  not  only  the  destruction  of  the 
Convention  but  of  the  Volunteers. 

The  measure  of  reform,  patriotic  and  noble,  blinded  the 
nation  to  every  consideration  but  its  attainment,  actual  and 
prompt;  yet  so  many  persons  of  character,  fortune,  and  in- 
fluence were  in  both  assemblies  that  a  discreet  and  prudent 
deliberation  might  possibly  have  devised  means  of  averting  so 
great  a  crisis. 

The  Government  resolved  to  risk  a  direct  assault  upon 
the  Volunteers,  by  refusing  leave  to  bring  in  Mr.  Flood's 
Bill,  because  it  had  originated  from  their  deliberations. 
Strong  language  was  used,  but  with  some  precaution,  even  by 
Mr.  Yelverton,  who  had  been  a  zealous  Volunteer,  but  was 
now  the  Attorney  General.  His  eloquence  was  splendid,  but 
the  bold,  restless,  arrogant  spirit  of  Fitzgibbon,  ever  prone 
to  offend,  to  irritate,  and  to  pervert,  in  a  speech  replete  with 
the  most  unnecessary  invective,  unwarrantable  fury  and 
abuse,  assailed  the  Convention,  the  Volunteers,  and  the  Bill 
with  every  epithet  and  allusion  that  could  bring  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  Volunteers  into  a  state  of  direct  hostility. 
Had  this  effort  been  crowned  with  success,  British  connection 
would  probably  not  have  been  of  three  months '  duration. 

The  House  felt  the  danger  of  his  conduct,  and  he  was  not 
supported  in  his  philippics.  Mr.  Curran  called  Mr.  Fitz- 
gibbon a  maniac  and  an  incendiary ;  Mr.  D.  Daley  termed  Mr. 
Flood  a  demagogue.  The  debate  became  quite  unprecedented 
in  point  of  violence  and  party  recrimination,  but  the  good 
sense  of  some  members  endeavored  to  moderate  the  partisans. 
The  Bill,  after  a  dreadful  uproar,  was  rejected  by  158  to  49 ; 
138  of  the  majority  were  placemen,  and  the  very  persons  on 
ivhom  the  reform  ivas  intended  to  operate.  It  is  very  re- 
markable that  it  was  138  placemen  that  rejected  the  Reform 
Bill  in  1783,  and  that  it  was  the  same  number  of  placemen 
who  carried  the  Union  Bill  in  1800,  which,  if  the  reform  had 
succeeded,  never  could  have  been  passed. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  443 

Upon  this  very  decision  ultimately  depended  the  exist- 
ence of  Irish  indei^endeuce.  The  Volunteers  were  insulted, 
their  Bill  was  rejected  without  a  hearing,  their  intentions 
were  calumniated,  even  their  name  was  reprobated ;  their  ser- 
vices were  forgotten,  and  that  very  corrui)tion  which  they 
sought  to  reform  thus  had  its  full  revenge. 

Mr.  Connolly— that  weak,  obstinate  and  most  inconsistent 
of  the  Irish  Whigs,  whom  family  and  fortune  alone  could 
have  raised  from  obscurity— endeavored  to  give  a  finishing 
blow  to  that  virtuous  association  which,  in  the  same  place, 
he  had  so  often  eulogized.  He  now  explicitly  denounced  the 
Volunteers  as  enemies  to  that  Constitution  which  they  had 
obtained  for  their  country,  and  which  he  afterwards  surren- 
dered to  the  Ministers,  against  whose  measures  he  had  ar- 
rayed himself  on  every  important  occasion. 

This  too  great  confidence  of  the  Volunteers,  in  the  success 
of  their  measures,  had  thus  led  them  too  rapidly  into  a  pro- 
ceeding that  required  the  most  deliberate  consideration.  The 
refusal  of  Parliament  to  receive  their  Bill  created  a  sensa- 
tion which,  for  a  moment,  left  the  peace  of  Ireland  on  the 
very  brink  of  the  precipice.  Lord  Charlemont  mistook  his 
fears  for  his  prudence,  the  Volunteers  mistook  their  resent- 
ment for  their  patriotism,  both  were  exposed  to  extremity, 
and  some  decisive  crisis  appeared  absolutely  inevitable.  That 
great  and  patriotic  army  which  had  the  year  before  received 
the  unanimous  thanks  of  the  Parliament  were,  by  the  motion 
of  a  Whig,  nearly  denounced  as  rebels  and  little  less  than  a 
declaration  of  war  against  them  was  voted,  even  without  a 
division  in  the  Parliament. 

By  this  fatal  dilemma,  resistance  or  dissolution  alone 
remained  to  the  Convention.  The  most  intelligent  of  that 
body  determined  that  a  day  or  two  should  be  taken  to  reflect 
on  the  best  course  of  proceeding.  But  Lord  Charlemont 
dreaded  the  consequence  of  discussion  and  decided  rather  to 
betray  his  trust  than  hazard  insurrection,  and  to  adopt  the 
safer  step  of  dissolving  the  Convention. 

It  is  not  easy  to  describe  the  uneasiness  and  deep  solicitude 
of  the  Convention  pending  that  debate.  Reporters  were 
perpetually  passing  and  repassing  between  the  two  assem- 
blies; the  impatience  of  the  Volunteers  was  rising  into  a 
storm;  Earl  Charlemont,  overwhelmed  by  his  apprehension, 
saw  no  course  but  to  induce  them  to  adjourn ;  they,  however, 


444  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

waited  till  long  after  midnight,  in  a  state  between  anger  and 
anxiety.  Lord  Cliarlemont  did  not  oppose,  but  he  duped 
them.  He  received  a  note  from  the  House  of  Commons  which 
he  said  left  no  hopes  of  a  speedy  decision,  and  he  had  the 
address  and  influence  to  induce  the  Convention  to  adjourn 
till  Monday  morning  at  the  usual  hour,  then  to  decide  upon 
ulterior  measures,  if  the  Bill  should  be  rejected.  But  his 
Lordship  had  secretly  determined  that  they  should  meet  no 
more ;  the  death  of  the  Convention  was  pronounced  by  their 
adjournment;  and  the  honest,  patriotic,  but  feeble  Charle- 
mont,  on  that  Monday  morning  began  to  extinguish  that  insti- 
tution to  which  he  owed  his  celebrity  and  to  paralyze  that 
proud,  popular  spirit  to  which  alone  Ireland  was  indebted  for 
its  constitution  and  independence. 

Sunday  was  passed  between  his  indecision  and  his  tunidity. 
In  his  weak  and  virtuous  mind,  pride  and  patriotism  were 
ranged  on  the  one  side;  but  imbecility  and  a  sense  of  inca- 
pacity to  meet  the  crisis  blinded  him  to  the  nature  of  that 
insidious  conduct  which,  on  this  and  perhaps  the  only  occa- 
sion of  his  life,  he  meditated  against  his  benefactors. 

He  had  a  meeting  of  his  few  friends,  most  of  whom  had 
the  same  sensations  as  himself.  The  Bishop  of  Derry  and 
Mr.  Flood  appeared  like  daring  specters  to  his  imagination; 
he  dreaded  to  meet  them  at  the  Convention,  and  after  much 
deliberation  he  decided  on  a  course  which  detracted  from  his 
reputation  and  for  which  even  the  critical  situation  of  the 
country  could  not  allow  him  one  point  of  justification. 

On  Monday  morning  he  repaired  to  the  Rotunda,  before 
the  usual  hour  of  sitting.  None  but  his  own  immediate  par- 
tisans were  aware  of  his  intention ;  the  meeting  was  expected 
to  be  most  important,  and  the  delegates  had  no  suspicion  of 
his  Lordship's  early  attendance. 

On  his  taking  the  chair,  a  delegate  immediately  arose  to 
expatiate  on  the  insults  which  the  Convention  had  received 
during  the  debate  on  Saturday.  His  Lordship  became 
alarmed;  a  protracted  statement  might  give  time  for  the 
arrival  of  delegates,  when  all  his  objects  would  surely  be 
frustrated.  He  at  once  took  a  step  which  had  scarcely  a 
parallel  for  duplicity,  and  which,  though  of  the  shallowest 
nature,  proved  the  most  effectual. 

He  instantly  silenced  the  member,  as  being  out  of  order, 
on  the  ground  that  one  House  of  Parliament  never  could  take 


In  thk  J)avs  of  (Jkattan  445 

notice  of  what  jiassod  in  aiiotlicr;  and  tliat  the  Convention 
had  adopted  tlio  iiilcs  and  orders  of  Parliament. 

Thus  hy  collecting  every  ray  of  feebleness  and  absurdity 
into  one  focus,  he  prevented  any  continuation  of  the  subject ; 
and  whilst  he  declared  the  Convention  a  House  of  Parlia- 
ment, resolved  to  terminate  its  existence. 

After  some  conversation,  a  farewell  address  was  rapidly 
passed  to  his  Majesty,  and  his  Lordship  boldly  adjourned 
the  Convention— 5i«e  die.  The  Rotunda  was  quickly  vacated, 
and  when  the  residue  of  the  delegates,  the  ardent  friends  of 
the  Volunteer  body,  came  to  take  their  places,  they  found  the 
doors  closed,  the  Chairman  withdrawn,  and  that  body  upon 
which  the  nation  relied  for  its  independence  dissolved  forever. 

The  delegates,  mortified  and  abashed,  returned  to  their 
homes ;  many  friends  of  Earl  Charlemont  were  soon  ashamed 
of  their  conduct,  and  his  Lordship's  want  of  sincerity,  for 
the  first  time,  was  indisputably  proved  and  underwent  well- 
merited  animadversions. 

The  Volunteer  delegates,  having  returned  to  their  con- 
stituents, could  give  but  a  puerile  account  either  of  their 
proceedings  or  of  their  Chairman.  Every  eye  now  turned  on 
the  Earl  of  Bristol,  who  became  the  idol  of  the  people.  Whilst 
Lord  Charlemont  gently  descended  into  the  placid  ranks  of 
order  and  of  courtesy,  the  Bishop  rose  like  a  phoenix  from 
the  ashes  of  the  Convention.  The  Volunteer  corps  in  many 
districts  beat  to  arms;  they  paraded,  they  deliberated,  but 
their  bond  of  Union  was  enfeebled  or  dissevered. 

Amongst  the  weaknesses  of  Lord  Charlemont  lie  had  an 
odious  tinge  of  bigotry,  and  was  decidedly  opposed  to  the 
admission  of  Catholics  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  Consti- 
tution. The  Bishop,  with  more  zeal  and  much  greater  abil- 
ities, was  their  warmest  advocate. 

Exclusion  on  the  one  side  and  toleration  on  the  other 
became  the  theme  of  both.  The  dispute  ran  high ;  partisans 
were  not  wanting,  the  people  began  to  separate;  and  this 
unfortunate  controversy  gradually  terminated  in  the  fatal 
dissension  which  never  ceased  to  divide  the  Irish  nation,  and 
at  length  effected  all  the  objects  of  mischief  that  the  most 
ruthless  enemies  of  the  Irish  people  could  have  expected,  or 
have  even  wished. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

ADDRESS  OF  THE  VOLUNTEERS  TO   THE  BISHOP  OF   DERRY  — HEATED 
SCENES  IN  THE  IRISH  PARLIAMENT. 

After  tliis  fatal  event,  the  Volunteers  became  less  calm  and 
more  unguarded.  The  address  of  one  regiment  to  the  Bishoj) 
of  Deny  forms  an  interesting  feature  of  Irish  history,  and 
it  gave  rise  to  a  reply  such  as  had  not  been  ventured  upon  by 
any  public  character  in  either  country. 

A  northern  corps,  of  considerable  strength,  had  adopted 
the  patriotic  title  of  the  ''Bill  of  Rights  Battalion,"  and  had 
entered  into  resolutions  to  "support  their  Constitution,  or 
be  buried  under  its  ruins."  A  large  detachment  of  that  corps 
marched  from  that  country,  determined  to  uphold  the 
Bishop's  principles  and  support  his  measures  with  their  lives 
and  fortunes.  The  address  and  the  answer  are  strongly 
illustrative  of  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  the  embarrassment 
of  the  Cabinet. 

This  declaration  ran  like  wildfire  through  the  nation. 
The  last  sentence  was  the  boldest  and  most  unequivocal,  the 
most  daring  and  decisive  used  in  Ireland.  A  British  Earl 
and  Irish  Bishop  of  great  wealth,  learning,  abilities,  and  of 
unbounded  popular  influence,  risking  his  fortune  and  perhaps 
his  life  in  support  of  Ireland,  was  in  every  respect  a  phe- 
nomenon. 

His  Lordship's  desire  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
Irish  nation  was  no  longer  doubtful,  and  well  was  he  cal- 
culated to  lead  it  to  every  extremity.  All  men  were  now 
convinced  that,  had  his  Lordship  been  President  of  the 
National  Convention  the  moderate  and  courtly  Charlemont 
must  either  have  submitted  to  his  standard  or  have  sunk  into 
nihility. 

"BILL  OF  RIGHTS  BATTALION. 

"Resolved— That  the  following  Address  be  presented 
from  this  Battalion,  wider  arms,  to  the  Earl  of  Bristol,  Lord 
Bishop  of  Derry,  for  his  truly  patriotic  exertions  in  support 
of  our  nghts  and  liberties:— 

"To  the  Right  Honorable  Earl  of  Bristol,  Lord  Bishop  of 
Derry.  The  Address  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  Battalion  of 
Volunteers. 

447 


448  Ireland's  Crown  or  Thorns  and  Roses 

"My  Lord  Having,  with  the  eye  of  silent  approbation, 
viewed  yonr  conduct,  in  every  stage  of  its  progress,  at  the 
Grand  National  Convention  of  Volunteer  Delegates,  we  are 
impelled,  by  those  generous  sentiments  that  actuate  the 
breasts  of  Irishmen,  to  offer  your  Lordship  this  address,  as  a 
mark  of  affection  and  of  gratitude, 

"We  see,  with  indignation  and  concern,  the  treatment 
which  the  wise,  spirited,  and  salutary  Resolutions  of  the 
Volunteer  Conventions  have  received;  but  we  trust  the 
virtuous  efforts  of  a  united  people,  under  the  auspices  of 
your  Lordship,  will  cleanse  the  Augean  stable— the  noisome 
stalls  of  venality  and  corruption. 

"The  gloomy  clouds  of  superstition  and  bigotry,  those 
engines  of  disunion,  being  fled  the  realm,  the  interests  of 
Ireland  can  no  longer  suffer  by  a  diversity  of  religious  per- 
suasions. All  are  united  in  the  pursuit  of  one  great  object— 
the  extermination  of  corruption  from  our  Constitution;  nor 
can  your  Lordship  and  your  virtuous  coadjutors,  in  promot- 
ing civil  and  religious  liberty,  be  destitute  of  the  aid  of 
all  professions. 

"Permit  us  to  assure  you  that  as  freemen,  freeholders, 
and  as  Volunteers,  our  exertions  to  effectuate  the  grand  work 
of  reformation  shall  be  as  strenuous  as  the  aim  is  important; 
and  that  we  are,  with  unfeigned  gratitude  and  attachment, 
your  Lordship's  most  faithful  friends. 

"Signed,  by  order  of  the  Battalion, 

"JoHijT  Ore,  /S'ec." 

A  detachment  from  the  Battalion,  consisting  of  eighty 
rank  and  file,  headed  by  their  lieutenant-colonel,  waited  on 
his  Lordship,  on  the  14th  instant,  at  Downhill,  and  presented, 
under  arms,  their  address,  to  which  his  Lordship  was  pleased 
to  give  the  subsequent  reply:— 

"Gentlemen— When  you  acknowledged  the  services  of 
your  fellow-citizens,  in  the  County  of  Antrim,  in  the  late 
struggle  for  liberty,  you  rewarded  their  toils  in  that  coin 
most  valuable  to  virtuous  men ;  and  your  approbation  of  their 
efforts,  in  some  measure,  consoled  them  for  their  want  of 
success. 

"But,  when  you  step  forth  from  your  oivn  country,  to 
hail  the  individual  of  another,  unknown  to  you  but  by  his 
honest  endeavors,  and  unconnected,  except  by  that  kindred 
spirit  which  seems  now,  at  length,  to  pervade  the  whole  body 


In  the  Day.s  of  CJrattan  449 

of  Irishmen,  and,  like  a  Promethean  fire,  to  animate  a  hitherto 
lifeless  mass,  the  satisfaction  excited  in  his  mind,  by  the  ap- 
plauses of  men  who  have  a  right  to  approve  what  they  dare 
to  support,  can  be  known  only  to  those  who  are  conscious  of 
deserving  what  they  are  fortunate  enough  to  receive. 

''When  the  conscience  of  a  patriot  bears  testimony  to  the 
truth  of  the  panegyric,  and  the  sincerity  of  the  panegyrists' 
praise  ceases  to  be  adulation,  then  they  become  the  whole- 
some food  of  the  manly  mind,  and  nourish  that  virtue  they 
were,  at  first,  intended  only  to  prove. 

''But,  gentlemen,  those  who  dare  assert  their  own  rights 
should  rise  above  the  mean  policy  of  violating  the  rights  of 
others. 

"There  is,  in  this  island,  a  class  of  citizens  equally  re- 
spectable and  infinitely  more  numerous  than  those  who  have 
hitherto  oppressed  them— 

' '  Men  who  have  long  crouched  under  the  iron  rod  of  their 
oppressors,  not  from  any  dastardly  insensibility  to  their 
shackles— not  from  any  unmanly  indifference  to  the  inalien- 
able rights  of  man;  but  from  a  pious  dread  of  wounding  our 
common  country  through  the  sides  of  its  tyrants— 

"Men,  in  whose  hearts  beats  at  this  instant  as  high  a 
pulse  for  liberty,  and  through  whose  veins  pours  a  tide  of  as 
pure  blood,  and  as  noble,  too,  as  any  that  animates  the 
proudest  citizen  in  Ireland— 

"Men,  whose  ancestors,  at  the  hazard  of  their  property, 
and  with  the  loss  of  their  lives,  obtained  the  first  great  Bill 
of  Rights,  and  upon  which  every  other  must  be  founded— the 
Magna  Charta  of  Ireland— 

"Men,  whose  ancestors,  in  the  midst  of  ignorance,  could 
distinguish  between  the  duties  of  a  religionist  and  the  right 
of  a  citizen,  and  who  enacted  those  elementary  and  never 
obsolete  statutes  of  praemunire  which,  for  centuries,  have  been 
an  irrefragable  monument  of  their  sagacity  in  distinguishing, 
and  their  fortitude  in  severing,  their  duty  to  the  Church  of 
Rome  from  their  dependence  on  its  Court — 

"Men,  the  undegenerate  progeny  of  such  virtuous  ances- 
tors, who,  with  a  firmness  worthy  of  our  imitation,  and  still 
more  worthy  of  our  gratitude,  have  endured  those  very  out- 
rages from  their  country  which  their  forefathers  spumed  at 
from  its  sovereign,  and  who,  under  a  series  of  accumulated 
wrongs,  which  would  heighten  the  disgrace  of  human  policy 


450  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

if  they  could  be  paralleled  in  its  annals,  liave  witH  a  fortitude 
as  unexampled  as  their  oppression,  allowed  everything  dear 
to  the  hiunan  heart  to  be  wrecked,  except  their  religion  and 
their  patriotism,  excejDt  their  acquiescence  to  the  will  of  an 
unscrutable  God,  and  their  affection  for  a  mistaken  and  de- 
luded country. 

"But,  gentlemen,  the  hour  is  come  when  sound  policy,  as 
well  as  irresistible  justice  will  compel  those  who  demand  their 
own  rights  to  support  their  claim  by  a  restitution  of  those  of 
their  fellow-citizen. 

"When  Ireland  must  necessarily  avail  herself  of  her  whole 
internal  force  to  ward  oif  foreign  encroachments,  the  better 
to  exercise  anew  the  tyranny  of  a  part  of  the  community  over 
the  dearest  and  inalienable  rights  of  others. 

"For  one  million  of  divided  Protestants  can  never,  in  the 
scale  of  human  government,  be  a  counterpoise  against  three 
millions  of  united  Catholics.  But,  gentlemen  of  the  Bill  of 
Rights  Battalion,  I  appeal  to  yourselves,  and  summon  you  to 
consistency- TYRANNY  is  not  GOVERNMENT  and 
ALLEGIANCE  IS  DUE  ONLY  TO  PROTECTION. 

'  *  Bristol. 

"14th  January,  1784.'' 

The  Government  now  became  seriously  alarmed.  Never 
was  any  Government  in  greater  difficulty.  Various  were  its 
advisers  at  this  important  moment;  those  in  council,  whose 
arrogance  and  arbitrary  feelings  generally  outweighed  their 
prudence,  strongly  enforced  the  most  dangerous  of  all  meas- 
ures, the  immediate  arrest  of  the  Bishop.  They  contended 
that,  by  such  energy,  and  by  at  once  depriving  the  Volunteers 
of  so  enthusiastic  a  partisan,  they  might  check  their  progress ; 
but  they  never  reflected  on  the  inability  of  Government  to 
enforce  the  resolution. 

The  daring  and  dangerous  strength  of  the  Bishop's  lan- 
guage, the  glaring  light  which  by  the  last  sentence  was  thrown 
upon  the  conditional  terms  of  allegiance,  as  settled  under  the 
precedent  of  1680,  though  totally  inapplicable  to  the  Irish 
nation,  or  to  its  connection  with  Great  Britain,  astounded  all 
men.  But  the  Government  soon  perceived  the  inevitable  con- 
vulsion which  must  have  attended  so  violent  a  step  as  Fitz- 
gibbon  had  recommended.  It  would  have  been  the  signal  for 
100,000  Volunteers  rushing  to  the  rescue,  and  one  week  would 
have  produced  nn  insurrection,  the  smallest  spark  would  now. 
have  inflamed  the  nation. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  451 

The  Government  resolved  to  watch  the  progress  of  events 
over  which  control  might  be  impossible.  This  course  fully 
corresponded  with  their  utter  expectations. 

Many  of  the  most  patriotic  Volunteers  thought  the  Ad- 
dress of  the  Bishop  true  in  principle,  but  too  strong  in  terms, 
particularly  as  it  was  addressed  to  an  armed  corps,  in  the 
center  of  thousands  who  could  not  fail  to  kindle  at  the 
Promethean  fire  with  which  his  Lordship  had  so  classically 
animated  his  oration. 

The  idea  of  coercing  the  Parliament  very  rapidly  lost 
ground,  and  in  a  short  time  it  became  the  general  opinion 
that  Mr.  Flood's  Reform  Bill  had  been  opposed  by  many 
upon  the  principle  that  it  was  rather  a  command  than  a 
solicitation ;  and  that  it  would  be  prudent  to  give  the  Parlia- 
ment a  fair  trial  before  they  absolutely  condemned  them.  It 
was  thought  that  the  objection  being  removed,  by  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  National  Convention,  a  new  bill  should  be  pre- 
sented in  the  ordinary  course  of  parliamentary  proceedings, 
by  members  solely  in  their  civil  character,  and  the  disposition 
of  the  House  and  the  resolves  of  Government  be  thus  fairly 
ascertained. 

The  people  were  severed,  but  the  Govermnent  remained 
compact ;  the  Parliament  was  corrupted,  the  Volunteers  were 
paralyzed,  and  the  high  spirit  of  the  nation  exhibited  a  rapid 
declension.  The  jealousy  of  patriots  is  always  destructive 
of  liberty. 

A  new  event,  however,  soon  proved  the  weak  delusions  of 
Earl  Charlemont.  At  the  dissolution  of  the  Convention  he 
recommended  a  Reform  Bill  to  be  presented  to  Parliament, 
as  emanating  solely  from  civil  bodies,  unconnected  with  mili- 
tary character.  Every  experience  is  silly,  where  its  failure 
can  be  clearly  anticipated,  and  almost  every  man  in  Ireland 
well  knew  that  such  a  bill  would  be  lost  in  such  a  Parliament. 
Mr.  Flood,  however,  tried  the  experiment,  and  it  failed;  he 
attempted  it  without  spirit,  because  he  was  without  confidence. 
Mr.  Grattan  supported  it  with  languor,  because  it  was  the 
measure  of  his  rival.  The  military  bill  had  been  scouted,  be- 
cause it  was  military,  and  the  civil  bill  was  rejected  because 
it  was  popular.  A  corrupt  senate  never  wants  a  vicious 
apology. 

The  Volunteers  now  drooped,  yet  their  resolutions  were 
published ;  their  meetings  were  not  suspended,  and  their  re- 


452  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

views  continued;  but  these  appeared  only  as  boyish  shows, 
to  amuse  the  languid  vanity  of  their  deluded  general.  He 
passed  their  lines  in  military  state ;  he  received  their  salutes 
with  grace  and  condescension,  and  recommended  them  to  be 
tranquil  and  obedient;  and,  after  a  peaceable  camj^aign  of 
four  hours'  duration,  composed  his  mild  and  grammatical 
despatches,  and  returned  to  his  Marino  and  to  the  enjoyment 
of  the  more  congenial  elegancies  of  literature  and  of  private 
friendships. 

The  temperate  system  now  gained  ground;  some  patriots 
lost  their  energy,  others  lost  their  influence,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment experienced  the  wisdom  of  their  negative  measures. 

That  noble  institution,  the  Volunteers  of  Ireland,  survived, 
however,  these  blows  for  some  years.  This  only  luminary  of 
her  sphere  was,  by  the  devices  of  the  Government,  gradually 
obscured,  and  at  length  extinguished. 

It  was  not  supposed  that  the  concessions  to  Ireland  had 
been  voluntary  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain.  They  were  only 
a  sacrifice  to  circumstances,  with  the  mental  reservation  of 
acting  upon  the  original  principle,  as  often  as  events  might 
facilitate  such  a  proceeding.  The  egotistical  character  of  the 
English  trader,  the  avarice  inseparable  from  mercantile  edu- 
cation, and  the  national  impatience,  under  even  an  ideal  rival- 
ship,  united  in  exciting  every  effort  to  neutralize  the  conces- 
sions; and  it  soon  became  palpable  to  both  nations  that  the 
free  trade  of  Ireland  might  prove  a  sore  impediment  to  the 
gratifications  of  the  English  monopoly.  England  could  not  so 
suddenly  renounce  the  force  of  ancient  habit  and  of  engrafted 
prejudices  and  become,  at  once,  liberal,  enlightened,  and  mag- 
nanimous. No  person  conversant  with  the  ruling  principles  of 
mankind  could  suppose  that  her  very  nature  could  change  in 
a  day,  and  that  she  could  be  sincere  towards  Ireland  as  long 
as  it  was  imagined  that  the  two  countries  had  repugnant 
interests. 

The  insatiable  cupidity  of  British  capitalists  and  the 
necessities  of  the  British  Government  had  commenced  their 
coalition  even  against  the  prosj^erity  of  England.  The  ex- 
travagance of  the  Government  was  supplied  with  facility,  by 
the  usuries  of  the  monied  interest,  and  a  rein  was  given  to 
that  boundless  waste  of  public  money,  which  terminated  in 
an  overwhelming  debt,  and  which  nearly  exhausted  financial 
ingenuity,  having  not  infrequently  assailed  the  principles 
and  safeguards  of  her  own  Constitution. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  453 

These  concessions  were  likewise  rendered  peculiarly  un- 
palatable by  political  circumstances.  England,  at  that  gloomy 
epoch,  had  not  been  able  to  retain  one  disinterested  friend  or 
sincere  ally  in  Europe.  She  had  subsidized  German  mendi- 
cants, and  she  had  purchased  human  blood;  she  had  hired 
military  slaves  from  beggarly  principalities,  but  these  were 
not  alliances  for  the  honor  of  Great  Britain. 

The  character  which  England  had  justly  acquired  pre- 
viously to  the  year  1780  had  raised  her  reputation  above  that 
of  all  the  powers  of  Europe.  The  new  attempt  on  Ireland  pro- 
claimed that  her  sordid  interests  now  absorbed  every  other 
consideration. 

The  minister's  only  excuse  for  his  schemes  was  the  pe- 
cuniary wants  of  the  Government.  But  Mr.  Pitt  feared  that 
Ireland  would  murmur  at  paying  her  portion  of  his  profuse 
extravagance.  Taxation  commenced  on  luxuries,  proceeded 
to  comforts,  to  necessaries,  and,  at  length,  extended  its  grasp 
to  justice  and  morality.  A  treaty  for  a  commercial  tariff 
between  the  two  nations  was  now  proceeded  on,  and  exposed 
that  duplicity  which  had  been  scarcely  suspected.  The  Irish, 
unaccustomed  to  receive  any  concession  or  favor,  and  little 
versed  in  the  schemes  of  commercial  polity,  gave  a  giddy 
confidence  to  the  dignified  terms  in  which  their  terms  had 
been  acknowledged.  Some  able  men,  however,  reasoned  that 
the  very  composition  of  British  Cabinets,  the  means  of  get- 
ting into  power,  and  of  keeping  it;  their  private  interests, 
and  public  object,  were  decidedly  adverse  to  any  liberal  par- 
ticipation of  commercial  advantages  with  Ireland.  Upon  the 
English  monopolists  alone,  ministers  could  depend  for  re- 
plenishing their  exchequer,  and  for  their  retaining  their 
power.  Men  also  reasoned  that  if  England  and  Ireland  should 
clash  on  any  point  of  commerce  a  British  Parliament  could 
not  serve  two  conflicting  interests,  and  an  Irish  Parliament 
was  not  likely  to  surrender  rights  she  had  obtained  with  so 
much  difficulty  and  danger. 

It  was,  therefore,  palpable  (as  Mr.  Fox  had  mysteriously 
declared)  that  some  further  international  measures  were 
absolutely  necessary,  and  as  Ireland  could  now  legislate  for 
her  own  commerce  with  all  the  world,  it  seemed  advisable  that 
a  commercial  treaty  should  be  contracted  by  the  two  coun- 
tries, which  might  provide  against  any  collision  and  secure 
to  both  nations  the  advantages  of  the  federal  compact. 


454  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Nothing  could  be  more  plausible  than  the  theory  of  this 
measure,  and  few  things  more  difficult  to  carry  into  execu- 
tion. 

The  detailed  debates  on  the  commercial  propositions  are 
beyond  the  range  of  this  compact  history.  But  it  is  essential 
to  remark  upon  them  with  reference  to  the  conduct  of  Great 
Britain,  and  it  may  be  proper  to  allude  to  the  state  of  Ire- 
land at  the  moment  selected  by  the  minister  for  making  the 
first  indirect  attempt  to  recapture  the  independence  of  that 
devoted  country. 

The  Irish  nation  was  rapidly  advancing  to  eminence  and 
prosperity,  her  commerce  improving,  her  debt  light,  the  taxes 
inconsiderable,  emigration  had  ceased,  and  the  population  was 
augmenting,  nearly  two  hundred  nobles,  and  nearly  all  the 
commoners  resided  on  their  demesnes  and  exj^ended  their 
rents  amidst  those  who  paid  them.  The  Parliament  seemed 
to  have  been  awakened  to  a  more  sedulous  attention  to  the 
wishes  of  the  people.  Mr.  Pitt  took  advantage  of  the  moment 
when  he  saw  that  the  nation  was  in  good  humor  and  grateful, 
and  he  determined  whilst  he  flattered  their  vanity  to  invade 
their  constitution.  The  state  of  the  Irish  court  and  aristoc- 
racy, at  this  period,  seemed  particularly  favorable  to  the 
experiment.  The  constant  residence  of  the  landed  proprietors 
was  an  incalculable  benefit ;  and  their  influence,  in  mitigating 
the  avarice  of  the  clergy  and  the  irritating  tyranny  of  the 
tithing  system,  was  most  grateful  to  the  people. 

The  vice-regal  establishment  was  at  that  period  much 
more  brilliant  and  hospitable  than  that  of  the  monarch;  the 
utmost  magnificence  signalized  the  entertaimnents  of  the 
Duke  and  Duchess  of  Rutland,  and  their  luxury  gave  a 
IDOwerful  impulse  to  manufactures  and  industry.  It  was  to 
be  regretted,  however,  that  this  magnificence  was  accom- 
l)anied  by  circumstances  which  formed  a  new  epoch  in  the 
habits  of  Irish  society;  a  laxity  of  decorum  in  both  sexes  of 
the  fashionable  aristocracy  had  commenced,  and  though  the 
voluptuous  brilliancy  of  the  court  was  dazzling  to  the  coun- 
try, it  was  deficient  in  that  proud,  elevated  dignity  which  had 
generally  distinguished  that  society  in  former  vice-royalties. 
Nothing  could  be  more  honorable  than  the  conduct  of  the 
Duke  of  Rutland;  but  the  sudden  relaxation  of  manners  at 
his  court  was  by  no  means  gratifying  to  those  who  had  been 
accustomed  to  the  undeviating  strictness  of  decorum  amongst 
the  Irish  ladies. 


L\    THE    D\\6   OF   GllATTAN  455 

This  paroxysm  of  joy  throughout  tlie  country,  confidence 
amongst  the  gentry,  and  absence  of  suspicion  in  the  Parlia- 
ment was  judged  by  the  British  Government  the  opportunity 
most  favorable,  under  color  of  her  commerce,  to  undermine 
her  Constitution.  This  i)roposition  for  a  treaty  of  commerce 
between  England  and  Ireland,  as  two  independent  countries, 
necessarily  re<iuircd  a  deeper  consideration  than  any  other 
event  of  her  history.  No  decisive  international  overt  act  had, 
as  yet,  taken  place  between  the  two  countries.  But  Mr.  Pitt, 
in  his  anxiety  to  encroach  upon  the  independent  spirit  of  the 
comjiact,  unintentionally  confirmed  it  upon  a  clear  interna- 
tional princii)le. 

Mr.  Orde,  the  Secretary  of  the  Viceroy,  on  the  7th  of 
February,  1785,  proposed  to  the  Irish  Parliament  eleven  reso- 
lutions as  a  distinct  commercial  treaty  between  two  inde- 
pendent states.  As  such  they  were  received,  but  the  treaty 
was  at  length  utterly  rejected  by  the  Irish  Parliament. 

Mr.  Brownlow,  one  of  the  first  country  gentlemen  of  Ire- 
land, most  zealously  opposed  it  as  a  badge  of  slavery  and  an 
attempt  to  encroach  on  the  independence  of  his  country.  It 
was,  however,  conditionally  accepted,  after  much  discussion; 
during  which  a  manoeuvre  was  practised  by  the  Secretary 
which  would  have  disgraced  the  lowest  trader.  Mr.  Orde 
expatiated  with  great  plausibility  upon  the  kind  concessions 
of  the  English  Government,  and  the  extraordinary  advantages 
likely  to  result  to  Ireland ;  and  urged  the  House  to  come  to  a 
hasty  decision  in  their  favor,  ''lest  the  English  monopolist 
should  pour  in  applications  to  the  English  Parliament  to  stop 
their  progress  as  too  partial  to  Ireland."  The  bait  took,  and 
the  resolutions  were  apjiroved  and  sent  back  with  some  altera- 
tions. 

His  artifice,  however,  was  defeated,  and  Mr.  Orde  was 
left  in  a  situation  of  excessive  embarrassment  and  appeared 
equally  ridiculous  to  both  countries.  Mr.  Pitt,  having  gained 
his  first  point,  conceived  it  possible  to  assail  more  openly  the 
independence  of  Ireland  by  attaching  her  finances  and  com- 
merce to  Great  Britain,  so  that  her  own  Parliament  should 
become,  if  not  imi3otent,  at  least  contemptible. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  rediscussing  the  eleven  resolutions 
as  approved  by  Ireland,  he  brought  twenty  propositions  be- 
fore the  English  Parliament,  incorporated  in  a  Bill  framed 
with  such  consummate  artifice  that  it  affected  to  confer  favors, 
whilst  it  rendered  the  Irish  Parliament  only  the  redster  of 


456  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

all  English  statutes  relating  to  commerce;  and  by  a  per- 
petual money  bill  aj^propriated  a  proportion  of  her  hereditary 
revenue  to  the  uses  of  the  British  Navy. 

Mr.  Orde  himself  was  utterly  uncertain  how  to  proceed, 
and  after  many  adjournments,  on  the  12th  of  August,  1785, 
he  moved  for  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill  j^ursuant  to  Mr.  Pitt's 
twenty  propositions.  The  country  gentlemen  of  Ireland, 
though  they  did  not  understand  the  commercial  details  of  the 
subject,  perceived  the  design  of  the  minister.  A  storm  arose 
in  Parliament,  the  landed  interests  of  the  country  were 
alarmed,  the  country  gentlemen  grew  boisterous,  the  law 
officers  were  arrogant,  the  patriots  retorted  and  rendered  the 
debate  one  of  the  most  inflammatory  that  had  for  some  years 
been  witnessed.  Long  and  furious  was  that  remarkable  con- 
test. Fitzgibbon,  the  Attorney  General,  exhibited  an  arro- 
gance which  more  than  equalled  any  of  his  former  exhibi- 
tions; he  insulted  many,  and  used  the  most  overbearing 
language  to  all  who  opposed  him.  The  debate  continued  all 
night,  and,  at  nine  o'clock  next  morning,  the  violence  was 
undiminished,  and  it  was  difficult  to  put  the  question ;  at  length 
a  division  at  once  announced  the  equivocal  victory  of  the 
minister.  The  numbers  for  Government  were  127,  against  the 
minister  108,  leaving  only  a  majority  of  19.  As  the  motion 
was  only  for  leave  to  bring  in  the  bill,  it  was  obvious  that 
on  a  second  reading  it  would  have  been  disgracefully  rejected. 
Mr.  Flood  then  moved  a  declaration  of  rights;  another  di- 
vision still  less  favorable  to  the  minister  succeeded;  an 
adjournment,  therefore,  and  a  prorogation  took  place,  and 
the  subject  was  never  renewed. 

Mr.  Pitt  never  would  have  brought  in  this  bill  had  he 
not  been  assured  of  success  by  the  Irish  Secretary;  this 
defeat,  therefore,  was  the  more  galling,  and  it  confirmed,  in 
his  persevering  and  inflexible  mind,  a  determination  if  he 
could  not  rule  the  Irish  Parliament  to  annihilate  the  inde- 
pendence of  Ireland.  Mr.  Pitt  was  never  scrupulous  as  to 
means,  and  a  much  more  important  point  shortly  confirmed 
his  determination  by  proving  that,  upon  vital  subjects,  he  had 
not  yet  sufficiently  humbled  the  people  or  been  able  suf- 
ficiently to  seduce  their  representatives. 

These  propositions  were  in  fact  defeated  by  the  honest 
obstinacy  of  the  country  gentlemen,  and  by  the  influence  and 
talents  of  Mr.  Grattan  and  Mr.  Flood,  who,  upon  this  subject 
alone,  were  perfectly  in  unison.    It  is  worthy  of  observation 


In  the  1)av8  of  Gkattan  457 

that  the  zeal  and  honesty  of  Mr.  Connolly,  in  supporting  the 
independence  of  his  country  against  the  agency  of  Mr.  Orde, 
were  utterly  reversed  by  his  subsequently  supporting  the  still 
more  destructive  measures  of  his  corrupt  and  unfortunate 
relative. 

During  these  scenes  some  men  who,  though  not  of  the 
highest  order  of  talent,  were  in  considerable  reputation  and 
of  untainted  integrity,  exerted  themselves  in  defence  of  their 
country;  amongst  the  most  active  was  Mr.  Forbes,  the  member 
for  Drogheda.  Without  any  very  distinguished  natural  abil- 
ities, and  but  moderately  acquainted  with  literature,  by  his 
zealous  attachment  to  Mr.  Grattan,  his  public  principles,  and 
attention  to  business,  he  received  much  respect  and  acquired 
some  influence  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  had  practised 
at  the  bar  with  a  probability  of  success;  but  he  mistook  his 
course  and  became  a  statesman,  as  which  he  never  could  rise 
to  any  great  distinction.  As  a  lawyer,  he  undervalued  himself 
and  was  modest;  as  a  statesman,  he  overrated  himself  and 
was  presumptuous.  He  benefitted  his  party  by  his  indefatig- 
able zeal,  and  reflected  honor  upon  it  by  his  character;  he 
was  a  good  Irishman,  and  to  the  last  undeviating  in  his  public 
principles.  He  died  in  honorable  exile,  as  Governor  of  the 
Bahama  Isles. 

In  a  class  lower  as  a  politician,  but  higher  as  a  man  of 
letters  and  equal  in  integrity,  stood  Mr.  Hardy,  the  biographer 
of  Earl  Charlemont.  He  had  been  returned  to  Parliament  by 
the  interest  of  Earl  Granard,  and  faithfully  followed  the  for- 
tunes of  that  nobleman  and  his  relative,  Earl  Moira,  through- 
out all  the  political  vicissitudes  of  Ireland. 

His  mind  was  too  calm  and  his  habits  too  refined  for  the 
rugged  drudgery  of  the  bar— he  was  not  sufficiently  pro- 
found for  a  statesman,  and  was  too  mild  for  a  political 
wrangler — his  ambition  was  languid,  and  he  had  no  love  of 
lucre— he  therefore  was  not  eminent  either  as  a  i)olitician  or 
a  lawyer.  Like  many  other  modest  and  accomplished  men, 
he  was  universally  esteemed.  He  had  sufficient  talents,  had 
he  possessed  energy,  and  his  interest  was  alwaj^s  the  last  of 
his  considerations ;  his  means  were  narrow,  and  his  exertions 
inconsiderable. 

Mr.  (afterwards  Viscount)  Carleton  was,  during  a  part 
of  this  important  period,  Solicitor  General  of  Ireland,  and 
no  man  was  less  adequate  to  the  parliamentary  duties  of  that 
office.    He  was,  of  course,  but  little  noticed  by  the  recorders 


458  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

of  that  epoch;  and  is  almost  a  dead  letter  in  the  memoirs 
of  Ireland.  His  conduct  on  the  Union,  however,  was  re- 
markable. 

Viscount  Carleton  was  the  son  of  a  respectable  merchant 
of  Cork,  and  was  created  Solicitor  General  when  the  superior 
law  offices  were  considered  as  stations  of  very  considerable 
weight  and  of  much  official  dignity.  At  the  bar  he  was 
efficient;  on  the  bench  he  was  exemplary.  With  a  plain  and 
exclusively  forensic  talent,  cultivated  by  an  assiduity  nothing 
could  surpass,  he  attained  very  considerable  professional 
eminence ;  his  whole  capacity  seemed  to  have  been  formed  into 
points  of  law,  regularly  numbered,  and  always  ready  for  use. 
His  limited  genius  seldom  wandered  beyond  the  natural 
boundary;  but  whenever  it  chanced  to  stray  to  general  sub- 
jects, it  apjjeared  always  to  return  to  its  sjmimetrical  tech- 
nicalities with  great  gratification. 

Habit  and  aj^plication  had  made  him  a  singular  proficient 
in  that  methodical  hair-splitting  of  legal  distinctions,  and 
in  reconciling  the  incongruity  of  conflicting  precedents,  which 
generally  beget  the  reputation  of  an  able  lawyer.  The  Gov- 
ernment were  glad  to  get  him  out  of  Parliament,  and  without 
intending  it,  did  an  essential  service  to  the  due  administration 
of  justice. 

As  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  his  naturally  gentle 
manners  and  affability,  his  legal  knowledge,  and  the  rectitude 
of  his  decisions  procured  him  the  unanimous  approbation  of 
his  profession.  He  had  no  enemies.  But,  even  in  his  prime, 
he  was  a  most  feeble  and  inefficient  legislator  and  statesman ; 
his  capacity  was  not  sufficiently  comprehensive  to  embrace 
subjects  of  constitutional  polity.  He  brought  the  attributes 
of  his  trade  into  Parliament,  and  appeared  either  blind  or 
indifferent  to  those  varied  and  luxuriant  labyrinths  which 
the  principles  of  civil  liberty  eternally  disclose,  and  which 
the  enlightened  legislator  never  fails  to  discover  and  never 
ceases  to  enjoy. 

When  men  shall  read  the  childish,  contemptible,  and 
strained  attempts  at  reasoning,  which  were  pronounced  by 
him  upon  the  discussion  of  the  Union,  and  reflect  upon  the 
duplicity  of  his  professions  and  his  predetermined  emigration, 
it  must  be  regretted  that  a  judge  so  competent  and  inde- 
pendent and  a  man  so  respected  should  have  yielded  his  coun- 
try against  his  conviction  and  lent  his  fair  fame  to  the  cor- 
rupting minister. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

COLLISION   BETWEEN   THE  PARLIAMENTS  OF  IRELAND  AND  ENGLAND 
—  PITT  WORKING   FOR  THE  UNION. 

The  British  Government,  for  a  long  time,  affected  to 
relinquish  the  idea  of  opposing  the  commercial  interests  of 
Ireland.  It  was  detennined  to  let  the  Irish  take  their  own 
course,  and  patiently  to  await  till  circumstances  might  enable 
them  to  act  more  decisively  against  their  independence. 

Mr.  Pitt  was  obliged  to  rest  upon  his  oars ;  his  own  bark 
was  tempest  tossed,  whilst  that  of  Ireland  was  running  rap- 
idly before  a  prosperous  wind.  This  was  the  state  of  Ireland 
after  the  proposition-tempest  had  subsided,  when  the  Duke 
of  Rutland's  incessant  conviviality  deprived  (October,  1787) 
the  British  Peerage  of  an  honorable,  generous,  and  high- 
minded  nobleman,  and  Ireland  of  a  Viceroy,  whose  govern- 
ment did  nothing,  or  worse  than  nothing,  for  the  Irish  people. 
With  the  aristocracy  the  Duke  was  singularly  popular,  and 
he  was  not  disliked  by  any  class  of  the  community;  but  his 
advisers  were  profligate,  and  his  measures  were  corrupt.  His 
Grace  and  the  Duchess  were  reckoned  the  handsomest  couple 
in  Ireland. 

The  Marquis  of  Buckingham  was  sent  a  second  time  to 
govern  Ireland.  As  a  moderate,  hard-working  Viceroy,  with 
a  Catholic  wife,  he  was  selected  as  not  unlikely  to  be  agree- 
able to  the  Irish. 

Little,  however,  was  it  supposed  that  the  most  important 
and  embarrassing  of  all  constitutional  questions  between  the 
two  countries  was  likely  to  occur  dunng  his  administration. 
Unfortunately,  however,  such  did  arise,  through  the  necessity 
of  api)ointing  a  Regent  during  the  Monarch's  aberration  of 
intellect. 

This  great  question  and  its  influence  on  the  federative 
compact  of  the  two  nations  now  entirely  occupied  the  atten- 
tion of  both  Parliaments.  The  Prince,  at  that  period,  held  a 
line  of  politics  and  employed  a  class  of  servants  different 
from  those  he  afterwards  adopted.  'Mr.  Pitt  well  knew  that 
his  own  reign,  and  that  of  the  Cabinet  he  commanded,  were 
in  danger— that  they  could  endure  no  longer  than  some  tat- 

459 


460  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ters  of  the  royal  prerogative  and  restraints  on  the  Regent 
should  remain  in  his  hands  as  minister,  by  which  he  could 
curb  the  Regency,  which  might  otherwise  be  fatal  to  his  ambi- 
tion and  his  cabinet. 

He  therefore  resisted  with  all  his  energy  the  heir  appar- 
ent's  right  to  the  prerogatives  of  his  father,  and  struggled 
to  restrain  the  Prince  from  many  of  those  essential  powers 
of  the  executive  authority. 

The  Prince  acted  with  that  dignity  of  which  he  was  such 
a  master,  but,  through  a  state  of  necessity,  submitted  reluc- 
tantly to  the  restraints  prescribed  by  his  own  servants ;  and, 
from  a  delicacy  to  the  feeling  of  his  mother,  retained  in  his 
service  a  minister  whom,  on  every  other  ground,  he  would 
have  been  more  justified  in  dismissing  with  indignation. 

The  Irish  nation  had  nothing  to  do  with  this  private  cir- 
cumstance, and  the  Parliament  would  not  obey  the  minister  or 
submit  to  the  mandates  of  the  British  Government.  They 
decided  that  the  Prince  was  their  Regent,  in  virtue  of  the 
federative  compact;  and  they  also  determined  that  he  should 
have  all  the  regal  prerogatives  connected  with  the  monarchy 
of  Ireland. 

Upon  this  subject  debates  arose,  more  embarrassing  than 
any  that  had  ever  taken  place  in  the  British  Parliament.  It 
was  a  casus  omissus,  both  in  the  British  Revolution  of  1688 
and  in  the  Irish  Constitution  of  1782. 

The  question  was  whether  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  were 
competent  by  address  or  otherwise  to  invest  the  Regent  with 
more  extensive  ijrivileges,  as  to  Ireland,  than  the  British 
Parliament  had  thought  fit  to  entrust  to  him  in  England. 

This  point  was  without  precedent ;  but  it  was  argued  that 
if  an  act  of  Parliament  were  necessary  no  Regent  could  be 
appointed,  for  an  act  implied  the  existence  of  the  third  estate 
and  the  proper  proceeding  was,  therefore,  by  address.  The 
probability  of  His  Majesty's  recovery  had  a  powerful  in- 
fluence on  placemen  and  official  connections.  The  Marquis  of 
Buckingham  took  a  decisive  part  against  the  Prince,  and 
made  bold  and  hazardous  attempts  upon  the  rights  of  the 
Irish  Parliament.  That  body  was  indignant  at  his  presump- 
tion, and  he  found  it  impossible  to  govern  or  control  even 
the  habitual  supporters  of  every  administration.  Fitzgibbon, 
the  Attorney  General,  was  promised  the  seals  if  he  succeeded 
for  Mr.  Pitt,  and  he  even  announced  that  every  opponent 


In  thk  Days  uf  Grattan  461 

should  be  made  the  victim  of  his  suffrage.  Lord  Buckingham 
even  threatened  those  who  would  not  coincide  with  the  British 
Parliament;  the  then  powerful  family  of  Ponsonby,  decided 
supporters  of  the  Government,  on  this  occasion  seceded  from 
the  Marquis,  and  which  gave  rise  to  the  famous  and  spirited 
Round  Robin.  Many,  however,  may  be  induced  to  ask,  why 
it  was  expedient  to  be  honest  in  a  circle. 

After  long  and  ardent  debates  an  address  of  the  Irish' 
Parliament  was  voted  to  the  Prince,  declaring  him  Regent  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Ireland  in  as  full,  ample,  and  unqualified  a 
manner  as  was  enjoyed  by  his  Royal  Father. 

The  words,  though  simple,  were  as  comprehensive  as  the 
English  language  could  make  them.  The  terms  are :  ' '  Under 
the  style  and  title  of  Prince  Regent  of  Ireland,  in  the  name 
and  on  behalf  of  his  Majesty,  to  exercise  and  administer, 
according  to  the  laws  and  constitution  of  this  kingdom,  all 
regal  powers,  jurisdiction,  and  prerogatives  to  the  Crown  and 
Government  thereof  belonging." 

In  the  Commons,  the  Address  was  moved  by  Mr.  Grattan 
and  was  carried  without  a  division.  It  was  moved  in  the 
Lords  by  the  Earl  of  Charlemont,  and  was  carried  by  a 
majority  of  only  19.     Contents  45— Non-contents  26. 

In  the  Conmions,  the  number  upon  Mr.  Grattan 's  motion, 
for  thus  transmitting  the  Address  were— for  the  motion,  130; 
against  it,  74. 

The  Address  having  passed  both  the  Lords  and  Coimnons, 
it  was  sent  to  the  Viceroy  to  be  transmitted  to  His  Royal 
Highness.  The  Marquis  of  Buckingham  peremptorily  re- 
fused acquiescence,  and  an  embassy  of  two  Lords  and  four 
Commoners  was  immediately  appointed  to  humbly  present  the 
Address,  in  the  name  of  the  nation,  to  the  Prince.  A  severe 
resolution  of  censure  was  then  moved  against  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant for  a  breach  of  official  duty.  It  passed  both  Houses, 
and  obliged  him  to  quit  the  country.  Though  his  extensive 
patronage  was  craftily  applied  and  had  procured  him  many 
adherents,  he  never  afterwards  could  make  any  head  in  the 
Irish  Parliament.  The  Address  was  the  boldest  step  yet  taken 
by  the  Irish  nation,  and  it  brought  the  independence  of  Ireland 
to  a  practical  issue. 

The  vital  importance  of  the  Regency  Question  consolidat- 
ing the  independence  of  the  Irish  nation,  and  the  fallacious 
influence  which  it  afterwards  afforded  to  the  arguments  for 


462  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

extinguishing  that  independence  offer  considerations  more 
grave  and  more  comj^rehensive  than  any  that  have  occurred 
since  England,  by  the  Renunciation  Act,  admitted  her  usurpa- 
tion. 

The  facts  and  reasoning  on  that  subject  are  beyond  the 
range  of  this  volume— they  are  therefore  here  necessarily 
epitomized.  However,  somewhat  more  than  superficial  detail 
is  indispensable  to  dispel  that  mist  of  mingled  prejudice  and 
ignorance  of  the  English  people  which  has  never  ceased  to 
obscure  from  their  view  every  clear  prospect  of  the  true  state 
of  Ireland,  when  she  evinced  her  unqualified  adherence  to 
the  genuine  spirit  of  the  constitution. 

In  1789  two  branches  of  the  legislature,  the  Peers  and  the 
Commons  of  Great  Britain  and  of  Ireland,  were  by  common 
law  originally,  and  by  statute  law  subsequently,  as  distinct 
as  those  of  any  other  independent  nation.  The  third  estate, 
the  king,  was  common  Monarch  of  both;  the  two  crowns 
placed  on  the  same  brow  were,  by  the  common  constitution, 
entailed  forever  on  the  same  dynasty;  the  executive  power 
was  united;  the  other  branches  utterly  separate. 

The  king  of  both  countries  having  become  incapable  of 
executing  his  functions  for  either,  his  eldest  son  and  heir 
apparent  to  the  throne,  in  the  full  vigor  of  health  and  intel- 
lect, by  the  incapacity  of  his  father,  became  the  proper 
guardian  of  those  two  realms  to  the  throne  of  which  he  was 
constitutionally  to  succeed. 

So  circumstanced,  the  British  minister  who  as  such  had 
no  constitutional  right  to  interfere  with  Ireland,  thought 
proper,  through  the  British  Parliament,  to  shackle  the 
Eegency  with  restrictions  that  deprived  the  executive  power 
in  England  of  its  constitutional  prerogatives;  such  a  meas- 
ure, if  adopted  by  Ireland,  would  have  left  her  king  incom- 
petent, and  her  Regency  imperfect,  during  the  necessary 
suspension  of  the  Monarch's  capacity  to  govern. 

The  Viceroy  of  Ireland,  under  the  dictation  of  the  British 
minister,  resisted  the  legislature  of  Ireland  in  its  own  course 
of  appointing  the  same  Regent;  and  a  collision  ensued:  the 
Irish  supporting,  and  the  English  curtailing,  the  constitu- 
tional prerogative  of  the  executive  branch  of  the  constitutio 
in  the  office  of  Regent. 

In  this  state  of  things  the  session  was  opened  on  the 
5th  February  by  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham,  who,  in  his 


I\  TiiK  Days  of  Guattan  4G.3 

speech  from  the  throne  iiiiormed  the  two  houses  of  the  severe 
indisposition  with  which  the  King  was  afflicted,  and  at  the 
same  time  acquainted  them  that  he  liad  directed  all  the  docu- 
ments respecting  his  Majesty's  liealth  which  could  assist  tlieir 
deliberations  to  be  laid  before  them. 

On  Wednesday,  the  11th,  Mr.  Connolly  moved  that  *'an 
address  should  be  presented  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  request- 
ing him  to  take  on  himself  the  Government  of  Ireland  as 
Regent  thereof  during  his  Majesty's  incapacity"  (without 
any  restriction). 

This  motion  gave  rise  to  a  long  and  violent  debate,  in 
which  the  Attorney  General,  Mr.  Fitzgibbon  (afterwards 
Chancellor  of  Ireland)  eminently  distinguished  himself  in 
ojDposition  to  the  motion.  It  was  supported  by  Mr.  Grattan, 
Mr.  Ponsonby,  Mr.  Curran,  and  other  eminent  speakers,  and 
was  ultimately  carried  without  a  division. 

On  Monday,  the  16th,  the  House  of  Lords  being  met,  the 
Earl  of  Charlemont  moved  for  an  address  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales  similar  to  that  voted  by  the  Commons,  which,  after 
some  debate,  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  nineteen.  A  pro- 
test was  entered  signed  by  seventeen  Lords. 

On  Thursday,  the  IDth,  both  houses  waited  upon  the  Lord 
Lieutenant  with  their  address,  and  requested  him  to  transmit 
the  same;  with  this  request  his  Excellency  refused  to  comply, 
returning  for  answer  that  under  the  impressions  he  felt  of 
his  official  duty  and  of  the  oath  he  had  taken  he  did  not  con- 
sider himself  warranted  to  lay  before  the  Prince  an  address 
purporting  to  invest  his  Eoyal  Highness  with  powers  to  take 
upon  him  the  government  of  the  realm,  b^^fore  he  should  be 
enabled  by  law  so  to  do;  and  therefore  he  declined  transmit- 
ting their  address  to  Great  Britain. 

Upon  the  return  of  the  Commons  to  their  own  House,  and 
the  answer  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant  being  reported  to  them, 
Mr.  Grattan  observed  that  in  a  case  so  extremely  new  it  would 
be  highly  improper  to  proceed  with  hurry  or  precipitation; 
the  House  was  called  upon  to  act  with  dignity,  firmness,  and 
decision;  and  therefore  that  due  time  might  be  had  for 
deliberation  he  would  move  the  question  of  adjournment  to 
the  following  day.  The  question  was  put  and  carried  without 
opposition. 

On  the  next  day  he  moved  that  his  Excellency  the  Lord 
Lieutenant,  having  thought  proper  to  decline  to  transmit  to 
his  Royal  Highness,  George,  Prince  of  Wales,  the  address 


464  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

of  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  a  competent  number  of  mem- 
bers be  appointed  to  present  the  said  address  to  his  Royal 
Highness. 

Mr.  Grattan's  motion  was  passed  without  any  division, 
whereupon  he  moved,  ''That  Mr.  Connolly  do  attend  the 
Lords  with  the  said  resolution  and  acquaint  them  that  this 
House  requests  them  to  appoint  members  of  their  own  body 
to  join  with  the  members  of  the  Commons  in  presenting  the 
said  address."  This  also  passed  without  any  division,  and 
Mr.  Connolly  went  up  to  the  Lords  accordingly.  The  mes- 
sage received  in  reply  was  that  the  Lords  had  concurred  in 
the  resolution  of  the  Commons,  and  had  appointed  his  Grace 
the  Duke  of  Leinster,  and  the  Earl  of  Charlemont,  to  join 
with  such  members  as  the  Commons  should  appoint  to  present 
the  address  of  both  Houses  to  his  Royal  Highness,  the  Prince 
of  Wales. 

Mr.  Grattan  then  moved  that  the  Right  Hon.  Thomas 
Connolly,  Right  Hon.  J.  O'Neil,  Right  Hon.  W.  Ponsonby,^ 
and  J.  Stewart,  Esq.,  should  be  appointed  commissioners  on 
the  part  of  the  Commons  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  the 
address  to  his  Royal  Highness,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  they 
were  appointed  accordingly. 

These  motions  having  passed,  Mr.  Grattan  then  moved 
that  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  had  discharged  an  indis- 
pensable duty  in  pro\dding  for  the  third  estate  of  the  Irish 
Constitution  (rendered  incomplete  through  the  King's  in- 
capacity) by  appointing  the  Prince  of  Wales  Regent  of  Ire- 
land. This  motion  was  carried  after  a  long  debate.  Ayes 
150,  Noes  71. 

Mr.  Grattan  then  moved  that  it  is  the  opinion  of  this 
House  ''That  the  answer  of  his  Excellency  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant to  both  Houses,  in  refusing  to  transmit  the  said  ad- 
dress, is  ill  advised,  and  tends  to  convey  an  unwarrantable 
and  imconstitutional  censure  on  tJie  conduct  of  both  Houses.'* 

Mr.  Grattan's  motion  of  censure  was  then  put,  on  which 
the  House  divided,  and  there  appeared  for  the  motion  115, 
against  it  83. 

On  the  25th,  resolutions  of  the  committee  of  supply  (which 
provides  for  the  payment  of  the  interest  of  the  national  debt, 
the  annuities  and  establishments)  being  read,  Mr.  Grattait 
moved  ''That  the  words  for  two  months  only,  ending  the 
26th  of  May,  1789,  be  added.  On  the  question  being  put^ 
there  appeared  Aves  104,  Noes  85. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  465 

Mr.  Grattan  then  moved  that  the  army  be  provided  for  to 
the  25th  of  May  only,  which  motion  was  carried.  Ayes  102, 
Noes  77. 

This  determination  of  the  Irish  legislature  in  asserting 
their  constitutional  indejDendence,  and  their  entire  rejection  of 
all  subserviency  to  the  views  or  dictates  of  the  British  Par- 
liament, was  founded  not  only  on  the  nature  of  their  feder- 
ative compact,  but  on  the  very  i^rinciples  of  that  constitution 
which  it  was  their  mutual  duty  to  preserve  in  its  full  integrity. 

By  that  constitution  it  was  indispensable  that  every  stat- 
ute should  receive  its  consummation  only  by  the  express 
assent  of  the  King,  as  the  third  state  of  that  constitution. 

In  this  case  no  third  estate  existed  in  a  capacity  to  assent 
to  or  consummate  any  statute,  and  no  express  provision  had 
been  made  by  the  constitution  for  such  an  emergency.  The 
Irish  legislature,  therefore,  having  no  competent  third  estate 
to  consummate  a  statute,  adopted  the  next  step  admitted  by 
the  constitution,  of  proceeding  by  address,  for  which  they  had 
the  English  precedent  of  1688. 

The  British  Minister,  however,  determined  to  proceed  by 
statute,  and  this  difference  therefore  arose  between  the  two 
legislatures;  England  proceeded  by  means  which  could  not 
be  constitutionally  consummated,  Ireland  proceeded  by  means 
which  constitutionally  could.  The  Viceroy  surrendered  him- 
self to  the  minister;  the  Irish  legislature  adhered  to  the 
Prince,  and  asserted  their  independence  by  an  overt  act,  which 
England  never  since  forgave;  and,  on  the  Union,  used  that 
act  of  Irish  constitutionality  as  an  argument  for  annihilating 
that  legislature,  which  had  dared  to  support  the  rights  of 
their  Prince  against  the  ambition  of  his  minister. 

International  controversies  are  frequently  referred  to  the 
arbitration  of  foreign  states,  disinterested  on  the  subject,  and 
had  the  question  been  submitted  to  such  an  arbitrator, 
'^Whether  the  British  legislature,  abetting  the  conspiracy  of 
Mr.  Pitt,  to  abridge  the  executive  power  of  its  inherent  rights 
of  their  own  Eegent,  and  had  committed  a  crime,  should  be 
extinguished  for  its  inroad  on  the  constitution",  the  awful 
sentence  must  have  been  pronounced  against  Great  Britain; 
and  even  the  dignified  language  of  the  Prince  himself  evinced 
nothing  adverse  to  the  principle  of  so  just  a  condemnation. 

Previous  to  the  departure  of  the  delegates  to  present  the 
address  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  a  declaration  by  the  Viceroy 


466  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

had  been  made  public,  which  threatened  to  visit  with  his  dis- 
pleasure or  reward  by  his  favors  every  member  of  the  legis- 
lature who  could  neither  be  deprived  of  office  for  his  resist- 
ance or  induced  to  accept  one  for  his  desertion. 

This  declaration  gave  rise  to  the  then  celebrated  Eound 
Robin,  which  was  subscribed  by  a  great  number  of  the  highest 
and  most  leading  characters  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament, 
pledging  themselves  as  a  body  and  as  individuals,  against 
every  attempt  by  the  Govermnent  either  to  seduce  or  to  intimi- 
date them.  This  was  a  fatal  blow  to  all  further  struggles  for 
the  Viceroy.  The  tide  ran  too  strongly  to  be  resisted;  the 
rank  and  influence  of  those  who  signed  that  document  could 
no  longer  be  opposed,  and  proved  to  the  Viceroy  the  impossi- 
bility of  his  continuing  the  Government  of  Ireland,  upon  such 
a  principle,  and  of  course  he  determined  to  retire  from  the 
Viceroyalty. 

The  Delegates  now  proceeded  to  London  to  deliver  to  the 
Prince  the  joint  address  of  both  Houses  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment. The  first  nobles  and  commoners  of  that  kingdom  invest- 
ing him  with  all  those  royal  rights  and  prerogatives  which 
had  been  refused  to  him  by  his  British  subjects,  was  too  grand 
and  gratifying  an  embassy  not  to  receive  the  highest  honors 
and  attention  his  Royal  Highness  and  his  friends  could  be- 
stow. Nothing  could  exceed  the  dignified  cordiality  and  splen- 
dour with  which  they  were  received  by  the  Regent  on  that 
occasion.  He  felt  all  the  importance  of  such  a  grant,  and  if 
gratitude  has  any  permanent  station  in  the  hearts  of  mon- 
archs,  the  Irish  people  had  reason  to  expect  every  favor  that 
future  power  could  confer  on  a  nation  whose  firmness  and 
fidelity  had  given  him  so  imperishable  a  proof  of  their  attach- 
ment. 

The  words  of  the  address  bespeak  the  independence  and 
loyalty  of  the  Irish  legislature,  and  fix  the  constitutional 
limitation  to  the  power  conferred  by  them;  they  prayed: 

''We,  his  Majesty's  most  dutiful  and  loyal  subjects,  the 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal  and  the  Commons  of  Ireland  in 
Parliament  asembled,  beg  leave  to  approach  your  Royal  High- 
ness with  hearts  full  of  the  most  loyal  and  affectionate  at- 
tachment to  the  person  and  government  of  your  Royal  Father, 
to  express  the  deepest  and  most  graceful  sense  of  the  numer- 
ous blessings  which  we  have  enjoyed  under  his  illustrious 
House,  and  at  the  same  time  to  condole  with  your  Royal  High- 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  467 

ness  upon  the  grievous  malady  with  wliicli  it  lias  pleased 
Heaven  to  afflict  the  best  of  sovereigns. 

**We  beg  leave  humbly  to  request  that  your  Royal  High- 
ness will  be  pleased  to  take  upon  you  the  government  of  this 
realm,  during  the  continuance  of  his  Majesty's  present  indis- 
position, and  no  longer;  and  under  the  style  and  title  of 
Prince  Regent  of  Ireland,  in  the  name  and  on  behalf  of  his 
^[ajesty,  to  exercise  and  administer,  according  to  the  laws  and 
constitution  of  this  kingdom,  all  regal  powers,  jurisdictions, 
and  prerogatives  to  the  crown  and  government  thereof  be- 
longing." 

The  reply  of  his  Royal  Highness  to  this  embassy  from 
Ireland  is  a  document  of  most  intrinsic  value  to  the  char- 
acter, and  ought  to  have  been  so  to  the  interests  of  that  calum- 
niated and  ruined  island. 

That  royal  document  expressly  upheld  and  for  ever 
records  the  loyal,  consistent,  and  constitutional  principles  and 
conduct  which  guided  the  Irish  legislature  in  that  unpre- 
cedented proceeding,  therein  not  only  explicitly,  but  most  ar- 
dently eulogized  by  the  heir  apparent. 

Yet  it  is  unfortunate  for  the  character  and  consistency  of 
British  Governments,  to  find  seated  high  in  the  cabinet  of 
George  the  Fourth,  the  very  minister  who,  in  the  Irish  Par- 
liament, in  1799,  gave  the  retort  courteous  to  every  word  so 
uttered  by  that  monarch,  as  Regent  in  1789,  and  stigmatized 
as  treafion  that  just  eulogium  uttered  but  ten  years  before 
upon  their  loyalty. 

Posterity,  however,  will  read  with  disgust  that,  within  so 
short  a  period,  the  very  act  which  elicited  those  just  and  florid 
praises  of  devoted  Ireland,  was  converted  into  a  libel,  and 
made  a  leading  argument  to  effect  the  annihilation  of  the  very 
legislature  they  had  so  ardently  applauded. 

It  is  a  remarkable  coincidence  in  Irish  annals,  that  Provi- 
dence was  pleased  to  diminish  her  visitation  on  the  King's 
capacity  on  the  very  day  first  appointed  by  the  Prince  to  re- 
ceive his  investiture  as  Regent  of  Ireland,  through  the  hands 
of  the  Irish  Delegates;  the  object  of  this  mission,  therefore, 
could  have  no  ulterior  operation,  and  they  returned  to  their 
country  with  every  public  honor  and  private  estimation  which 
their  embassy  and  their  characters  so  justly  merited!  The 
Prince  therefore  had  no  power  previous  to  the  Union  of  ex- 
emplifying his  declaration  of  gratitude  to  Ireland.    After  the 


468 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


Union,  when  Imperial  Regent,  his  British  ministers  showed  no 
disposition  to  give  his  Royal  Highness  that  power  or  oppor- 
tunity; his  energies  seemed  to  retire  as  his  powers  were  ad- 
vancing, and  when  he  became  actual  monarch  of  both  coun- 
tries, events  proved  that  the  Regencies  were  forgotten,  and 
that  gratitude  was  not  on  record. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

IRELAND  ACTS  ON  HER  INDErENDENCE  — PROSPEROUS  STATE  OF  THE 
NATION— AGITATION  FOR  CATHOLIC  EMANCIPATION  COM- 
MENCED. 

Upon  the  return  of  the  Delegates  to  Ireland,  the  first  epoch 
which  we  have  been  considering  in  this  epitome  of  her  history 
was  consummated;  her  Rise.    She  had  arisen  from  servitude 
to  freedom,  from  a  subservient  to  an  independent  Nation ;  the 
acquirement  of  that  independence  was  a  revolution,  but  it  was 
a  revolution  without  bloodshed.    It  was  rather  a  regenera- 
tion, accomplished  by  the  almost  unanimous  exertion  of  all 
the  rank,  the  wealth,  the  character  and  the  honesty  of  a  vast 
population;  the  highest  of  the  Aristocracy,  and  the  humblest 
of  the  people  joined  hand  in  hand  to  regain  their  indepen- 
dence ;  and  it  may  be  well  termed  a  loyal  revolution,  because 
the  English  legislature,  by  their  own  voluntary  act,  admitted 
their  own  previous  usurpation,  and  renounced  all  further  pre- 
tensions to  dominate  over  Ireland;  and  the  King  of  Great 
Britain  on  his  throne  received  and  acknowledged  his  Irish 
subjects  altogether  legislatively  unconnected  with  the  rest  of 
England.     From  that  day  Ireland  rose  in  wealth,  in  trade, 
and  in  manufactures,  agriculture,  and  eveiy  branch  of  indus- 
try that  could  enhance  her  value  or  render  a  people  rich  and 
prosperous.     She  had  acquired  her  seat  amongst  the  nations 
of  the  world,  she  had  asserted  her  independence  against  the  in- 
solence of  Portugal, she  had  suggested  an  Irish  navy  to  protect 
her  shores,  she  had  declared  a  perpetual  league  of  mutual  am- 
ity and  aid  with  Great  Britain.    The  court  of  her  Viceroy  ap- 
peared as  splendid  as  her  monarch's.     Her  nobles  resided 
within    her    borders,    and    expended    their  great  fortunes 
amongst  the  Irish  people,  the  Commons  all  resided  on  their 
own  demesnes,  supported  and  fostered  a  laborious  and  tran- 
quil tenantry.  The  peace  of  the  country  was  perfect,  no  stand- 
ing army,  no  militia,  no  police  were  wanting  for  its  preserva- 
tion ;  the  activity  of  the  Volunteers  had  suppressed  crime  in 
every  district,  religious  prejudices  were  gradually  diminish- 
ing; means  of  amelioration    were    in    contemplation    or    in 
progress.    The  distinctness  of  Ireland  had  been  proclaimed  to 

469 


470  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  world  by  overt  acts  of  herself,  and  of  her  monarch  and  the 
King  of  England.  The  Irish  sceptre  in  the  hands  of  her 
King  had  touched  the  charter  of  her  independence,  on  the 
faith  of  nations;  before  God  and  man  its  eternal  freedom 
had  been  declared,  and  should  have  been  inviolable.  But  by 
some  inscrutable  will  of  heaven  it  was  decreed  that  she  should 
soon  be  again  erased  from  the  list  of  nations,  punished  with- 
out a  crime,  and  laid  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  a  jealous  ally. 

The  spirit  and  independence  of  the  conjoint  Peers  and 
Commons  of  Ireland,  and  their  reception  by  the  heir  apparent, 
convinced  the  Viceroy  of  the  impossibility  of  retaining  his 
office ;  his  declaration  of  departure  being  again  repeated,  was 
greeted  in  Dublin  as  a  measure  of  the  highest  gratification  to 
the  Whigs  and  Patriots,  and  of  the  deepest  regret  to  the  ad- 
herents of  the  minister. 

However,  though  the  recovery  of  the  King  rendered  the 
appointment  of  their  Regent,  at  the  time,  unnecessary,  it  suf- 
ficiently asserted  their  constitutional  and  national  indepen- 
dence, and  as  we  have  already  mentioned,  consummated  that 
epoch  which  is  termed  the  Rise  of  Ireland. 

One  observation  is  here  not  out  of  place,  and  it  is  rather 
a  remarkable  occurrence  that  it  was  during  the  short  interval 
which  occurred  between  the  first  and  second  announcement  of 
the  entire  incapacity  of  King  George  the  Third,  that  he  was 
induced  by  the  same  ministers  who  had  resisted  the  regent 
to  forego  his  own  Royal  acts,  rescind  his  own  constitutional 
assent,  melt  down  his  Irish  Crown,  and  place  his  Irish  sub- 
jects under  the  guardianship  of  a  mutilated  and  absent  repre- 
sentation. It  is  therefore  not  easy  to  reconcile  to  ordinary 
reason  the  probalility  that  a  conscientious  and  moral  mon- 
arch, during  the  interval  of  a  disease  so  deep-seated  and  en- 
feebling to  the  human  intellect,  could  calmly  or  judiciously 
reflect  on  a  measure  so  comprehensive  in  its  results,  and  so 
corrupt  in  its  attainment,  as  the  legislative  Union. 

It  was  under  all  these  circumstances,  and  the  departure  of 
the  Viceroy,  that  the  Earl  of  Westmoreland  came  over  as  his 
successor.  But  the  line  of  his  politics  or  government  had  not 
preceded  him. 

Mr.  Pitt  felt  that  he  had  made  but  slight  progress  towards 
his  scheme  of  a  union  with  Ireland;  his  projects  had  turned 
against  himself;  and  the  Irish  Parliament,  on  the  subject  of 
the  Regency,  had  taught  him  a  lesson  he  had  but  little  ex- 


In  the  Days  of  Guaitan  471 

pectation  of  learning.  However,  the  spirit  of  the  Irish  con- 
liriued  that  austere  and  ijertinacious  statesman  in  his  reso- 
lution to  rule  Ireland  in  Great  Britain,  and  to  leave  her  no 
power  to  impede  the  course  of  his  ambition. 

The  Earl  of  Westmoreland  was  by  no  means  ill  adapted 
to  the  Irish  people.  He  was  sufficiently  reserved  to  com- 
mand respect,  and  dignified  enough  to  uphold  his  station. 
His  sjjlendid  conviviality  procured  him  many  rational  parti- 
sans, and  his  extreme  hospitality  engendered  at  least  tem- 
porary friendships.  He  was  honorable  and  good  natured, 
and,  among  the  higher  orders  and  his  intimate  asociates,  he 
was  a  popular  Viceroy. 

His  Secretary,  Major  Hobart  (Lord  Buckingham),  was 
more  a  man  of  the  world,  and  was  admirably,  calculated  for 
the  higher  classes  of  the  Irish. 

A  perfect  gentleman,  cheerful,  convivial,  and  conciliating, 
though  decided ;  liberal,  yet  crafty ;  kiudhearted,  but  cautious ; 
and  with  a  mixture  of  pride  and  affability  in  his  manner,  he 
particularly  adapted  himself  to  his  official  purposes  by  occa- 
sionally altering  the  jDroportion  of  each,  as  persons  or  cir- 
cumstances required  their  application.  With  an  open,  pre- 
possessing countenance,  he  gained  wonderfully  upon  every 
gentleman  with  whom  he  associated.  The  period  of  Lord 
AVestmoreland's  government  was  certainly  the  summit  of 
Irish  prosperity.  From  the  epoch  of  his  departure  she  may 
date  the  commencement  of  her  downfall.  Lord  Westmore- 
land's was  charged  with  being  a  jobbing  Government,  but  it 
was  less  so  than  that  of  his  predecessors;  and  if  he  did  not 
diminish,  he  certainly  did  not  aggravate  the  burthens  of  the 
people. 

When  Lord  Westmoreland  arrived,  Ireland  was  in  a  state 
of  great  prosperity.  He  met  a  strong  opposition  in  Parlia- 
ment, but  it  was  an  honest  opposition,  the  guardian  of  pub- 
lic liberty,  and  not  a  faction.  It  was  constitutional  in  prin- 
ciple, and  formidable  in  talent ;  it  was  rather  a  party  to  effect 
wholesome  measures,  than  a  systematic  opposition  to  the 
Government.  Only  two  subjects  of  vital  importance  were  in- 
troduced during  his  administration,  most  of  the  others  being 
plausible  demands,  calculated  rather  to  gratify  the  people 
than  to  produce  any  radical  change  in  the  system  of  Govern- 
ment. A  Place  Bill,  a  Pension  Bill,  and  a  Responsibility  Bill, 
an  inquiry  into  the  sales  of  Peerages,  and  into  the  Police  of 


472  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Dublin,  were  amongst  the  most  material  measures  pressed 
by  the  opposition  during  his  viceroyalty.  The  Place  Bill, 
however,  supposed  to  be  remedial,  eventually  became  the  most 
important  that  had  ever  been  passed  by  an  independent  Irish 
Parliament. 

The  perseverance  of  the  able  men  who  formed  the  oppo- 
sition at  length  gave  a  pretence  to  the  Minister  to  purchase  an 
armistice,  by  conceding  some  of  the  measures  they  had  so 
long  and  pertinaciously  resisted. 

It  could  not  have  been  flattering,  however,  to  the  warm  sup- 
porters of  the  Government  to  be  required  by  the  Secretary 
to  become  absolutely  inconsistent,  and  to  change  their  lan- 
guage without  a  change  of  circumstances,  and  recant  opin- 
ions they  had  so  frequently  declared  in  conjunction  with  the 
minister. 

Some  of  the  active  supporters  of  the  Government,  there- 
fore, determined  not  to  interfere  in  these  concessions,  and 
the  opposition,  on  the  other  hand,  was  so  keen  at  the  chase, 
and  so  gratified  at  the  concession  of  their  long-sought  meas- 
ures, that  they  but  superficially  regarded  the  details  or  the 
mode  of  conceding,  and  never  reflected,  as  legislators  or 
statesmen,  that  one  of  those  measures  might  prove  a  deadly 
weapon,  by  which  the  executive  Government  might  destroy 
the  Parliament  under  pretence  of  purifying  it.  A  bill  was 
brought  in  to  vacate  the  seats  of  the  members  accepting  of- 
fices under  Government,  omitting  the  term  of  bona  fide  offices; 
thereby  leaving  the  minister  a  power  of  packing  Parliament. 

The  opposition,  blinded  by  their  honest  zeal,  considered 
this  ruinous  bill  a  sjDecies  of  Reform,  and  were  astonished 
at  the  concession  of  a  measure  at  once  so  popular,  and  which 
they  conceived  to  be  so  destructive  of  ministerial  corruption. 

The  sagacity  of  Mr.  Pitt,  however,  clearly  showed  him 
that  the  measure  would  put  the  Irish  Parliament  eventually 
into  his  hands;  and  the  sequel  proved,  that,  without  that  Bill, 
worded  as  it  was,  the  corruption  by  the  ministers,  the  re- 
bellion, force  and  terror  combined,  could  not  have  effected  the 
Union. 

The  Place,  Pension,  and  Responsibility  Bills  were  pro- 
posed by  Mr.  Grattan,  acceded  to  by  the  Viceroy,  passed  into 
laws,  and  considered  as  a  triumph  of  the  opposition  over  the 
venality  of  the  Government. 

Mr.  Grattan  was  certainly  the  most  incorruptible  public 
character  on  the  records  of  the  Irish  Parliament.    He  wor- 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  473 

shipped  popularity,  yet  there  was  a  tinge  of  aristocracy  in 
his  devotion,  which  while  it  qualified  its  enthusiasm,  still 
added  to  its  purity. 

Such  men  may  occasionally  err  in  judgment,  and  may  be 
misled  by  their  ardor;  this  was  the  case  with  Mr.  Grattan,  on 
this  armistice  with  the  Government. 

Mr.  Grattan  did  not  always  see  the  remote  operation  of 
his  project. 

He  was  little  adapted  to  labor  on  the  details  of  measures; 
he  had  laid  the  broad  foundation  of  the  Constitution,  but 
sometimes  regarded  lightly  the  outbuildings  that  were  occa- 
sionally attached  to  it.  On  this  occasion  the  Ministers  were 
too  subtle  for  him,  and  he  heeded  not  the  fatal  clause  which 
made  no  distinction  between  real  and  nominal  offices.  He 
considered  not,  that  though  offices  of  real  emolument  could 
not  be  so  frequently  vacated  and  transferred  as  to  give  the 
Minister  any  very  important  advantage,  those  of  nominal 
value  might  be  daily  given  and  resigned,  without  observa- 
tion, and  that,  as  the  House  was  then  constituted,  the  Minister 
might  almost  form  the  Commons  at  his  pleasure. 

By  comparing  the  Irish  Parliament  at  the  epochs  of  the 
Proposition  and  the  Kegency  Bills,  and  at  that  of  1800,  the 
fatal  operation  of  the  Place  Bill  can  be  no  longer  question- 
able.   In  one  word— it  carried  the  Union. 

During  the  administration  of  Lord  Westmoreland  the  first 
question  (which  so  deeply  affected  the  subsequent  events  of 
Ireland)  was  the  partial  emancipation  of  Irish  Catholics. 
Though  the  question  did  not,  when  introduced,  appear  to  in- 
volve the  consideration  of  a  legislative  union,  its  results  com- 
municated a  powerful  influence  to  that  measure. 

The  national  annihilation  of  Ireland  was,  in  a  considerable 
degree,  promoted  by  the  impolitic  mismanagement  of  the 
Catholic  population. 

Though  many  of  the  penal  and  restrictive  statutes  by 
which  the  Catholics  had  been  so  long  excluded  from  the  most 
valuable  rights,  not  only  of  British  subjects,  but  of  freemen, 
were  repealed,  and  though  the  power  of  taking  freeholds  and 
possessing  land  property  was  restored  to  them,  these  con- 
cessions were  but  a  stimulus  to  further  claims,  and  for  which 
they  created  a  most  rational  expectation. 

The  Catholics  argued  that  if  they  were  allowed  to  pur- 
chase freeholds,  and  to  receive,  by  descent,  lands  in  fee,  it 


474  Ireland's  Croavn  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

must  consequently  be  an  injustice,  an  absurdity,  and  an  in- 
sult to  debar  them  from  the  elective  franchise,  and  the  privi- 
leges which  were  by  law  attached  to  the  possession  of  the  same 
species  of  property  by  their  Protestant  fellow-subjects. 

They  said  that  noblemen  and  commoners  of  great  for- 
tune, of  their  persuasion,  who  had  been  deprived  of  their 
rights  by  their  attachment  to  hereditary  monarchy,  notwith- 
standing those  partial  concessions,  still  remained  loaded  with 
many  attributes  of  actual  slavery,  in  the  midst  of  a  free  peo- 
ple; that  after  a  century  of  loyal  and  peaceable  demeanor 
towards  a  Protestant  dynasty,  they  were  still  to  be  stigma- 
tized as  neither  trustworthy  nor  loyal.  Their  language,  firm 
and  decided,  was  rational,  and  eventually  successful.  Gov- 
ernment were  now  alarmed,  and  affected  to  take  a  liberal 
view  of  the  subject;  but  were  by  no  means  unanimous  as  to 
the  extent  of  the  concessions.  They  conceived  the  tranquil- 
lity might  be  attained  by  the  mere  religious  toleration.  This 
may  be  true,  where  but  a  small  portion  of  the  people  were 
claimants;  far  different,  however,  where  those  excluded  form 
the  bulk,  and  the  exclusionists  a  small  minority  of  the  peo- 
ple. However,  the  concessions  were  important,  and  greater 
than  could  have  been  credible  before  Lord  Westmoreland's 
administration.  The  grant  to  Catholics  of  the  elective  fran- 
chise was  the  act  more  of  Major  Hobart  and  his  government 
than  himself.  The  forty  shilling  franchise  was  then  granted 
to  the  poorest  and  most  dependent  peasantr}^  of  Europe,  who 
might  one  day  be  influenced  by  one  motive  and  the  next  day 
by  its  reverse.  It  is  easier  to  grant  than  to  recall,  and  strong 
doubts  were  fairly  entertained  as  to  the  wisdom  of  that  part 
of  it. 

The  first  important  debates,  on  granting  the  elective  fran- 
chise to  the  Irish  Catholics,  were  in  1792,  on  a  petition,  pre- 
sented in  their  favor.  It  was  then  looked  upon  as  a  most 
daring  step;  intolerance  was  then  in  full  vigor,  and  Mr.  La- 
touche  moved  to  reject  the  petition  without  entering  on  its 
merits. 

The  prejudice  against  the  Catholics  was  then  so  powerful 
that  their  petition  was  rejected  with  indignation  by  a  divi- 
sion of  208  to  23. 

The  Government,  by  this  majority,  hoped  to  render  sim- 
ilar applications  hopeless,  but  a  few  months  after  it  was 
found  necessary  that  the  measure  should  be  recommended 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  475 

from  the  throne  and  supjDorted  by  Government,  and  was  car- 
ried in  the  same  House  by  a  large  majority.  The  strange 
proceeding  of  the  Irish  Parliament  on  this  subject  may  be 
accounted  for  by  their  dread  of  reclamation  by  the  Catholics 
(should  they  be  admitted  to  power)  of  their  forfeited  estates 
held  by  Peers  and  Commoners,  by  grants  of  Elizabeth,  Crom- 
well, and  William;  but  which,  on  more  mature  reflection,  they 
found  to  be  chimerical. 

The  Legislature,  however,  by  granting  the  elective  fran- 
chise to  the  Irish  Catholics  conceded  to  them  the  very  essence 
of  the  British  Constitution. 

Mr.  Pitt's  ulterior  views  as  to  Ireland  solve  the  enigma 
that  the  virulent  enemies  of  the  Catholics,  who  opposed  the 
slightest  concession,  should  directly  after  vote  them  the  elec- 
tive franchise,  Mr.  Pitt's  object  was  to  reciprocally  exas- 
perate the  two  parties  against  each  other.  The  indignant  re- 
jection of  the  petition  of  1792  inflamed  the  Catholics  with  re- 
sentment, and  elated  the  Protestants  with  triumph.  The  con- 
cession of  1793  reversed  these  passions,  and  both  parties  felt 
equally  disgusted.  The  Minister  took  every  advantage  of 
the  unpopularity  of  the  Parliament. 

A  very  remarkable  incident  of  inconsistency  occurred  in 
the  House  of  Lords  upon  this  occasion.  Lord  Clare,  the  most 
unqualified  enemy  the  Catholics  ever  had,  and  the  most  viru- 
lent against  them,  on  the  debate  in  1793  spoke  and  voted  for 
giving  them  the  elective  franchise,  which  he  had  previously 
asserted  would  be  a  breach  of  the  Coronation  Oath,  and  de- 
structive to  the  Church  and  State.  On  the  other  hand.  Lord 
Charlemont,  always  the  most  zealous  friend  of  the  Irish  peo- 
ple, and  the  most  distinguished  of  the  gentle  breed  of  patriots, 
on  the  same  debate  spoke  in  favor  of  the  Catholics,  yet  voted 
against  any  concession  whatsoever. 

Lord  Clare  wished  to  do  mischief  on  Mr.  Pitt's  system, 
even  at  his  own  expense.  Lord  Charlemont  wished  to  do 
good,  but  was  too  shallow  to  see  the  designs  of  the  Chancel- 
lor, or  even  to  mix  policy  with  his  candor. 

Though  Lord  AVestmoreland  was  powerfully  opposed  in 
Parliament  during  the  whole  of  his  government,  the  country 
was  in  peace,  and  he  was  zealously  supported.  Had  he  not 
been  recalled  under  the  pretence  of  making  way  for  a  gen- 
eral pacification,  the  nation  had  no  reason  to  suppose  his 
place  would  be  much  better  filled.    His  recall  and  the  ap- 


476  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

pointment  and  deposition  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  Ms  successor, 
within  three  months  completed  the  train  which  Mr.  Pitt  had 
laid  for  the  explosion.  Having  divided  the  country  and  ob- 
tained the  means  of  packing  the  Parliament,  through  the 
Place  Bill,  he  suffered  some  men  to  disseminate  the  French 
revolutionary  mania;  and  having  proceeded  so  far,  recalled 
Lord  Westmoreland  and  encouraged  others  to  raise  their  loy- 
alty into  the  region  of  madness. 

His  Lordship  had  not  completed  the  usual  term  of  resi- 
dence, nor  had  he  failed  in  his  duties,  and  his  appearing  not 
to  feel  hurt  at  his  abrupt  recall  was  mysterious,  and  seemed  to 
forbode  some  important  scheme  or  deception. 

The  appointment  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  who  had  previously 
opposed  the  administration,  was,  perhaps,  the  most  deep  and 
treacherous  design  ever  contemplated  by  any  minister.  But 
Mr.  Pitt  had  never  been  in  Ireland,  and  experienced  diffi- 
culties he  did  not  anticipate.  He  fancied  he  might  excite  and 
suppress  commotion  at  his  convenience ;  but  in  deciding  upon 
forcing  a  premature  insurrection  for  a  particular  object  he 
did  not  calculate  on  the  torrent  of  blood  that  would  be  shed, 
and  the  inveterate  hatred  that  might  be  perpetuated  against 
the  British  Government.  His  resolution  was  taken,  and  he 
prevailed  upon  one  of  the  most  pure  and  respected  of  the 
Whig  leaders  to  become  Viceroy  of  Ireland,  under  a  suppo- 
sition that  he  was  selected  to  tranquilize  and  to  foster  that 
country.  The  Minister  wanted  only  a  high-minded  victim 
as  an  instrument  to  agitate  the  Irish.  His  Lordship  had 
great  estates  in  Ireland— was  one  of  its  most  kind  and  in- 
dulgent landlords,  and  was  extremely  popular.  His  man- 
ners were,  perhaps,  too  mild,  but  he  had  enlarged  principles 
of  political  liberty,  and  of  religious  toleration.  •  Mr.  Pitt  had 
assured  him  he  should  have  the  gratification  of  fully  emanci- 
pating the  Irish  Catholics.  Lord  Fitzwilliam  accepted  the 
office  only  on  that  consideration,  and  with  this  entire  con- 
viction he  repaired  to  Dublin  to  carry  into  immediate  execu- 
tion what  he  conceived  would  forever  tranquilize  the  coun- 
try. Mr.  Pitt  intended  to  inflame  the  country— throw  upon 
the  Viceroy  the  insinuation  of  disobedience— and  openly 
charge  him  with  a  precipitancy  of  which  he  himself  was  the 
real  author. 

Never  was  a  scheme  conducted  with  more  address  and 
secrecy.  Lord  Fitzwilliam  was  received  with  open  arms  by 
the  people— he  immediately  commenced  his  arrangements— 


In  tue  Days  of  Grattan  477 

and  Mr.  Pitt  began  as  closely  to  counteract  them.  In  every 
act  of  his  government  Lord  Fitzwilliam  was  either  deceived 
or  circumvented. 

Mr.  Pitt's  end  was  answered;  he  thus  raised  the  Catholics 
to  the  height  of  expectation,  and  by  suddenly  recalling  their 
favorite  Viceroy  he  inflamed  them  to  the  degree  of  generating 
the  commotions  he  meditated,  which  would  throw  the  Protes- 
tants into  the  arms  of  England  for  protection,  whilst  the 
horrors  would  be  aggravated  by  the  mingled  conflicts  of  par- 
ties, royalists  and  republicans. 

By  this  measure,  too,  Mr.  Pitt  had  the  gratification  of 
humbling  Earl  Fitzwilliam,  disgracing  the  Whigs,  overwhelm- 
ing the  Opposition,  turning  the  Irish  into  fanatics,  and  there- 
by preparing  the  gentry  of  that  country  for  the  project  that 
was  immediately  to  succeed  it.  The  conduct  of  the  Duke  of 
Portland  must  have  been  either  culpable  or  imbecile— he  must 
either  have  betrayed  Lord  Fitzwilliam  to  Mr.  Pitt,  or  Mr. 
Pitt  must  have  made  him  a  blind  instrument  of  treachery 
to  his  friend.  The  first  is  most  probable,  as  he  remained  in 
office  after  his  friend  had  been  disgraced,  and,  in  direct  con- 
tradiction to  his  own  declaration,  aided  in  the  fatal  project 
which  was  effected  by  that  treachery. 

The  limits  of  this  record  do  not  admit  of  stating  in  de- 
tail all  the  important  facts  which  constituted  the  treachery  of 
the  Premier  and  the  fraud  on  Earl  Fitzwilliam.  His  Lord- 
ship's letters  to  Lord  Carlisle  cannot  be  abridged;  every  line 
is  material ;  in  those  letters  only  can  the  deception  practised 
on  that  nobleman  bo  found  with  that  weight  and  accuracy 
which  so  remarkable  an  incident  in  both  English  and  Irish 
history  requires. 

In  those  letters  will  be  found,  as  in  a  glare  of  light,  on  the 
one  side,  that  high-minded,  pure,  virtuous  dignity  of  mind 
and  action,  and  on  the  other  that  intrepid,  able,  crafty,  in- 
flexible and  unprincipled  conduct  which  marked  indelibly  the 
characters  of  those  remarkable  personages. 

Mr.  Pitt  having  sent  Lord  Fitzwilliam  to  Ireland  with 
unlimited  powers  to  satisfy  the  nation,  permitted  him  to  pro- 
ceed until  he  had  unavoidably  committed  himself  both  to  the 
Catholics  and  country,  when  he  suddenly  recalled  him,  leav- 
ing it  in  a  state  of  excitation  and  dismay. 

The  day  Lord  Fitzwilliam  arrived  peace  was  proclaimed 
throughout  all  Ireland.  The  day  he  quitted  it  she  prepared 
for  insurrection. 


478  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

The  Beresfords  and  tlie  Ponsoiiboys  were  arrayed  against 
each  other— and  in  one  week  more  the  Beresfords  would  have 
been  prostrate.  Mr.  Pitt,  however,  terminated  the  question 
by  dethroning  Lord  Fitzwilliam;  the  Whigs  were  defeated— 
and  Ireland  was  surrendered  at  discretion  to  Lord  Clare  and 
his  connection.  Within  three  months  after  Lord  Fitzwil- 
liam's  dismissal  Lord  Clare  had  got  the  nation  into  full  train- 
ing for  military  execution. 

The  arrival  of  Lord  Camden  to  succeed  Earl  Fitzwilliam 
was  attended  by  almost  insurrectionary  outrage.  The  Beres- 
fords were  the  ostensible  cause  of  the  people's  favorite  being 
overthrown;  on  that  family,  therefore,  they  conceived  they 
should  signalize  their  vengeance,  and  their  determination  was 
nearly  carried  into  execution. 

The  Chancellor,  in  his  carriage,  was  assailed ;  he  received 
a  blow  of  a  stone  on  his  forehead  which,  thrown  with  some- 
what more  force,  would  have  rid  the  people  of  their  enemy. 
His  house  was  attacked;  the  pof)ulace  were  determined  to 
destroy  him,  and  were  proceeding  to  execute  their  intentions. 
At  that  moment  their  rage  was,  most  fortunately,  diverted  by 
the  address  of  his  sister,  Mrs.  Jeffries,  who,  unknown  and  at 
a  great  risk,  had  mingled  in  the  crowd;  she  misled  them  as 
to  the  place  of  his  concealment.  Disappointed  of  their  object, 
they  then  attacked  the  Custom  House,  where  Mr.  Beresford, 
first  commissioner  of  the  revenue,  resided.  Dreadful  results 
were  with  reason  apprehended. 

Such  was  the  inauspicious  beginning  of  Lord  Camden's 
government.  From  the  day  of  his  arrival  the  spirit  of  in- 
surrection increased,  and  in  a  short  period  during  his  Lord- 
ship's government  more  blood  was  shed,  as  much  of  outrage 
and  cruelty  was  perpetrated  on  both  sides,  and  as  many  mili- 
tary executions  took  place  as  in  ten  times  the  same  period 
during  the  sanguinary  reign  of  Elizabeth  or  the  usurpations 
of  Cromwell  or  King  William. 

The  conspiracy  of  united  Irishmen— never  profoundly  se- 
cret—soon became  public;  its  members  avowed  themselves, 
but  the  extent  of  its  objects  was  unknown,  and  its  civil  ar- 
rangements and  military  organization  far  exceeded  those  of 
any  association  in  history.  Constituents  knew  not  their  rep- 
resentatives, and  the  soldiers  knew  not  the  names  of  those 
by  whom  they  were  to  be  commanded.  Even  the  members  of 
their  executive  Directory  were  utterly  unknown  to  some  hun- 


In  the  Days  of  Grattax  479 

dred  thousand  men,  wlio  liad  sworn  o))edience  to  their  or- 
ders. Mr.  Pitt  was  surprised  and  found  the  conspiracy  be- 
coming rather  too  extensive  and  dangerous  for  his  purposes; 
for  a  moment  lie  felt  he  might  possibly  get  beyond  his  depth, 
and  he  conceived  the  necessity  of  forcing  a  premature  ex- 
plosion, by  which  he  might  excite  sufficient  horrors  through- 
out the  country  to  serve  his  purpose,  and  be  able  to  suppress 
the  conspiracy  in  the  bud,  which  might  be  beyond  his  jiower 
should  it  arrive  at  its  maturity. 

Individually  Lord  Camden  was  an  excellent  man,  and  in 
ordinary  times  would  have  been  an  acquisition  to  the  coun- 
try, but  he  was  made  a  cruel  instrument  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Pitt,  and  seemed  to  have  no  will  of  his  own. 

Earl  Camden  was  of  a  high  mind  and  of  unblemished  rep- 
utation ;  his  principles  were  good,  but  his  talent  was  not  emi- 
nent; he  intended  right,  but  was  led  wrong;  he  wished  to 
govern  with  moderation,  but  was  driven  by  his  council  into 
most  violating  proceedings;  to  the  arrogant  dictum  of  Lord 
Clare  he  had  not  a  power  of  resistance,  and  he  yielded  to 
cruelties  that  his  mind  must  have  revolted  at. 

His  Lordship  became  extremely  popular  among  the  armed 
associations  which  were  raised  in  Ireland  under  the  title  of 
Yeomen.  He  was  considered  the  guardian  of  that  institu- 
tion. He  did  what  justice  he  was  permitted  to  do,  and  a 
single  false  act  of  his  oivyi  during  his  residence  in  Ireland 
was  never  complained  of.  His  secretary.  Earl  Chichester 
(Mr.  Pelham),  held  up  the  reputation  of  the  Government  to 
its  proper  standard.  Without  great  talents,  he  had  good 
sense,  good  manners,  a  frank  address,  with  humane  honora- 
ble, and  just  intentions;  but,  at  a  critical  moment  he  was 
obliged  to  return  to  England  for  his  health,  and  Lord  Cam- 
den filled  up  the  vacancy  by  his  nephew.  This  relative  be- 
came one  of  the  most  celebrated  persons  of  the  day,  and  is 
the  principal  hero  in  the  sequel  of  Irish  history,  and  in  Eng- 
land proved  himself  a  most  destructive  minister  to  the 
finances  and  character  of  the  British  Empire. 

However,  with  all  his  good  qualities  as  Viceroy,  Lord  Cam- 
den's government  was  by  its  consequences  the  most  ruinous 
and  most  unfortunate  that  Ireland  ever  experienced. 

Lord  Clare  and  his  connections,  intoxicated  by  their  vic- 
tory over  the  late  Viceroy,  set  no  bounds  to  their  triumph; 
they  treated  the  people  as  their  vassals,  the  country  as  their 
demesne,  and  its  patronage  as  their  private  property. 


480  Ireland's  Crowx  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

On  a  review  of  the  state  of  Ireland  at  that  period  it  must 
be  obvious  to  every  deliberate  observer  that  the  design  of 
Mr.  Pitt  to  affect  some  mysterious  measure  in  Ireland  was 
now,  through  the  unaccountable  conduct  of  the  Irish  Govern- 
ment, beginning  to  develop  itself.  The  seeds  of  insurrec- 
tion which  had  manifested  themselves  in  Scotland  and  in 
England  were  by  the  vigor  and  promptitude  of  the  British 
Government,  rapidly  crushed,  and  by  the  reports  of  Parlia- 
ment Lord  Melville  had  obtained  and  published  prints  of  the 
different  pikes  manufactured  in  Scotland  long  before  that 
weapon  had  been  manufactured  by  the  Irish  peasantry.  But 
in  Ireland,  though  it  appeared  from  public  documents  that  the 
Government  had  full  and  accurate  information  of  the  Irish 
United  Societies,  and  that  their  leaders  and  chiefs  were  well 
known  to  the  British  Ministry  at  the  same  period  and  by  the 
same  means  that  England  and  Scotland  were  kept  tranquil, 
so  might  have  been  Ireland. 

Mr.  Pitt,  however,  found  he  had  temporized  to  the  ex- 
tremity of  prudence ;  the  disaffected  had  not  yet  appeared  .as 
a  collected  army,  but  a  succession  of  partial  outrages  con- 
vinced him  that  prompt  and  decisive  measures  became  ab- 
solutely indispensable.  The  Earl  of  Carhampton,  Connnan- 
der-in-Chief  in  Ireland,  first  expressed  his  dissatisfaction  at 
Mr.  Pitt's  inexplicable  proceedings.  His  Lordship  had  but 
little  military  experience,  but  he  was  a  man  of  the  world,  of 
courage  and  decision,  ardent  and  obstinate;  he  determined, 
right  or  wrong,  to  annihilate  the  conspiracy.  Without  the 
consent  of  the  Irish  Government,  he  commanded  the  troops 
that  on  all  symptoms  of  insurrectionary  movements  they 
should  act  without  waiting  for  the  presence  of  any  civil  power. 
Martial  law  had  not  then  been  i3roclaimed.  He  went,  there- 
fore, a  length  which  could  not  possibly  be  supported;  his 
orders  were  countermanded  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  but 
he  refused  to  obey  the  Viceroy,  under  color  that  he  had  no 
rank  in  the  army. 

Lord  Carhampton  found  that  the  troops  in  the  garrison 
of  Dublin  were  daily  corrupted  by  the  United  Irishmen;  he 
therefore  withdrew  them  and  formed  two  distinct  camps  on 
the  north  and  south,  some  miles  from  the  capital,  and  there- 
by, as  he  conceived,  prevented  all  intercourse  of  the  army 
with  the  disaffected  of  the  metropolis.  Both  measures  were 
disapproved  of  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  whom  Lord  Car- 
hampton again  refused  to  obev. 


In  the  Days  of  Crattan 


481 


The  King's  sign  manual  was  again  procured,  ordering 
him  to  break  up  his  camps  and  bring  back  the  garrison;  this 
he  obeyed,  and  marched  the  trooi)s  into  Dublin  barracks.  He 
then  resigned  his  command  and  publicly  declared  that  some 
deep  and  insiduous  scheme  of  the  Minister  was  in  agitation, 
for,  instead  of  suppressing,  the  Irish  Government  was  obvi- 
ously disposed  to  excite  an  insurrection. 

Mr.  Pitt  counted  on  the  expertness  of  the  Irish  Govern- 
ment to  effect  a  premature  explosion.  Free  Quarters  were 
now  ordered  to  irritate  the  Irish  population;  SLOW  TOR- 
TURES were  inflicted  under  the  pretence  of  forcing  con- 
fessions ;  the  people  were  goaded  and  driven  to  madness. 

General  Abercromby,  who  succeeded  as  Commander-in- 
Chief,  was  not  permitted  to  abate  these  enormities,  and  there- 
fore resigned  with  disgust.  Ireland  was  by  these  means  re- 
duced to  a  state  of  anarchy  and  exposed  to  crime  and  cruel- 
ties to  which  no  nation  had  ever  been  subject.  The  people 
could  no  longer  bear  their  miseries.  Mr.  Pitt's  object  was 
now  affected,  and  an  insurrection  was  excited. 


Sculpture  on  Window   Cathedral  Church.  Glendalough:  Beranger,  1779- 
From  Petne's  '"Round  Towers." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

COKNWAL.LIS   LEADING   THE   UNION    FORCES — FRENCH    INVASION   OF 
IRELAND  — **  THE   RACES    OF    CASTLEBAR," 

When  the  insurrection  of  1798  had  been  nearly  exhausted 
Lord  Cornwallis  was  selected  to  comijlete  the  project  of  a 
union,  and  Lord  Castlereagh  was  continued  as  Chief  Sec- 
retary. His  system  was,  of  all  others,  the  most  artful  and 
insidious;  he  affected  impartiality,  whilst  he  was  deceiving 
both  parties;  he  encouraged  the  United  Irishman  and  he 
roused  the  royalist;  one  day  he  destroyed,  the  next  day  he 
was  merciful.  His  system,  however,  had  not  exactly  the  an- 
ticipated effect.  Everything  gave  reason  to  exjDect  a  restora- 
tion of  tranquillity;  it  was  through  the  impression  of  horror 
alone  that  a  union  could  be  effected,  and  he  had  no  time  to 
lose,  lest  the  country  might  recover  its  reason. 

A  portion  of  an  armament,  destined  by  France  to  aid  the 
Irish  insurgents,  had  escaped  our  cruisers,  and  landed  about 
a  thousand  troops  at  Killala  Bay.  They  entered  Killala 
without  opposition,  surprising  the  bishop  and  a  company  ot 
parsons  who  were  on  their  visitation.  Nothing  could  be  bet- 
ter than  their  conduct,  and  the  bishop  in  a  i)ublication  on  this 
event  did  them  ample  justice,  at  the  expense  of  his  own  trans- 
lation. 

They  were  joined  by  a  considerable  number  of  peasantry, 
unarmed,  unclothed,  and  undisciplined.  But  the  French  did 
the  best  they  could  to  render  them  efficient.  After  some  stay 
at  Killala  they  determined  to  march  into  the  country,  and 
even  with  that  small  force  they  expressed  but  little  doubt  of 
reaching  the  metropolis. 

Lord  Hutchinson  commanded  the  garrison  of  Castlebar,  a 
few  miles  from  Killala.  His  force  being  pretty  numerous, 
with  a  good  train  of  artillery,  he  had  no  suspicion  that  a 
handful  of  French  would  presume  to  attack  him. 

General  Lake,  with  his  staff,  had  just  arrived  and  taken 
the  command  (as  an  elder  officer),  as  Lord  Hutchinson  had 
determined  to  march  the  ensuing  day  and  end  the  question  by 
a  capture  of  the  French  detachment.  The  repose  of  the  gen- 
erals was  of  short  duration.  Early  in  the  morning  they  were 
roused  by  an  account  that  the  French  and  peasantry  were  in 

483 


484  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

full  march  upon  them.  They  immediately  beat  to  arms  and 
the  troops  were  moved  to  a  position  about  a  mile  from  Castle- 
bar,  which  to  an  unskilled  person  seemed  unassailable.  They 
had  scarcely  been  posted,  with  nine  pieces  of  cannon,  when 
the  French  appeared  on  the  opposite  side  of  a  small  lake,  de- 
scending a  hill  in  columns,  directly  in  front  of  the  English. 
Our  artillery  played  on  them  with  effect.  The  French  kept 
up  a  scattered  fire  of  musketry  and  took  up  the  attention  of 
our  army  by  irregular  movements.  In  half  an  hour,  how- 
ever, our  troops  were  alarmed  by  a  movement  of  small  bodies 
to  turn  to  their  left,  which,  being  covered  by  walls,  they  had 
never  apprehended.  The  orders  given  were  either  mistaken 
or  misbelieved;  the  line  wavered  and  in  a  few  minutes  the 
whole  of  the  royal  army  was  completely  routed;  the  flight 
of  the  infantry  was  as  that  of  a  mob,  all  the  royal  artillery 
was  taken,  our  army  fled  to  Castlebar,  the  heavy  cavalry 
galloped  amongst  the  infantry  and  Lord  Joycelyn's  light 
dragoons,  and  made  the  best  of  their  way,  through  thick  and 
thin,  to  Castlebar  and  towards  Tuam,  pursued  by  such  of 
the  French  as  could  get  horses  to  carry  them. 

About  nine  hundred  French  and  some  peasants  took  pos- 
session of  Castlebar  without  resistance,  except  from  a  few 
Highlanders  stationed  in  the  town,  who  were  soon  destroyed. 

This  battle  has  been  generally  called  the  Races  of  Castle- 
bar. A  considerable  part  of  the  Louth  and  Kilkenny  regi- 
ments, not  finding  it  convenient  to  retreat,  thought  the  next 
best  thing  they  could  do  would  be  to  join  the  victors,  which 
they  immediately  did,  and  in  one  hour  were  completely 
equipped  as  French  riflemen.  About  ninety  of  those  men 
were  hanged  by  Lord  Cornwallis  afterwards  at  Ballynamuck. 
One  of  them  defended  himself  by  insisting  "that  it  was  the 
army  and  not  he  who  were  deserters ;  that  whilst  he  was  fight- 
ing hard  they  all  ran  away  and  left  him  to  be  murdered.'* 
Lord  Jocelyn  got  him  saved.  The  defeat  of  Castlebar,  how- 
ever, was  a  victory  to  the  Viceroy;  it  revived  all  the  hor- 
rors of  the  rebellion  which  had  been  subsiding,  and  the  de- 
sertion of  the  militia  regiments  tended  to  impress  the  gentry 
with  an  idea  that  England  alone  could  protect  the  country. 

Lord  Cornwallis  was  supine,  and  the  insurgents  were  ac- 
tive in  profiting  by  this  victory ;  40,000  of  them  were  prepar- 
ing to  assemble  at  the  Crooked  Wood,  in  Westmeath,  only 
42  miles  from  Dublin,  ready  to  join  the  French  and  march 
upon  the  metropolis. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  485 

The  French  continued  too  long  at  Castlobar,  and  Lord 
Cornwallis  at  length  collected  20,000  troops  with  which  he 
considered  himself  pretty  certain  of  comjuering  900  men. 
With  above  20,000  men  he  marched  directly  to  the  Shannon 
to  prevent  their  passage,  but  he  was  out-manwuvered ;  the 
insurgents  had  led  the  French  to  the  source  of  the  river  and 
it  was  ten  days  before  his  Lordship,  by  the  slowest  possible 
marches  (which  he  did  purposely  to  increase  the  public  ter- 
ror), reached  his  enemy.  But  he  overdid  the  matter,  and  had 
not  Colonel  Vereker  (Lord  Gort)  delayed  them  in  a  rather 
sanguinary  skirmish,  in  which  he  was  defeated,  it  was  possi- 
ble that  they  might  have  slij^ped  by  his  Lordship  and  have 
been  revelling  in  Dublin,  whilst  he  was  roaming  about  the 
Shannon;  however,  he  at  length  overtook  the  enemy.  Lord 
Jocelyn's  fox-hunters  were  determined  to  retrieve  their  char- 
acter lost  at  Castlebar,  and  a  squadron,  led  by  his  Lordship, 
made  a  bold  charge  upon  the  French ;  but  the  French  opened, 
then  closed  on  them,  and  they  were  beaten,  and  his  Lordship 
was  made  prisoner. 

The  French  corps,  however,  saw  that  ultimate  success  was 
impossible,  having  not  more  than  nine  hundred  French  troops, 
and  they  afterwards  surrendered  prisoners  of  war  without 
further  resistance,  after  having  penetrated  to  the  heart  of  the 
kingdom.  They  were  sent  to  Dublin  and  afterwards  to 
France. 

Horrors  now  were  everywhere  recommenced;  executions 
were  multiplied.  Lord  Cornwallis  marched  against  the  peas- 
antry, still  masters  of  Killala ;  and  after  a  sanguinary  conflict 
in  the  streets,  the  town  was  taken;  some  were  slaughtered, 
many  hanged,  and  the  whole  district  was  on  the  point  of  being 
reduced  to  subjection,  when  Lord  Cornwallis  most  unexiject- 
edly  proclaimed  an  armistice,  and  without  any  terms  per- 
mitted the  insurgents  freely  to  disperse  and  gave  them  thirty 
days  either  to  surrender  their  arms  or  be  prepared  for 
slaughter,  leaving  them  to  act  as  they  thought  proper  in  the 
interval.  This  interval  was  terrific  to  the  loyalists ;  the  thirty 
days  of  armistice  were  thirty  days  of  new  horror,  and  the 
Government  had  now  achieved  the  very  climax  of  public  ter- 
ror, on  which  they  so  much  counted  for  inducing  Ireland  to 
throw  herself  into  the  arms  of  the  protecting  country.  And 
the  first  step  of  Mr.  Pitt's  project  was  fully  consummated. 

Mr.  Pitt  now  conceived  that  the  moment  had  arrived  to 
try  the  effect  of  his  previous  measures  to  promote  a  legisla- 


48G  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

tive  Union,  and  annihilate  the  Irish  legislature.  He  conceived 
that  he  had  already  prepared  inducements  to  suit  every  tem- 
per amongst  the  Irish  Commons;  in  that  he  was  partially 
mistaken.  He  believed  that  he  had  prepared  the  Irish  Peers 
to  accede  to  all  his  projects;  in  that  he  was  successful. 

The  able,  arrogant,  ruthless  bearing  of  Lord  Clare  upon 
the  woolsack  had  rendered  him  almost  despotic  in  that  im- 
becile assembly;  forgetting  their  high  rank,  their  country 
and  themselves,  they  yielded  unresistingly  to  the  spell  of  his 
dictation,  and,  as  the  fascinated  bird,  only  watched  his  eye 
and  dropped  one  by  one  into  the  power  of  the  serpent. 

The  lure  of  translation  neutralized  the  scruples  of  the 
Episcopacy.  The  Bishops  yielded  up  their  conscience  to  their 
interests,  and  but  two  of  the  spiritual  Peers  could  be  found 
to  uphold  the  independence  of  their  country,  which  had  been 
so  nobly  attained  and  so  corniptly  extinguished.  Marly, 
bishop  of  Waterford,  and  Dixon,  bishop  of  Down,  immortal- 
ized their  name  and  their  characters;  they  dared  to  oppose 
the  dictator,  and  supported  the  rights  of  Ireland  till  she  ceased 
to  breathe  longer  under  the  title  of  a  nation. 

This  measure,  of  more  vital  importance  than  any  that  has 
ever  been  enacted  by  the  British  legislature,  the  fatal  conse- 
quences of  which  are  every  day  disjDlaying,  and  still  range 
far  beyond  the  vision  of  short-sighted  statesmen,  was  first 
proposed  indirectly  by  a  speech  from  the  throne  on  the  22d  of 
January,  1799. 

The  insidious  object  of  that  speech  to  entrap  the  House 
into  a  conciliatory  reply,  was  seen  through,  and  resisted  with 
a  vigor  which  neither  the  English  nor  Irish  governments  had 
ever  suspected.  The  horrors  of  civil  war,  the  barbarities 
practised  on  the  one  side  and  sanctioned  on  the  other,  and 
the  universal  consternation  of  the  whole  kingdom— and,  for- 
tunately for  Mr.  Pitt— excited  in  many  the  fallacious  idea  that 
in  the  arms  of  England  only  Ireland  could  regain  and  secure 
tranquillity. 

This  shallow  principle  influenced  or  deluded  many,  but 
afforded  to  a  greater  number  a  specious  pretence  for  sup- 
porting a  measure  which  their  individual  or  corrupt  objects 
only  induced  them  to  sanction. 

To  do  justice  or  to  detail  the  speeches  on  this  great  sub- 
ject, comprising  as  much  eloquence  as  ever  yet  appeared  in 
any  legislative  assembly,  would  be  far  too  extensive  a  task 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  487 

for  this  volume.  Short  abstracts  only  can  now  be  given  here, 
and  the  leading  arguments  condensed,  so  as  to  bring  the  ob- 
ject in  all  its  important  bearings  before  the  capacity  of  every 
reader. 

Ireland  was  now  reduced  to  a  state  fitted  to  receive  prop- 
ositions for  a  Union.  The  loyalists  were  still  struggling 
through  the  embers  of  a  rebellion,  scarcely  extinguished  by 
the  torrents  of  blood  which  had  been  poured  upon  them ;  the 
insurgents  were  artfully  distracted  between  the  hopes  of 
mercy  and  the  fears  of  punishment ;  the  Viceroy  had  seduced 
the  Catholics  by  delusive  hopes  of  emancipation,  whilst  the 
Protestants  were  equally  assured  of  their  ascendancy,  and 
every  encouragement  was  held  out  to  the  sectarians.  Lord 
Cornwallis  and  Lord  Castlereagh  seemed  to  have  been  cre- 
ated for  such  a  crisis  and  for  each  other.  An  unremitting 
perseverence,  an  absence  of  all  political  compunctions,  an 
unqualified  contempt  of  public  opinion,  and  a  disregard  of 
every  constitutional  principle  were  common  to  both.  They 
held  that  'Hhe  object  justifies  the  means;"  and,  unfortunate- 
ly, their  private  characters  were  calculated  to  screen  their 
public  conduct  from  popular  suspicion. 

Lord  Cornwallis,  with  the  exception  of  the  Union,  which 
renders  him  the  most  prominent  person  in  Irish  history,  had 
never  succeeded  in  any  of  his  public  measures.  His  failure 
in  America  had  deprived  England  of  her  colonies,  and  her 
army  of  its  reputation;  his  catastrophe  at  Yorktown  gave  a 
shock  to  the  King's  mind  from  which,  it  is  supposed,  he  never 
entirely  recovered.  In  India  he  defeated  Tippo  Saib,  but 
concluded  a  peace  which  only  increased  the  necessity  of  fu- 
ture wars.  Weary  of  the  sword,  he  was  sent  as  a  diplomatist 
to  conclude  the  peace  of  Amiens ;  but,  outmancEuvered  by  Lu- 
cien  Buonaparte,  his  Lordship's  treaty  involved  all  Europe 
in  a  war  against  England.  He  had  thought  to  conciliate 
Lucien  by  complimenting  the  First  Consul,  and  sacrificed 
his  sovereign's  honorary  title  as  King  of  France,  which  had 
been  borne  since  the  conquest  of  the  Edwards  and  the  Henrys, 
while  he  retained  the  title  of  Defender  of  the  Faith,  corruptly 
bestowed  by  the  pope  on  a  tyrant.  This  was  the  instrument 
now  employed  by  Mr.  Pitt  to  effect  the  L^nion. 

Lord  Castlereagh  had  been  more  than  seven  years  in  the 
Irish  Parliament,  but  was  undistinguished.  In  private  life 
his  honorable  conduct,  gentlemanly  habits  and  engaging  de- 


488  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

meaner  were  exemplary.  Of  his  public  life,  the  commence- 
ment was  patriotic,  the  progress  corrupt,  and  the  termina- 
tion criminal.  His  first  public  essay  was  a  motion  to  reform 
the  Irish  Parliament,  and  his  last  to  annihilate  it.  It  is  im- 
posible  to  deny  a  fact  so  notorious.  History,  tradition,  or 
the  fictions  of  romance  contain  no  instance  of  any  minister 
who  so  fearlessly  deviated  from  all  the  principles  which 
ought  to  characterize  the  servant  of  a  constitutional  mon- 
arch or  the  citizen  of  a  free  country.  Incontestible  facts 
prove  the  justice  of  this  observation. 

The  rebellion  had  commenced  on  the  23d  of  May  1798,  and 
on  the  22d  of  January,  1799,  a  union  was  proposed.  The 
commercial  propositions  had  taught  Mr.  Pitt  that,  in  a  period 
of  tranquillity  nothing  could  be  effected  with  the  Irish  Par- 
liament by  fraud  or  delusion.  But  for  the  terrors  of  the  re- 
bellion the  proposal  of  a  union  might  have  united  all  parties 
against  the  Government,  and  Lord  Cornwallis's  unexampled 
warfare  against  nine  hundred  Frenchmen  was  evidently  in- 
tended more  for  terror  than  for  victory. 

Mr.  Pitt's  project  was  first  decidedly  announced  by  a 
pamphlet  written  by  Mr.  Edward  Cooke,  the  Under-Secre- 
tary, entitled  ''Arguments  for  and  against  a  Union  consid- 
ered." It  was  plausibly  written,  and  it  roused  the  people 
from  their  confidence  that  no  English  minister  dared  pro- 
pose, or  Irishman  abet,  a  destruction  of  that  independence 
which  Ireland  had  possessed  less  than  eighteen  years.  Mr. 
Cooke  was  promptly  replied  to  by  a  pamphlet  entitled 
** Cease  Your  Funning,"  a  masterpiece  of  its  kind,  which,  in 
the  garb  of  wit  and  irony,  conveyed  the  most  skillful  reason- 
ing and  rendered  Mr.  Cooke's  publication  perfectly  ridicu- 
lous. The  author  was  then  deservedly  high  at  the  Irish  bar, 
and  is  now  its  first  law  dignitary.  It  was  sent  to  press  five 
days  after  the  first  line  was  written.  Above  a  hundred 
pamphlets  were  published  on  both  sides  of  the  question,  but 
it  was  some  time  before  the  whole  nation  could  believe  such 
a  measure  dare  be  attempted. 

The  bar  in  Ireland  was  formerly  not  a  working  trade,  but 
a  proud  profession,  filled  by  gentlemen  of  birth  and  fortune, 
who  were  then  residents  in  their  country.  The  Government, 
the  Parliament,  every  municipality  then  felt  the  influence  of 
that  profession,  whose  principal  pride  it  always  was  to  defend 
the  Constitution.     The  number  of  offices  connected  with  the 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  489 

law  were  then  comparatively  few.  The  estimable  Lord  Lif- 
ford,  at  his  death,  was  succeeded  on  the  woolsack  by  Lord 
Clare,  who  immediately  gave  the  utmost  hititude  to  his  arbi- 
trary temper  and  despotic  principles  as  Chancellor. 

He  commenced  his  office  with  a  splendor  far  exceeding 
all  precedent.  He  expended  four  thousand  guineas  for  a 
state  carriage;  his  establishment  was  splendid,  and  his  en- 
tertainments magnificent.  His  family  connections  absorbed 
the  patronage  of  the  State,  and  he  became  the  most  absolute 
subject  that  modern  times  had  seen  in  the  British  islands. 
His  only  check  was  the  bar,  which  he  resolved  to  corrupt. 
He  doubled  the  number  of  the  bankrupt  commissioners;  he 
revived  some  offices,  created  others,  and,  under  the  pretence 
of  furnishing  each  county  with  a  local  judge,  in  two  months 
he  established  thirty-two  new  offices  of  about  six  or  seven 
hundred  pounds  per  annum  each.  His  arrogance  in  court  in- 
timidated many  whom  his  patronage  could  not  corrupt,  and 
he  had  no  doubt  of  overj^owering  the  whole  profession. 

A  meeting  of  the  Bar,  however,  to  discuss  the  Union,  was 
called  on  the  9th  of  December,  1799,  at  the  Exhibition  Room, 
William  Street,  and  Mr.  Smith,  as  the  father  of  the  Bar,  was 
voted  in  the  chair.  Among  those  who  had  called  the  meet- 
ing were  fourteen  of  the  King's  counsel— E.  Mayne,  W. 
Saurin,  W.  C.  Plunket,  C.  Bushe,  W.  Sankey,  B.  Burton,  J. 
Barrington,  A.  McCartney,  G.  O'Farrell,  J.  O'Driscoll,  J. 
Lloyd,  P.  Burrowes,  E.  Jobb   and  H.  Joy,  Esquires. 

M.  Saurin  opened  the  debate.  His  speech  was  vapid  and 
his  resolution  unpointed,  but  he  had  great  influence  in  his 
profession.  He  was  a  moderate  Huguenot  and  grandson  of 
the  great  preacher  at  the  Hague;  he  was  an  excellent  lawyer 
and  an  amiable,  pious  Christian.  He  was  followed  by  Cap- 
tain Spencer,  of  the  barristers'  cavalry. 

Mr.  Saint  George  Daly,  a  briefless  barrister,  was  the  first 
supporter  of  the  Union.  Of  all  men  he  was  the  least  thought 
of  for  preferment ;  but  it  was  wittily  observed  ' '  that  the  L^nion 
was  the  first  brief  Mr.  Daly  had  spoken  from."  He  moved 
an  adjournment. 

Mr.  Thomas  Grady  was  the  Fitzgibbon  spokesman— a  gen- 
tleman of  independent  property,  a  tolerable  lawj^er,  an  ama- 
tory poet,  a  severe  satirist,  and  an  indefatigable  quality- 
hunter.  He  had  written  the  ''Flesh  Brush,'*  for  Lady  Clare ; 
the  ''West  Briton/'  for  the  Union;  the  "Barrister,"  for  the 


4:90  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

bar,  and  the  "Nosegay,"  for  a  banker  at  Limerick,  who  sued 
him  successfully  for  a  libel. 

''The  Irish,"  said  Mr.  Grady,  ''are  only  the  rump  of  an 
aristocracy.  Shall  I  visit  posterity  with  a  system  of  ivar, 
pestilence  and  famine?  No!  no!  Give  me  a  Union.  Unite 
me  to  that  country  where  all  is  peace,  and  order,  and  pros- 
perity. Without  a  Union  we  shall  see  embryo  chief-judges, 
attorneys  general  in  perspective,  and  animalcula  Serjeants. 
All  the  cities  of  the  south  and  west  are  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
between  the  rest  of  the  world  and  Great  Britain ;  they  are  all 
for  it ;  they  must  all  become  warehouses ;  the  people  are  Cath- 
olics, and  they  are  all  for  it."  Such  an  oration  as  Mr.  Grady's 
had  never  before  been  heard  at  a  meeting  of  lawyers  of  Eu- 
rope. 

Mr.  John  Beresford,  Lord  Clare's  nephew  and  purse- 
bearer,  followed,  as  if  for  the  charitable  purpose  of  taking 
the  laugh  from  Mr.  Grady,  in  which  he  perfectly  succeeded 
by  turning  it  on  himself.  Mr.  Beresford  afterwards  became 
a  parson,  and  is  now  Lord  Decies. 

Mr.  Goold  said :  ' '  There  are  40,000  British  troops  in  Ire- 
land, and  with  40,000  bayonets  at  my  breast,  the  minister 
shall  not  plant  another  Sicily  in  the  bosom  of  the  Atlantic. 
I  want  not  the  assistance  of  divine  inspiration  to  foretell,  for 
I  am  enabled  by  the  visible  and  unerring  demonstrations  of 
nature  to  assert  that  Ireland  was  destined  to  be  a  free  and 
independent  nation.  Our  patent  to  be  a  state,  not  a  shire, 
comes  direct  from  heaven.  The  Almighty  has,  in  majestic 
characters,  signed  the  great  charter  of  our  independence. 
The  great  Creator  of  the  world  has  given  our  beloved  coun- 
try the  gigantic  outlines  of  a  kingdom.  The  God  of  nature 
never  intended  that  Ireland  should  be  a  province,  and,  by 
G ,  she  never  shall." 

The  assembly  burst  into  a  tumult  of  applause;  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  words  came  from  many  mouths,  and  many  an 
able  lawyer  swore  hard  upon  the  subject.     The  division  was : 

Against  the  Union 166 

In  favor  of  it 32 

Majority    134 

Soon  after  this  decision  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  resigned  his 
commission  as  an  officer  of  the  Barristers'  Cavalry,  and  the 
corps  shortly  after  ceased  to  act. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  491 

''Letter  from  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  to  Captain  Saurin, 
Barristers '  Cavalry : 

''Merrion  Square,  Jan.  20th,  1799. 

''Permit  me  to  resign,  through  you,  the  commission  which 
I  hold  in  the  Lawyers'  Cavalry;  I  resign  it  with  the  regret 
of  a  soldier  who  knows  his  duty  to  his  King,  yet  feels  his 
duty  to  his  country,  and  will  depart  from  neither  but  with  his 
life. 

' '  That  blind  and  fatal  measure  proposed  by  the  Irish  Gov- 
ernment to  extinguish  the  political  existence  of  Ireland,  to 
surrender  its  legislature,  its  trade,  its  dearest  rights  and 
proudest  prerogatives  into  the  hands  of  a  British  minister 
and  a  British  council  savors  too  much  of  that  foreign  prin- 
ciple  against  the  prevailing  influence  of  which  the  united  pow- 
ers of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  are  at  this  moment  com- 
batting, and  as  evidently  throws  open  to  the  British  Empire 
the  gate  of  that  seductive  political  innovation  which  has  al- 
ready proved  the  grave  of  half  the  governments  of  Europe. 

"Consistent,  therefore,  with  my  loyalty  and  my  oath,  I 
can  no  longer  continue  subject  to  the  indefinite  and  unfore- 
seen commands  of  a  military  government  which  so  madly 
hazards  the  integrity  of  the  British  Empire  and  existence  of 
the  British  Constitution  to  crush  a  rising  nation  and  aggran- 
dize a  despotic  minister. 

"Blinded  by  my  zealous  and  hereditary  attachment  to 
the  established  government  and  British  connection,  I  saw  not 
the  absolute  necessity  of  national  unanimity  to  secure  consti- 
tutional freedom ;  I  see  it  now,  and  trust  it  is  not  yet  too  late 
to  establish  both. 

"I  never  will  abet  a  new  developed  system,  treacherous 
and  ungrateful,  stimulating  two  sects  against  each  other,  to 
enfeeble  both,  and  then  making  religious  feuds  a  pretext  for 
political  slavery. 

"Rejecting  the  experiment  of  a  reform  and  recommend- 
ing the  experiment  of  a  revolution. 

"Kindling  Catholic  expectation  to  a  blaze  and  then  ex- 
tinguishing it  forever. 

"Alternately  disgusting  the  rebel  and  the  royalist  by  in- 
discriminate pardon  and  indiscriminate  punishment. 

"Suspending  one  code  of  laws  and  adjudging  by  another 
without  authority  to  do  either ;  and  when  the  country,  wearied 
by  her  struggles  for  her  King,  slumbers  to  refresh  and  regain 


492  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

her  vigor,  her  liberty  is  treacherously  attempted  to  be  bound, 
and  her  pride,  her  security  and  her  independence  are  to  be 
buried  alive  in  the  tomb  of  national  annihilation. 

''Mechanical  obedience  is  the  duty  of  a  soldier,  but  active, 
uninfluenced  integrity,  the  indispensable  attribute  of  a  legis- 
lator when  the  preservation  of  his  country  is  in  question,  and 
as  the  same  frantic  authority  which  meditates  our  civil  anni- 
hilation might  in  the  same  frenzy  meditate  military  projects 
from  which  my  feelings,  my  jorinciples,  and  my  honor  might 
revolt,  I  feel  it  right  to  separate  my  civil  and  military  func- 
tions, and,  to  secure  the  honest,  uninterrupted  exercise  of 
the  one,  I  relinquish  the  indefinite  subjection  of  the  other. 

''I  return  the  arms  I  received  from  the  Government;  I  re- 
ceived them  pure  and  restore  them  not  dishonored. 

''I  shall  now  resume  my  civil  duties  with  zeal  and  with 
energy,  elevated  by  the  hope  that  the  Irish  Parliament,  true 
to  itself  and  honest  to  its  country,  will  never  assume  a  power 
extrinsic  of  its  delegation,  and  will  convince  the  British  na- 
tion that  we  are  a  people  equally  impregnable  to  the  attacks 
of  intimidation  or  the  shameless  practice  of  corruption. 

''Yours, 

Jonah  Barrington, 
'^Lieutenant  L.  Cavalry." 

The  Right  Honorable  James  Fitzgerald,  then  prime-ser- 
geant, was  dismissed  from  office,  having  peremptorily  refused 
to  vote  for  the  Union.  The  office  of  prime-sergeant,  unknown 
in  England,  in  Ireland  took  precedence  of  the  Attorney  and 
Solicitor  General.  The  emoluments  were  very  great;  Mr. 
Saint  George  Daly  was  immediately  rewarded  by  that  office, 
to  the  duties  of  which  he  was  totally  incompetent,  never  hav- 
ing been  in  any  considerable  practice  at  the  bar. 

A  meeting  was  then  called  to  express  to  Mr.  Fitzgerald  the 
thanks  of  his  profession  for  his  disinterested  patriotism; 
never  was  there  a  more  just  and  honorable  tribute  paid  to 
an  honest  public  character. 

The  bar  had  also  determined  that  the  precedence  in  the 
courts  should  be  continued  by  Mr.  Fitzgerald;  to  this  Lord 
Clare  would  not  accede,  and  he  treated  the  subject  with  great 
arrogance  in  his  court.  That  session  concluded  without  any 
other  meeting  of  the  profession. 

The  day  after  that  debate  Mr.  Saint  George  Daly  drew 
up  a  protest  of  the  minority,  some  of  whom  refused  to  sign 


In  the  Days  of  G  rattan  493 

it;  he  got  some  substitutes,  so  as  to  keep  up  liis  number  of 
thirty-two,  but  not  cue  person  of  professional  eminence,  of 
public  character  or  independence  appeared  in  the  whole  num- 
ber; it  was  universally  ridiculed,  but  Mr.  Daly  carried  his 
object,  his  own  promotion. 

Five  of  the  debates  on  the  Union  in  the  Irish  Commons 
comprised  everything  of  the  first  importance  upon  the  sub- 
ject ;  of  these,  three  took  place  in  January,  1799,  whilst  men 
were  impressed  with  the  horrors  of  the  rebellion  and  the 
fears  of  a  French  invasion.  The  debates  of  1800  were  after 
the  Parliament  had  been  packed  through  the  Place  Bill.  The 
competence  of  Parliament  to  relinquish  the  Constitution  and 
their  own  existence  was  discussed  with  extraordinary  ability. 

The  first  debate  took  place  on  the  22d  of  Januar^^,  1799, 
and  lasted  till  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  23d,  or 
twenty-two  hours.  The  Government  obtained  a  majority  of 
only  one,  and  that  by  the  palpable  seduction  of  Mr.  Fox.  The 
second  debate  commenced  at  five  o'clock  on  the  same  day  and 
continued  till  late  in  the  morning  of  the  24th,  when,  the  coun- 
try being  roused,  the  Treasury  Bench  was  unexpectedly  de- 
feated. 

The  speech  from  the  Viceroy,  delivered  on  the  opening 
of  the  session,  which  gave  rise  to  the  debate  of  the  22d  of  Jan- 
uary, recommended  ''the  unremitting  industry  with  which 
our  enemies  persevere  in  their  avowed  design  of  endeavor- 
ing to  effect  a  separation  of  this  kingdom  from  Great  Britain 
must  have  engaged  your  particular  attention,  and  His  Maj- 
esty commands  me  to  express  his  anxious  hope  that  this  con- 
sideration, joined  to  the  sentiment  of  mutual  affection  and 
common  interest,  may  dispose  the  Parliaments  in  both  king- 
doms to  provide  the  most  effectual  means  of  maintaining  a 
connection  essential  to  their  common  security,  and  of  con- 
solidating as  far  as  possible  into  one  firm  and  lasting  fabric 
the  strength,  the  power  and  the  resources  of  the  British  Em- 
pire." The  address  to  that  speech,  almost  an  eclio,  was 
moved  by  Lord  Tyrone,  who  thus  stamped  for  himself  an  eter- 
nal impression  on  the  annals  of  Ireland.  He  was  the  eldest 
son  of  the  Marquis  of  Waterford,  a  keen  and  haughty  noble- 
man, possessed  of  that  local  influence  which  rank,  extensive 
connections,  unlimited  patronage  and  ostentatious  establish- 
ments are  almost  certain  to  acquire;  inflated  with  aristocratic 
pride  and  blinded  by  egotism,  he  became  a  powerful  instru- 


494  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ment  of  Lord  Clare's  ambition,  whilst  lie  conceived  that  he 
was  only  gratifying  his  own.  Lord  Clare,  at  that  period, 
had  covered  the  surface  of  the  nation  with  the  partisans  of 
the  Beresfords  and  himself,  and  no  family  ever  possessed 
so  many  high  and  lucrative  employments ;  they  had  no  talent, 
no  public  services,  no  political  honesty,  which  should  have 
entitled  them  to  the  authority  they  exercised  over  their  sover- 
eign and  country. 

Lord  Tyrone,  an  automaton  of  Lord  Clare,  possessed 
plain  manners,  an  open  countenance,  a  slothful,  uncultivated 
mind,  unsusceptible  of  any  refined  impressions  or  patriotic 
feelings;  the  example  of  his  relatives  gave  him  no  stimulus 
beyond  that  of  lucrative  patronage.  Whatever  were  his  in- 
dividual ojoinions  upon  the  Union,  his  vapid,  disingenuous 
and  arrogant  speech  evinced  that  he  was  not  calculated  to 
give  weight  to  his  family;  his  speech  had  been  written  by 
his  friends,  and,  concealing  it  in  the  crown  of  his  hat,  he 
took  a  glance  at  it  when  at  a  loss;  the  exhibition,  on  such  a 
subject,  was  too  disgusting  to  be  ridiculous.  Lord  Clare,  on 
this  occasion,  exhibited  the  voracity  of  his  ambition.  The 
ancient  and  j^roud  house  of  Beresford  was,  on  that  night, 
cringing  as  the  vassals  of  an  arrogant  and  splendid  upstart. 

The  address  was  seconded  by  Mr.  Kobert  Fitzgerald,  of 
Corkbeg,  an  elderly  country  gentleman;  he  had  an  honest 
character,  blunt,  candid  manners,  and  though  he  had  no  tal- 
ent, he  could  deliver  himself  with  some  strength  and  with 
the  appearance  of  sincerity.  His  speech  on  this  occasion  was 
short  and  feeble.  He  had  been  artfully  seduced  as  a  lure 
to  the  country  gentlemen  by  Lord  Cornwallis's  assuring  him 
that,  in  the  event  of  the  Union,  a  royal  dock-yard  would  be 
built  near  Cork,  which  would  double  the  value  of  his  estates. 

In  every  debate  upon  that  measure  it  was  insisted  that 
the  Parliament  was  incompetent,  even  to  entertain  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Union ;  such  was  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Saurin,  since 
[Attorney  General;  Mr.  Plunket,  since  Lord  Chancellor;  Ser- 
jeant Ball,  the  ablest  lawyer  of  Ireland;  Mr,  Fitzgerald, 
Prime-Serjeant  of  Ireland;  Mr.  Moore,  since  a  judge;  Sir 
John  Parnell,  then  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer ;  Mr.  Bushe,, 
since  Chief  Justice,  and  Lord  Oriel,  the  then  speaker  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  Nearly  every  unbribed  or  uninfluenced 
member  of  the  learned  profession  adopted  the  doctrine  of 
which  these  learned  and  able  men  were  the  unqualified  or^ 


In  the  Days  ok  Orattan 


495 


gans.  Lord  Glenbervie,  in  liis  famous  speech  in  favor  of  the 
Union,  in  the  English  House  of  Connnons,  in  1800,  expressed 
his  surprise  that  Messrs.  Saurin,  Plunket  and  Harrington 
could  reason  upon  such  an  untenable  position.  He  admitted 
their  sincerity,  but  considered  them  not  quite  clear  in  their 
intellects.  His  own  speech  was  splendidly  written,  but  was 
miserably  heavj^  The  Irish  Union  materially  changed  the 
representation  of  England,  and  altered  the  letter  and  spirit 
of  the  Scotch  treaty;  Ireland,  however,  was  alone  disfran- 
chised. 

Mr.  John  Ball,  Member  for  Drohega,  who  gave  his  un- 
qualified opinion  as  to  the  legal  and  constitutional  incapacity 
of  the  Commons  to  enact  the  Union,  was  the  ablest  lawyer  of 
his  day,  and  one  of  the  purest  characters,  public  and  private, 
that  had  ever  flourished  in  Ireland;  amiable  and  consistent 
in  every  station  and  in  every  capacitj^  combining  spirit  and 
mildness,  fortitude  and  moderation,  he  was  cast  in  one  of 
the  finest  molds  of  firmness  and  patriotism.  During  his 
progress  from  comparative  obscurity  to  the  attachment  and 
highest  esteem  of  his  j^rofession  and  of  the  public,  he  evinced 
an  independence  above  all  temptation.  Though  the  ablest 
lawyer  of  his  day,  he  was  passed  over  in  all  Lord  Clare's 
promotions. 


Sculpture  on  a  Capital.   Priest's  House.  Gk:.i^i^u„;i.  Bcra!:;;Lr,  1779. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers." 


CHAPTER  XVllI. 

ARGUMENTS  IN  PARLIAMENT  FOR  THE  UNION —VIOLENT  SPEECH  B\ 
LORD   CASTLEREAGH—  PATRIOTISM   OF   SIR  JOHN    PARNELL. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  do  justice  to  the  brilliant  elo- 
quence and  unanswerable  reasoning  by  which  this  measure 
was  combatted.  Even  a  short  abstract  of  the  speeches  deliv- 
ered on  that  momentous  question  would  swell  this  volume 
beyond  its  intended  limits.  At  present  it  must  suffice  to  state 
the  abstract  points  on  which  the  arguments  of  Government 
for  annexation  were  founded  and  those  by  which  they  were 
so  ably  and  unanswerably  refuted.  First,  the  distracted  state 
of  the  Irish  Nation,  its  religious  dissensions  and  the  conse- 
quent danger  of  a  separation,  unless  protected  from  so  im- 
minent a  peril  by  the  incorporation  with  Great  Britain,  and 
the  incapacity  of  the  Irish  legislature  alone  to  avert  the  dan- 
gers of  the  country  and  preserve  the  constitution.  Secondly, 
the  great  commercial  advantages  of  a  Union  which  must 
eventually  enrich  Ireland  by  an  extension  of  its  commerce, 
the  influx  of  British  capital  and  the  confidence  of  England  in 
the  stability  of  its  institutions  when  guaranteed  by  the  Union. 
Thirdly,  the  Government  pressed  with  great  zeal  the  example 
of  Scotland,  which  had  so  improved  and  become  so  rich  and 
prosperous  after  its  annexation,  a  precedent  which  must  con- 
vince the  Irish  of  the  incalculable  advantages  which  must 
ensue  from  a  similar  incorporation. 

Many  other  arguments,  but  of  a  minor  description,  were 
urged  by  the  purchased  partisans  of  the  Government.  But 
the  leading  points  which  elicited  the  splendid  eloquence,  the 
reasoning  and  the  high  spirits  of  its  opponents,  were  exem- 
plified by  the  argument  of  Mr.  George  Ponsonby. 

Sir  Lawrence  Parsons  and  many  others,  in  reply,  not  only 
animated  but  convinced  the  assembly;  the  facts  were  too 
strong  to  be  refuted  that  the  country  had  been  worked  up 
by  the  English  minister  to  terrify  the  Irish  gentry  into  a  re- 
submission to  those  shackles  from  which  the  spirit  of  the 
Volunteers  and  of  the  nation  had  but  a  few  years  before  re- 
leased them.  They  asked,  what  could  the  Union  do  which 
could  not  be  done  without  it? 

497 


498  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

There  was  no  species  of  aid,  no  auxiliary  power  which 
England  could  afford  to  give  Ireland,  either  to  restore  or  sq- 
cure  her  tranquillity,  that  Ireland  had  not  fully  within  her 
own  reach  and  power.  She  had  men,  she  had  means,  she  had 
arras,  she  had  spirit,  she  had  loyalty,  all  in  her  domestic  cir- 
cle,  sufficient  to  restore  her  to  peace,  which  had  for  a  mo- 
ment been  interrupted  by  the  machinations  of  those  who  would 
now  take  advantage  of  their  own  treachery.  The  Irish  Par- 
liament had  within  her  own  walls  the  power  of  reconciling 
religious  differences,  restoring  peace  or  putting  down  insur- 
rection, far  more  effectually  than  the  English  Government 
could  pretend  to  possess. 

It  was  argued  that  the  insurrection,  first  organized  and 
fostered  by  Mr.  Pitt,  and  protracted  by  Lord  Cornwallis,  had 
been  suppressed  by  the  active  zeal  and  measures  of  the  Irish 
Parliament;  and  that  the  introduction  of  foreign  and  mer- 
cenary Germans,  to  immolate  the  Irish,  instead  of  tending 
to  extinguish,  added  fuel  to  the  conflagration  and  excited  the 
strongest  feelings  of  retaliation;  nor  could  the  people  of  in- 
dependent Ireland  brook  the  idea  of  being  cut  down  by  the 
Welshmen. 

It  was  not  to  the  arais  of  England,  but  to  the  distinguished 
loyalty  of  the  Irish  Commons  and  the  prompt  and  vigorous 
measures  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  that  the  speedy  termina- 
tion of  that  insurrection  was  to  be  attributed.  The  English 
militia  were  brought  over,  after  the  contest  had  nearly  ended, 
and  never  fired  a  shot  in  Ireland.  They  conducted  themselves 
with  decorum  and  due  discipline,  and  returned  to  England 
with  at  least  as  good  character  as  they  left  it.  The  German 
mercenaries  who  were  wantonly  imported,  as  if  to  teach  bar- 
barity to  the  Irish  insurgents,  amply  experienced  by  their 
own  blood  the  expertness  of  their  pupils,  and  only  aggravated 
that  people  whom  they  had  been  brought  to  conquer. 

The  argument,  therefore,  that  the  Irish  legislature  had 
not  suflScient  power  to  protect  itself  was  unfounded  and  fal- 
lacious, and  only  invented  to  keep  up  and  augment  the  ter- 
rors of  the  Irish  gentry. 

The  second  ground  of  argument  used  by  the  supporters 
of  the  Union,  great  commercial  advantages,  appeared  still 
more  fallacious;  its  deception  was  too  palpable  to  deceive  the 
most  ignorant  of  the  people. 

The  proposers  of  the  Union  were  asked  what  were  the 
commercial  advantages  which  Ireland  could  possibly  gain  by 


In  the  Days  of  G rattan  499 

a  Union  that  she  might  not  equally  attain  throYigh  her  own 
Parliament  without  one.  She  was  an  independent  nation, 
she  had  an  independent  legislature,  she  might  regulate  her 
own  tariffs  and  conduct  her  commerce  by  her  own  statutes; 
the  reciprocal  connection  of  the  two  countries  was  an  equal 
object  to  the  commercial  interests  of  both. 

The  non-importation  and  non-consumption  resolutions  of 
Ireland  had  once  brought  back  the  English  monopolists  to 
their  reason;  the  same  power  remained  to  the  Irish  people. 
If  she  could  resist  commercial  restraints  in  1782,  with  ten- 
fold more  facility,  she  could  resist  them  in  1800;  she  could 
trade  with  more  success,  because  she  had  since  learned  the 
rudiments  of  commerce  from  a  participation  in  which  the 
avarice  of  monopolists  and  the  unjust  jealousies  of  Great 
Britain  had  theretofore  excluded  her. 

The  crafty  prediction  that  English  capital  would  flow  into 
Ireland  when  a  Union  was  effected  was  a  visionary  decep- 
tion. For  more  capital  would  be  annually  withdrawn  from 
Ireland  by  the  emigration  of  the  landed  proprietors  in  con- 
sequence of  the  Union  than  could  be  gained  by  any  accession 
of  British  capital.  Ireland  was  an  agricultural  country;  her 
natural  fertility  pointed  out  to  her  the  true  source  of  her 
internal  employment  and  proper  subjects  of  her  external  com- 
merce, and  when  the  famine  which  the  slightest  stagnation  of 
trade  causes  amongst  the  manufacturers  of  the  first  towns 
of  England,  the  decrepitude  of  their  meagre  operatives,  the 
wretched  enervating  slavery  to  which  the  necessity  of  the 
parents  and  the  brutality  of  the  manufacturer  condemn  the 
infants  of  that  nation,  are  considered,  it  would  make  a  suflfi- 
cieut  reply  to  either  the  certainty  or  the  consequence  of  Brit- 
ish capital. 

The  third  and  most  deceptions  argument  of  the  Union  sup- 
porters because  the  most  plausible,  was  the  precedent  of  Scot- 
land and  the  great  advantages  derived  by  her  in  consequence 
of  her  Union. 

Of  all  the  false  reasoning,  misstated  facts,  fallacious  prem- 
ises and  unfounded  conclusions  that  any  position  ever  was 
attempted  to  be  supported  on,  the  arguments  founded  on  the 
Scottish  precedent  were  the  most  erroneous,  and  no  decep- 
tion ever  was  more  completely  and  fully  detected  than  by  the 
speeches  made  in  the  Irish  Parliament  in  1799  and  1800,  and 
by  several  able  pamphlets  which  at  that  period  flowed  in  full 
tide  upon  the  public. 


i)00  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

These  replies  being  founded  on  matters  of  fact  and  attest- 
ed by  incontrovertible  records,  put  at  once  a  decisive  conclu- 
sion to  every  argument  deduced  by  the  advocates  of  Union 
from  that  subject. 

First,  as  to  matter  of  fact,  Scotland  and  Ireland,  in  their 
relations  with  England,  stood  on  grounds  diametrically  oppo- 
site to  each  other  on  every  point  that  could  warrant  a  Union 
on  the  one  side  or  reject  it  on  the  other. 

Scotland  and  England  forming  only  one  island,  divided 
by  a  frontier  many  parts  of  which  a  man  could  step  over,  had 
ever  been  in  a  state  of  sanguinary  warfare.  The  facility  of 
invasion  on  both  sides  left  no  moment  of  a  certain  undis- 
turbed tranquillity  to  either.  Their  inroads  were  incessant, 
their  reconciliations  only  the  forerunner  of  new  contests,  in- 
terrupted by  short  intervals  of  peace  until  the  accession  of 
Mary.  She  had  been  Queen  of  France,  and  on  her  return 
to  her  native  country  introduced  a  French  connection  with 
Scotland,  which  added  to  the  excitement  of  both  nations,  and 
naturally  increased  the  apprehensions  of  England  from  the 
power  of  a  neighbor  so  supported  as  Scotland  then  must 
have  been. 

The  two  crowns  were  united  in  the  person  of  James  the 
First,  and  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Scottish  army  renounced 
their  allegiance  and  sold  tlieir  King  and  surrendered  him 
to  his  enemies,  and  eventually  to  the  executioner.  It  was 
considered  by  King  William  III.  when  he  usurped  the  British 
throne  that  if  they  so  acted  by  one  King  they  might  do  so 
by  another,  and  his  sanguinary  conduct  towards  that  coun- 
try still  widened  the  breach  between  the  two  nations.  At 
length  the  reign  of  Anne  brought  the  question  of  Union  for- 
ward, not  as  in  Ireland,  a  mere  voluntary  discussion,  but' 
one  of  absolute  necessity. 

Had  Anne  died  childless  the  crowns  must  have  been  sev- 
ered, and  that  old  Scotland,  by  descent,  would  have  gone 
to  the  Scottish  Duke  of  Hamilton,  as  Hanover  was,  on  the 
demise  of  his  late  Majesty,  separated  from  England.  This 
important  fact  puts  an  end  to  all  comparison  between  the 
relative  state  of  the  two  countries. 

The  Scottish  Parliament,  to  put  an  end  to  all  doubts  on  the 
subject  of  separation,  passed  an  act  entitled  the  Act  of  Se- 
curity. By  that  statute  the  Scottish  Parliament  enacted  that 
the  crown  of  Scotland  should  never  be  worn  by  the  same 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  501 

monarch  as  that  of  England.  By  the  Irish  parliament  it  was 
enacted  that  the  two  crowns  should  ''ever"  be  worn  by  the 
same  monarch  and  never  disunite. 

Thus  it  incontestibly  appears  by  an  act  of  Scotland  her- 
self that  without  a  Scottish  Union  England  and  Scotland, 
though  on  the  same  island,  must  in  a  short  space  of  time  have 
been  constitutionally  severed  and  governed  by  different  and 
distinct  monarchs  forever,  whereas  Ireland,  though  a  differ- 
ent and  distinct  island,  with  a  great  intervening  sea,  had  de- 
cided the  very  reverse,  and  had  united  herself  indissolubly 
and  voluntarily  to  England  by  a  nmtual  federative  compact, 
both  crowns  to  be  forever  worn  by  the  same  monarch. 

How  the  supporters  of  the  Irish  Union,  therefore,  could 
have  the  face  to  call  in  the  Scottish  Union  as  a  precedent  to 
show  the  necessity  of  an  Irish  Union  can  only  be  accounted  for 
by  that  voluntary  blindness  and  premeditated  absence  of  all 
candor  and  liberality  which  are  the  inseparable  comiDanions 
of  political  delinquency. 

But,  in  fact,  the  supporters  of  an  Irish  Union  were  them- 
selves the  greatest  enemies  to  British  connection,  for  this 
clear  and  obvious  reason :  the  Scottish  Union  was  a  matter  of 
state  necessity;  the  connection  of  England  and  Ireland  a  mu- 
tual international  compact,  and  as  such  equally  binding,  sa- 
cred and  inviolable  on  both  sides;  and  as  the  principle  of 
all  international  as  well  as  individual  contracts,  is  binding 
just  so  long  as  the  mutual  compacts  are  adhered  to.  Such  a 
mutual,  sacred,  and  international  eomjiact,  voluntarily,  con- 
stitutionally and  legally  guaranteed  by  both  legislatures,  con- 
firmed by  the  King  of  both  countries  in  his  double  cai^acity, 
and  touched  by  his  sceptre,  had  been  enacted  and  did  exist 
between  England  and  Ireland  long  previous  to  the  measure 
of  a  Union,  so  pressed  on  Ireland  by  England ;  such  a  Union 
was  therefore  a  direct  unequivocal  infraction  of  that  inter- 
national treaty  and  federative  compact,  the  mutual  and  in- 
violable adherence  to  which,  in  all  its  provisions,  was  the  only 
valuable  consideration  to  Ireland. 

It  was  truly  argued  that  in  this  point  of  view,  therefore, 
no  similarity  existed  between  the  position  of  Scotland  and 
Ireland,  when  the  Irish  nobles  were  cashiered  of  their  hered- 
itary honor  and  the  Irish  people  plundered  of  two-thirds  of 
their  constitutional  representation. 

iVnother  fact  stated  and  most  ably  reasoned  on  during 
the  Irish  Union  to  prove  the  absurdity  of  the  attempted  com- 


502  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

parison  was  that  the  Scottish  and  Irish  Parliaments,  at  that 
jjeriod,  had  in  their  organization  and  proceedings  no  simili^ 
tude  whatsoever ;  the  Lords  and  Commons  of  Scotland  formed 
but  one  chamber,  the  representatives  of  the  people  (such  as 
they  were)  and  the  Peers  called  the  hereditary  counsellors 
of  the  crown  sat  mingled  and  voted  together  promiscuously; 
nothing  like  the  British  constitution  even  in  theory  existed  in 
Scotland;  church,  state  and  legislation  had  no  analogy;  ma- 
terials of  legislation  and  a  species  of  imperium  in  imperio, 
entirely  inconsistent  with  the  constitution  of  the  superior  na- 
tion, could  not  continue  to  exist  in  the  same  island  without 
the  daily  probability  of  collision  and  the  danger  of  hostilities, 
aided  by  the  facility  of  invasion  by  either  country ;  this  condi- 
tion imperatively  required  some  means  to  avert  so  probable 
and  imminent  a  danger  to  both  countries. 

No  such  dangers,  however,  existed  as  to  Ireland;  and  if 
she  had  not  been  politically  excited  by  the  British  minister, 
and  by  the  example  of  England  and  Scotland,  or  even  after 
that  excitement  had  subsided,  and  put  an  end  to,  had  she 
been  permitted  to  rest,  and  regain  her  tranquillity  and  vigor, 
and  proper  measures  had  been  then  adopted  to  continue  that 
tranquillity,  no  country  on  earth  had  more  capabilities,  and 
no  country  in  Europe  would  have  been  more  prosperous, 
tranquil,  and  happy  than  misgoverned  Ireland. 

The  grand  and  fundamental  point  wliich  was  then  urged, 
reasoned  upon,  and  which  never  has,  and  never  can  be  re- 
futed, was  the  incompetence  of  Parliament  to  betray  its  trust. 
Whilst  the  first  elements  of  the  British  constitution  exist,  that 
principle  is  its  surest  protection;  the  entire  incompetence  of 
representatives  elected  by  the  people,  as  their  delegated  trus- 
tees, to  represent  them  in  the  great  national  inquest,  and  as 
such  trustees  and  guardians  to  preserve  the  rights  and  con- 
stitution so  entrusted  to  them  inviolate;  and  at  the  expira- 
tion of  the  term  of  that  trust,  deliver  back  their  trust  to  their 
constituents  as  they  received  it,  to  be  replaced  in  their  own 
hands,  or  of  other  trustees  for  another  term.  But  they  had, 
and  could  have  no  power  to  betray  their  trust,  convert  it  to 
their  own  corrupt  purposes,  or  transfer  the  most  valuable  of 
all  funds,  an  independent  constitution,  the  integrity  of  which 
they  became  trustees  solely  for  the  purpose  of  protecting. 

This  being  a  fundamental  principle  of  British  law,  is 
placed  under  the  protection  of  the  Judges;  and  the  very 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  503 

essence,  first  principle  and  element  of  British  equity  is  placed 
under  the  protection  of  the  Chancellor.  That  high  function- 
ary, in  his  double  capacity,  of  the  first  judge  of  the  country, 
and  also  the  adviser  of  the  King  in  all  cases  within  his  juris- 
diction, is  bound  to  support  by  authorities  that  principle 
which  forms  the  only  safeguard  to  the  British  Constitution. 

Many  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of  1799  and  1800,  justly  esti- 
mated for  their  deep  knowledge,  great  talents,  and  incor- 
ruptible integrity,  gave  both  in  and  out  of  Parliament  un- 
qualified and  decided  opinions  which  are  too  important  not 
to  be  recorded;  they  entirely  denied  the  competence  of  the 
Irish  Commons,  to  jjass  or  to  even  receive  any  act  of  Union 
extinguishing  their  own  existence  and  betrajdng  the  trusts 
they  were  delegated  to  protect.  When  the  names  of  Saurin, 
Ponsonby,  Plunket,  Ball,  Bushe,  Curran,  Burrowes,  Fitz- 
gerald, A.  Moore,  etc.,  are  found  supporting  that  doctrine  by 
their  learning,  their  public  character,  and  their  legal  reputa- 
tion; and  such  men  as  Grattan,  Parsons,  Forbes,  Parnell, 
O'Hara,  etc.,  etc.,  united  with  Corry,  Clements,  Caulfield, 
Cole,  Kingsborough,  etc.,  and  the  flower  of  the  young  Irish 
nobles,  in  the  Commons  House  of  Parliament;  it  is  impos- 
sible not  to  accede  to  a  doctrine,  supported  by  every  principle 
of  law,  equity,  and  constitution. 

This  great  fact,  therefore  (and  the  irrefragible  authori- 
ties on  which  it  rests  are  repeated,  and  spread  over  many 
parts  of  this  history),  necessarily  produces  a  deduction  more 
intrinsically  important,  and  involving  more  grave  considera- 
tions, than  any  other  that  can  arise  upon  this  subject.  From 
these  principles  it  follows  as  a  corollary  that  the  Act  of 
Union  carried  by  such  means  was  in  itself  a  nullity,  and  a 
fraud  upon  the  then  existing  constitution;  and  if  a  nullity 
in  1800,  it  is  incontrovertible  that  nothing  afterwards  did, 
or  possibly  could,  validate  it  in  1833. 

No  temporary  assent,  or  in  this  case  submission,  could  be 
deduced  as  an  argument;  no  lapse  of  time,  unless  by  pro- 
scription (beyond  which  the  memory  of  man  runneth  not), 
can  ever  establish  any  Act  originally  illegal;  no  limitation 
through  lapse  of  time  can  bar  the  rights  and  claims  of  the 
crown;  there  is  no  limitation,  through  lapse  of  time,  to  the 
church;  no  limitation,  through  lapse  of  time,  can  bar  the 
chartered  rights  of  even  a  petty  corporation;  and  no  lapse 
of  time  can  legalize  any  act  hostile  to  the  rights  of  a  free 


504  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

people,  or  extinguish  tlie  legislature  of  an  independent  nation. 
In  that  point  of  view,  therefore,  no  legislative  union  ever  was 
constitutionally  enacted  between  the  two  countries. 

But  considering  that  question  in  another  jDoint  of  view,  it 
is  the  invariable  principle  of  all  international  law  that  the 
infraction  of  a  solemn  treaty,  on  the  one  side,  dispenses  with 
any  adherence  to  the  same  treaty  by  the  other,  of  course 
annuls  both,  and  leaves  the  contracting  parties  in  statu  quo, 
as  they  respectively  stood  before  the  treaty,  and  it  was  there- 
fore argued  by  those  able  men,  that  the  renunciation  act  of 
the  23d  George  III.,  "recognizing  the  unqualified  independ- 
ence of  Ireland,  and  expressly  stipulating  and  contracting 
that  it  should  endure  forever,"  was  the  very  essence,  and 
consideration  of  the  international  and  federative  treaty;  and 
through  its  infraction  by  England,  both  countries  stood  in  the 
very  same  state  as  at  the  period  when  England  repealed  her 
own  statute  of  George  I.,  and  admitted  its  unconstitutionality, 
and  her  own  usurpation,  Ireland,  of  course,  remained  in  the 
same  position  as  she  stood  at  that  period. 

From  all  these  considerations  it  inevitably  follows  that  if 
through  force,  or  fraud,  or  fear,  or  corruption,  in  enacting  it, 
the  Union  was  null,  then  any  act  of  the  Imperial  Parliament, 
repealing  the  Act  of  Union,  would  be  in  fact  only  repealing 
a  nullity,  and  restoring  to  Ireland  a  legislature  she  had  never 
been  constitutionally  deprived  of.  It  was  admitted  that,  had 
the  infraction  of  the  federative  treaty  been  the  act  of  Ire- 
land, then  this  reasoning  would  have  lost  its  validity ;  but  the 
contrary  is  direct  and  indisputable. 

These  arguments,  and  many  more,  were  used  both  in  and 
out  of  Parliament  to  arrest  the  progress  of  that  destructive 
and  faithless  measure,  but  in  vain;  however,  two  great  events, 
so  long  and  so  violently  resisted  for  more  than  a  century, 
have  lately  been  accomplished,  which  give  rise  to  constitu- 
tional questions,  and  have  materially  changed  the  state  both 
of  the  people  and  the  legislature,  roused  Ireland  from  her 
torpor,  and  brought  forward  claims  which  had  so  long  lain 
dormant.  And  it  is  by  the  late  measures  of  England  herself, 
that  the  Irish  people  have  been  led  to  consider  that  the  nation 
was  only  in  a  slumber,  and  her  legislature  only  in  abeyance. 

These  grave  and  embarrassing  points  of  constitutional 
law  were  by  various  speeches  and  pamphlets  combated  by 
Mr.  William  Smith,  who  lent  the  whole  power  of  his  able  and 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  605 

indefatigable  genius  to  i)rovc  the  omnipotence  of  Parliament, 
and  combat  all  the  reasoning  of  those  distinguished  men  who 
have  been  heretofore  alluded  to;  particularly  Mr.  Foster, 
against  whose  doctrine  he  wrote  a  long  and  labored  pamphlet. 

Baron  Smith's  ideas  and  reasoning  are  so  metaphysically 
plaited  and  interwoven  that  facts  are  lost  sight  of  in  the  mul- 
tiplicity and  minuteness  of  theories  and  distinctions,  and 
ordinary  auditors,  after  a  most  learned,  elo(j[uent,  and  argu- 
mentative charge  or  argument,  are  seldom  able  to  recollect 
a  single  sentence  of  either  (the  dogmas  excepted),  after  they 
are  out  of  the  Court  House.  In  all  his  arguments  as  to  the 
omnipotence  of  the  Irish  Parliament  to  surrender  its  legisla- 
ture, he  manufactures  his  theories,  as  if  the  Irish  Commons 
submitted  willingly  to  prostitutions,  and  argued  in  principle 
that  if  members  were  purchased  it  was  a  market"  overt,  and 
that  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  sale  merged  in  the  om- 
nipotent majority  of  the  purchaser. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  learned  Baron,  who  is  always 
able,  and  frequently  four  days  in  the  week  patriotic*  should  in 
1800  have  accepted  a  seat  on  the  bench  as  a  premium  for  his 
share  of  the  omnipotency.  The  English  people  would  have 
considered  the  Baron's  reasoning,  for  the  extinction  of  the 
Irish  Parliament,  in  a  very  different  point  of  view  if  it  had 
been  used  by  him  to  prove  the  expediency  of  removing  the 
British  Parliament  to  legislate  in  Dublin. 

A  very  remarkable  incident  during  the  first  night 's  debate 
occurred  in  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Luke  Fox  and  Mr.  Trench,  of 
Woodlawn,  afterwards  created  Lord  Ashtown.  These  were 
the  most  palpable,  nndisguised  acts  of  public  tergiversation 
and  seduction  ever  exhibited  in  a  popular  assembly.  They 
afterwards  became  the  subject  of  many  speeches  and  of  many 
publications;  and  their  consequences  turned  the  majority  of 
one  in  favor  of  the  Minister. 

It  was  suspected  that  Mr.  Trench  had  been  long  in  negotia- 
tion with  Lord  Castlereagh,  but  it  did  not  in  the  early  part 
of  that  night  appear  to  have  been  brought  to  any  conclusion, 
his  conditions  were  supposed  to  be  too  extravagant.  Mr. 
Trench,  after  some  preliminary  observations,  declared,  in  a 
speech,  that  he  would  vote  against  the  Minister  and  support 
Mr.  Ponsonby's  amendment.  This  appeared  a  stunning  blow 
to  Mr.  Cooke,  who  had  been  pre\^ously  in  conversation  with 
Mr.  Trench.    He  was  immediately  observed  sidling  from  his 


506  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

seat  nearer  to  Lord  Castlereagh.  They  whispered  earnestly, 
and,  as  if  restless  and  undecided,  both  looked  wistfully  to- 
wards Mr.  Trench.  At  length  the  matter  seemed  to  be  deter- 
mined upon.  Mr.  Cooke  retired  to  a  back  seat,  and  was 
obviously  endeavoring  to  count  the  house,  probably  to  guess 
if  they  could  that  night  dispense  with  Mr.  Trench's  services. 
He  returned  to  Lord  Castlereagh;  they  whispered,  again 
looked  most  affectionately  at  Mr.  Trench,  who  seemed  un- 
conscious that  he  was  the  subject  of  their  consideration.  But 
there  was  no  time  to  lose,  the  question  was  approaching,  all 
shame  was  banished,  they  decided  on  terms,  and  a  significant 
and  certain  glance,  obvious  to  everybody,  convinced  Mr. 
Trench  that  his  conditions  were  agreed  to.  Mr.  Cooke  then 
went  and  sat  down  by  his  side ;  an  earnest  but  very  short  con- 
versation took  place;  a  parting  smile  comjiletely  told  the 
house  that  Mr.  Trench  was  that  moment  satisfied.  These 
surmises  were  soon  verified.  Mr.  Cooke  went  back  to  Lord 
Castlereagh ;  a  congratulatory  nod  announced  his  satisfaction. 
But  could  any  man  for  one  moment  suppose  that  a  member 
of  Parliament,  a  man  of  very  large  fortune,  of  respectable 
family,  and  good  character,  could  be  publicly,  and  without 
shame  or  compunction,  actually  seduced  by  Lord  Castlereagh, 
in  the  very  body  of  the  house,  and  under  the  eye  of  two 
hundred  and  twenty  gentlemen?  Yet  this  was  the  fact.  In 
a  few  minutes  Mr.  Trench  rose  to  apologize  for  having  indis- 
creetly declared  he  would  support  the  amendment.  He  added 
that  he  had  thought  better  of  the  subject  since  he  had  un- 
guardedly expressed  himself;  that  he  had  been  convinced  he 
was  wrong,  and  would  support  the  Minister. 

Scarcely  was  there  a  member  of  any  party  who  was  not 
disgusted;  it  had,  however,  the  effect  intended  by  the  des- 
perate purchaser  of  proving  that  Ministers  would  stop  at 
nothing  to  effect  their  objects,  however  shameless  or  corrupt. 
This  purchase  of  Mr.  Trench  had  a  much  more  fatal  effect 
upon  the  destinies  of  Ireland.  His  change  of  sides,  and  the 
majority  of  one  to  which  it  contributed,  were  probably  the 
remote  causes  of  persevering  in  a  Union.  Mr.  Trench's 
venality  excited  indignation  in  every  friend  of  Ireland. 

Another  circumstance  that  night  proved  by  what  means 
Lord  Castlereagh 's  majority  of  even  one  was  acquired. 

The  Place  Bill,  so  long  and  so  pertinaciously  sought  for, 
and  so  indiscreetly  framed  by  Mr.  Grattan  and  the  Whigs  of 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  507 

Ireland,  now,  for  the  first  time,  proved  the  very  engine  by 
which  the  Minister  upset  the  opposition  and  annihilated  the 
Constitution. 

That  bill  enacted  that  members  accepting  offices,  places, 
or  pensions  during  tlio  pleasure  of  tlie  Crown,  should  not  sit 
in  Parliament  unless  re-elected;  but,  unfortunately,  the  bill 
made  no  distinction  between  valuable  offices  which  might  in- 
fluence, and  nominal  offices  which  might  job,  and  the  Chiltern 
Hundreds  of  England  were,  under  the  title  of  the  Escheator- 
ships  of  Munster,  Leinster,  Connaught,  etc.,  transferred  to 
Ireland,  with  salaries  of  forty  shillings,  to  be  used  at  pleasure 
by  the  Secretary.  Occasional  and  temporary  seats  w^ere  thus 
bartered  for  by  Government,  and  by  the  ensuing  session  made 
the  complete  and  fatal  instrument  of  packing  the  Parliament 
and  effecting  a  Union. 

Mr.  Luke  Fox,  a  barrister  of  very  humble  origin,  of  vulgar 
manners  and  of  a  coarse,  harsh  appearance,  was  endued  with 
a  clear,  strong,  and  acute  mind,  and  was  possessed  of  much 
cunning.  He  had  acquired  very  considerable  legal  informa- 
tion, and  was  an  obstinate  and  i^ersevering  advocate ;  he  had 
been  the  usher  of  a  school,  and  a  sizer  in  Dublin  University ; 
but  neither  politics  nor  belles-lettres  were  his  pursuit.  On 
acquiring  eminence  at  the  bar,  he  married  an  obscure  niece 
of  the  Earl  of  Ely's;  he  had  originally  professed  what  was 
called  whiggism,  merely,  as  i3eople  supposed,  because  his 
name  was  Fox.  His  progress  was  impeded  by  no  political 
principles,  but  he  kept  his  own  secrets  well,  and  being  a  man 
of  no  importance,  it  was  perfectly  indifferent  to  everybody 
what  side  he  took.  Lord  Ely,  perceiving  he  was  manageable, 
returned  him  to  Parliament  as  one  of  his  autocrats ;  and  Mr. 
Fox  played  his  part  very  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  his 
manager. 

When  the  Union  was  announced,  Lord  Ely  had  not  made 
his  terms,  and  remained  long  in  abeyance;  and  as  his  Lord- 
ship had  not  issued  his  orders  to  Mr.  Fox,  he  was  veiy  un- 
willing to  commit  himself  until  he  could  dive  deeper  into 
probabilities ;  but  rather  believing  the  opposition  would  have 
the  majority,  he  remained  in  the  body  of  the  House  with  the 
Anti-Unionists,  when  the  division  took  place.  The  doors  were 
scarcely  locked  when  he  became  alarmed  and  slunk,  unper- 
ceived,  into  one  of  the  dark  corridors,  where  he  concealed 
himself;  he  was,  however,  discovered  and  the  sergeant-at- 


508  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

arms  was  ordered  to  bring  him  forth  to  be  counted  amongst 
the  Anti-Unionists;  his  confusion  was  very  great,  and  he 
seemed  at  his  wit's  end;  at  length  he  declared  he  had  taken 
advantage  of  the  Place  Bill,  and  actually  accepted  the  Es- 
cheatorship  of  Munster,  and  had  thereby  vacated  his  seat  and 
could  not  vote. 

The  fact  was  doubted,  but,  after  much  discussion,  his 
excuse,  upon  his  honor,  was  admitted,  and  he  was  allowed  to 
return  into  the  corridor.  On  the  numbers  being  counted,  there 
was  a  majority  of  ONE  for  Lord  Castlereagh,  and,  exclusive 
of  Mr.  Trench's  conduct;  but  for  that  of  Mr.  Fox  the  num- 
bers would  have  been  equal;  the  measure  would  have  been 
negatived  by  the  Speaker's  vote,  and  the  renewal  of  it,  the 
next  day,  have  been  prevented;  this  would  have  been  a  most 
important  victory. 

The  mischief  of  the  Place  Bill  now  stared  its  framers  in 
the  face,  and  gave  the  Secretary  a  code  of  instruction  how 
to  arrange  a  Parliament  against  the  ensuing  session. 

To  render  the  circumstance  still  more  extraordinary  and 
unfortunate  for  Mr.  Fox's  reputation,  it  was  subsequently 
discovered,  by  the  public  records,  that  Mr.  Fox*s  assertion 
was  false ;  but  the  following  day  Lord  Castlereagh  purchased 
him  outright ;  and  then,  and  not  before,  appointed  him  to  the 
nominal  office  of  Escheator  of  Munster,  and  left  the  seat  of 
Lord  Ely  for  another  of  his  creatures.  This  is  mentioned  not 
only  as  one  of  the  most  reprehensible  public  acts  committed 
during  the  discussion,  but  because  it  was  the  primary  cause 
of  the  measure  being  persisted  in. 

The  exultations  of  the  public  on  this  disappointment  of  the 
Minister  knew  no  bounds;  they  reflected  not  that,  next  day, 
a  new  debate  must  endanger  their  ambiguous  triumph.  The 
national  character  of  the  Irish,  during  both  the  23rd  and 
24th,  displayed  itself  in  full  vigor. 

The  debate  upon  the  report  of  the  address,  and  the  per- 
tinacity which  urged  the  Government  to  a  second  combat, 
soon  roused  them  from  their  dream  of  security. 

Both  parties  now  stood  in  a  difficult  and  precarious  pre- 
dicament; the  Minister  had  not  time  to  gain  ground  by  the 
usual  practices  of  the  Secretary,  and  the  question  must  have 
been  either  totally  relinquished  or  again  discussed.  The 
opposition  were,  as  yet,  uncertain  how  far  the  last  debate 
might  cause  any  numerical  alteration  in  their  favor;    each 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  509 

party  calculated  on  a  small  majority,  and  it  was  considered 
that  a  defeat  would  be  equally  ruinous  to  either. 

It  was  supposed  that  the  Minister  would,  according  to  all 
former  precedent,  withdraw  from  his  situation,  if  left  in  a 
minority,  whilst  an  increased  majority,  however  small,  against 
the  Anti-Unionists,  might  give  plausible  grounds  for  future 
discussions. 

The  next  day  the  people  collected  in  vast  multitudes 
around  the  House;  a  strong  sensation  was  everywhere  per- 
ceptible; immense  numbers  of  ladies  of  distinction  crowded 
at  an  early  hour  into  the  galleries,  and  by  their  presence  and 
their  gestures  animated  that  patriotic  spirit  upon  the  prompt 
energy  of  which  alone  depended  the  fate  of  Ireland. 

Secret  messengers  were  dispatched  in  every  direction  to 
bring  in  loitering  or  reluctant  members ;  every  emissary  that 
Government  could  rely  upon  was  busily  emj^loyed  the  entire 
morning;  and  five  and  thirty  minutes  after  four  o'clock,  in 
the  afternoon  of  the  24th  of  January,  1799,  the  House  met 
to  decide,  by  the  adoption  or  rejection  of  the  Address,  the 
question  of  national  independence  or  annihilation.  Within 
the  corridors  of  the  House  a  shameless  and  unprecedented 
alacrity  appeared  among  the  friends  of  Government. 

Mr.  Cooke,  the  Under  Secretary,  who,  throughout  all  the 
subsequent  stages  of  the  question  was  the  private  and  efficient 
actuary  of  the  Parliamentary  seduction,  on  this  night  ex- 
ceeded even  himself,  both  in  his  }3ublic  and  private  exertions 
to  gain  over  the  wavering  members.  Admiral  Pakenham,  a 
naturally  friendly  and  good-hearted  gentleman,  that  night 
acted  like  the  captain  of  a  press-gang  and  actually  hauled  in 
some  of  the  members  who  were  desirous  of  retiring.  He  had 
declared  that  he  would  act  in  any  capacity,  according  to  the 
exigencies  of  his  party;  and  he  did  not  shrink  from  his  task. 

Mr.  Marshall,  of  the  Secretary's  office  (not  a  member), 
forgot  all  decorum  and  disgraced  the  cause  by  his  exploits 
about  the  entrances  to  the  House.  Others  acted  as  keepers  in 
the  coffee-room;  and  no  member  wlio  could  be  seduced,  in- 
timidated, or  deceived,  could  possilily  escape  the  nets  that 
were  extended  to  secure  him. 

Nor  did  the  leaders  of  opposition  remain  inactive;  but 
the  attendance  of  their  friends  being  voluntary,  was,  of 
course,  precarious.  The  exertions  of  Mr.  Bowes  Daly  and 
others  were,  however,  strenuous. 


510  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

At  length  a  hot  and  open  canvass,  by  the  friends  of  Gov- 
ernment, was  perceived,  wherever  an  uncertain  or  reluctant 
member  could  be  found,  or  his  connections  discovered. 

The  debate  commenced  about  seven  o'clock.  Silence  pre- 
vailed in  the  galleries,  but  an  indecent  confusion  and  noise 
ran  through  the  corridors,  and  frequently  excited  surprise  and 
alarm  at  its  continuance:  it  was  the  momentous  canvass:  it 
was  rude,  sometimes  boisterous,  and  altogether  unusual. 

The  Speaker  at  length  took  his  chair,  and  his  cry  of 
** Order!  order!"  obtained  a  profound  silence.  Dignified  and 
peremptory,  he  was  seldom  disobeyed;  and  a  chairman  more 
despotic,  from  his  wisdom  and  the  respect  and  affection  of  the 
members  of  every  side,  never  presided  over  a  popular 
assembly. 

When  prayers  commenced,  all  was  in  a  moment  gloomy 
and  decorous,  and  a  deep  solemnity  corresponded  with  the 
vital  importance  of  the  subject  they  were  to  determine. 

This  debate,  in  point  of  warmth,  much  exceeded  the  for- 
mer. Lord  Castlereagh  was  silent;  his  eye  ran  around  the 
assembly  as  if  to  ascertain  the  situation,  and  was  often  with- 
drawn with  a  look  of  uncertainty  and  disappointment.  The 
numbers  had  a  little  increased  since  the  last  division,  jorin- 
cipally  by  members  who  had  not  declared  themselves,  and  of 
whose  opinions  the  Secretary  was  ignorant. 

Lord  Castlereagh,  however,  wincing  under  his  negative 
castigation  of  the  former  evening,  had  now  determined  to  act 
on  the  offensive,  and  give,  by  his  example,  more  spirit  and 
zeal  to  his  followers  than  they  had  hitherto  exhibited.  It  was 
his  only  course,  and  though  inoperative,  it  was  ably  at- 
tempted. 

The  debate,  however,  had  hardly  commenced  when  he  was 
assailed  as  if  by  a  storm.  Several  members  rose  at  once  to 
tell  the  Secretary  their  opinions  of  his  merits;  a  personal 
hostility  appeared  palpable  between  the  parties ;  the  subject 
and  arguments  were  the  same  as  those  of  the  preceding  night, 
but  they  were  accompanied  much  more  by  individual  allu- 
sions. 

Sir  John  Parnell,  late  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  who 
had  been  dismissed  for  refusing  to  support  a  Union,  opened 
the  debate.  He  spoke  with  great  ability;  he  plainly  avowed 
his  opinion  that  it  was  a  revolutionary  change  of  the  Consti- 
tution which  the  Parliament  had  no  power  to  enact,  and  to 


In  the  Days  of  (1  rattan  oil 

which  the  King  could  not,  consistently  with  his  Coronation 
Oath,  give  the  royal  assent. 

,  Mr.  Tighe,  of  AVicklow,  followed  and  delivered  his  senti- 
ments against  the  measure  in  the  same  terms,  and  with  equal 
decision.  Mr.  George  Ponsonby  arose  to  move  an  amend- 
ment negativing  the  address  as  far  as  it  alluded  to  a  Union. 

When  Mr.  George  Ponsonby  was  roused  he  had  great 
debating  powers ;  on  minor  subjects  he  was  often  vapid,  but  on 
this  occasion  he  far  exceeded  himself  in  argument,  elocution, 
and  in  fortitude.  He  was  sincere;  his  blood  warmed;  he 
reasoned  with  a  force,  a  boldness,  and  with  an  absence  of  all 
reserve  which  he  never  before  had  so  energetically  exhibited. 
As  a  lawyer,  a  statesman,  and  a  loyal  Irish  subject,  he  denied 
that  either  the  Lords,  or  the  Commons,  or  the  King  of  Ire- 
land, had  the  power  of  passing  or  assenting  to  a  legislative 
Union.  He  avowed  his  opinion  that  the  measure  was  revolu- 
tionary, and  would  run  the  destructive  lengths  of  endangering 
the  compact  between  the  crown  and  the  subjects,  and  the 
connection  of  the  two  nations. 

It  is  scarcely  to  be  imagined  what  an  effect  such  a  speech, 
from  a"  calm,  discreet,  and  loyal  man,  a  constitutional  lawj^er, 
and  representative  of  a  high  aristocratic  family,  produced  in 
that  House.  It  was,  in  point  of  extent  and  powers,  unex- 
pected from  so  calm  a  character;  and  the  impression  therefore 
was  proportionately  greater. 

The  words,  as  he  spoke  them,  were  imbibed  by  every  man 
who  was  a  free  agent  in  Parliament.  In  the  course  of  his 
speech  he  assailed  Lord  Castlereagh  with  a  strength  and 
unreserved  severity  which  greatly  exceeded  the  usual  bounds 
of  his  philippics. 

Cool  and  deliberate  irony,  ten  times  more  piercing  than 
the  sharpest  satire,  flowed  from  his  lips  in  a  slow,  rolling 
flood  of  indignant  denunciation.  His  calm  language  never  for 
one  moment  yielded  to  his  warm  impressions;  and  it  was 
doubly  formidable  from  being  restrained  by  prudence,  and 
dictated  by  conviction. 

During  Mr.  Ponsonby 's  oration  a  very  impressive  scene 
was  exhibited  on  the  treasury  bench.  Lord  Castlereagh  had 
been  anticipated;  he  seemed  to  be  astounded;  he  moved  rest- 
lessly in  his  seat;  he  became  obviously  disconcerted,  whis- 
pered to  those  who  sat  near  him,  and  appeared  more  sensitive 
than  he  had  ever  been  on  any  public  occasion. 


512  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

As  Mr.  Ponsonby  advanced  the  Secretary  became  more 
affected;  occasionally  he  rose  to  interrupt;  and  when  Mr. 
Ponsonby  ceased  he  appeared  to  be  struggling  with  violent 
emotions;  but  he  was  unable  to  suppress  the  poignancy  of 
his  feelings,  and  he  writhed  under  the  castigation.  His  face 
flushed ;  his  eyes  kindled ;  and,  for  the  first  time  in  that  House, 
he  appeared  to  be  rising  into  a  high  state  of  agitation.  Mr. 
Ponsonby,  who  stood  directly  before  him,  formed  an  ad- 
mirable contrast;  not  a  feature  moved;  not  a  muscle  was 
disturbed;  his  small  grey  eyes,  riveted  upon  his  adversary, 
expressed  contemi:)t  and  superiority  more  eloquently  than  lan- 
guage; and  with  these  cool  and  scornful  glances,  which  are 
altogether  indescribable,  Mr.  Ponsonbj^,  unperturbed,  listened 
to  a  reply  which  raised  Lord  Castlereagh  in  the  estimation 
of  his  adherents. 

He  had  that  morning  decided  on  a  course  which  the  expe- 
rience of  the  former  evening  had  induced  him  to  think  might 
affect  the  debate  in  favor  of  the  Government.  He  had  re- 
solved to  act  on  the  offensive,  and,  by  an  extravagant  invective 
against  the  principles  of  the  Anti-Unionists,  to  blind  and 
detach  some  of  the  dullest  of  the  country  gentlemen  from 
a  party  which  he  intended  to  represent  as  an  anarchiar  fac- 
tion ;  and  by  holding  up  to  his  supporters  an  exemplary  con- 
tempt for  all  public  opinion,  diminish  the  effect  of  patriotic 
declamation,  from  the  powerful  effect  of  which  the  opponents 
of  a  Union  acquired  so  much  strength  and  importance.  On 
these  grounds  he  had  decided  to  act  boldly  himself,  and  to 
encourage  and  excite  a  simultaneous  attack  upon  the  prin- 
ciples and  conduct  of  the  leading  members  who  opposed  him. 

For  this  sj^ecies  of  conflict  the  youthful  Minister  was 
admirably  adapted.  He  had  sufficient  firmness  to  advance, 
and  sufficient  pertinacity  to  persist  in  any  assertion.  Never 
had  he  more  occasion  to  exert  all  his  powers;  nor  did  he  fail 
in  his  efforts.  He  had  no  qualms  or  compunction  to  arrest  his 
progress.  In  his  reply  there  was  no  assertion  he  did  not  risk, 
no  circumstance  he  did  not  vouch  for,  no  aspersion  he  did 
not  cast,  and  he  even  went  lengths  which  he  afterwards  re- 
pented. To  the  bar  he  applied  the  term  ** pettifoggers " ;  to 
the  opposition,  ''cabal— combinators— desperate  faction"; 
and  to  the  nation  itself,  "barbarism— ignorance,"  and  "in- 
sensibility to  protection  and  paternal  regards  she  had  ever 
experienced  from  the  British  nation."    His  speech  was  severe 


In  thr  Days  of  CIrattan  513 

beyond  anything  lie  had  ever  uttered  within  the  walls  of  Par- 
liament, and  far  exceeded  the  i)Owers  he  was  supposed  to 
possess.  He  raked  up  every  act  of  Mr.  Ponsonby's  political 
career,  and  handled  it  with  a  masterly  severity;  but  it  was 
in  the  tone  and  in  the  manner  of  an  angry  gentleman.  He  had 
flown  at  the  highest  game,  and  his  opponent  (never  off  his 
guard)  attended  to  his  Lordship  with  a  contemptuous  and 
imperturbable  placidity  which  frequently  gave  Mr.  Ponsonby 
a  great  advantage  over  warmer  debaters.  On  this  occasion 
he  seemed  not  at  all  to  feel  the  language  of  Lord  Castlereagh; 
he  knew  that  he  had  provoked  it,  and  he  saw  that  he  had 
spoken  effectually  by  the  irritation  of  his  opponent. 

Lord  Castlereagh  was  greatly  exhausted,  and  Mr.  Pon- 
sonby, turning  round,  audibly  observed,  with  a  frigid  smile, 
and  an  air  of  utter  indifference— *' the  ravings  of  an  irritated 
youth— it  was  natural." 

This  was  one  of  the  most  important  personal  conflicts  dur- 
ing the  discussions  of  the  Union,  and  it  had  a  very  powerful 
effect,  at  least,  on  the  sjiirit  of  his  Lordship's  followers. 
Truth  was  unimportant  to  him;  on  personal  attacks,  his  mis- 
representation might  honorably  be  retracted  at  convenient 
opportunities.  He  had  no  public  character  to  forfeit;  and  a 
majority  of  his  supporters  were  similarly  circumstanced. 
Prompt  personal  hostility,  therefore,  was  the  line  he  had  that 
morning  decided  on;  and  it  was  the  most  politic  step  a  min- 
ister so  desperately  circumstanced  could  adopt.  When  vicious 
measures  are  irrevocably  adopted,  obtrusive  compunction 
must  instantly  be  banished.  He  determined  to  reject  every 
consideration  but  that  of  increasing  his  majority ;  but  he  was 
routed  by  the  very  course  he  had  calculated  on  to  ensure  a 
victory.  The  foresight  of  Mr.  Ponsonby  had  penetrated 
through  his  policy,  and  showed  him  that,  to  counteract  the 
enemy,  he  should  become  the  assailant,  seize  the  very  position 
his  adversary  had  selected  and  anticipate  the  very  line  on 
which  he  had  determined  to  try  the  battle.  This  line  Mr. 
Ponsonby  had  acted  upon,  and  in  this  he  had  succeeded. 

The  discussion  proceeded  with  extraordinary  asperity; 
but  the  influence  of  the  Speaker,  with  a  few  exceptions,  pre- 
served the  members  in  tolerable  order;  it  was  often  difficult 
to  determine  which  side  transgressed  the  most.  Mr.  Arthur 
Moore  on  this  night  took  a  decided  part;  and  Mr.  Egan 
trampled  down  the  metaphorical  sophistries  of  Mr.  William 


514  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Smith  as  to  the  competence  of  Parliament ;  such  reasoning  he 
called  rubbish,  and  such  reasoners  were  scavengers;  like  a 
dray  horse  he  galloped  over  all  his  opponents,  plunging  and 
kicking,  and  overthrowing  all  before  him.  No  member  on  that 
night  pronounced  a  more  sincere,  clumsy,  powerful  oration 
—of  matter  he  had  abundance— of  language  he  made  no  selec- 
tion; and  he  was  aptly  compared  to  the  Trojan  horse,  sound- 
ing as  if  he  had  armed  men  within  him. 

Never  was  there  a  more  unfortunate  quotation  for  the 
Government  than  one  made  by  Mr.  Serjeant  Stanly  from 
Judge  Blackstone. 

The  dictum  of  a  puisne  Judge,  in  a  British  court  of  law, 
was  cited  to  influence  the  opinion  of  300  members  in  the  Irish 
Parliament  on  the  subject  of  their  own  annihilation. 

The  debate  continued  with  undiminished  animation  and 
hostility  until  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  24th,  when 
Sir  Laurence  Parsons  (Lord  Rosse)  supported  Mr.  Ponsonby 
in  a  speech  luminous,  and  in  some  parts  almost  sublime.  He 
had  caught  the  flame  which  his  colleague  had  but  kindled, 
and  blazed  with  eloquence  of  which  he  had  shown  but  few 
examples.    The  impression  was  powerful. 

Mr.  Frederick  Falkiner,  member  for  Dublin  County,  who 
immediately  followed,  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in- 
stances of  inflexible  public  integrity  in  Ireland;  he  would  have 
been  a  valuable  acquisition  to  the  Government,  but  nothing 
could  corrupt  him.  Week  after  week  he  was  ineffectually 
tempted,  through  his  friends,  by  a  peerage  or  aught  he  might 
desire;  he  replied,  "I  am  poor,  'tis  true;  but  no  human  power, 
no  reward,  no  torture,  no  elevation,  shall  ever  tempt  me  to 
betray  my  country;  never  mention  to  me  again  so  infamous 
a  proposal."  He  was,  however,  afterwards  treated  ungrate- 
fully by  the  very  constituents  whom  he  had  obeyed,  and  died 
a  victim  to  poverty  and  patriotism. 

Mr.  James  Fitzgerald  had  been  dismissed  from  the  office 
of  Prime  Serjeant,  the  highest  at  the  bar,  for  refusing  to 
relinquish  his  independence.  He  scorned  to  retain  it  under 
circumstances  of  dishonor,  and  on  this  night  spoke  at  great 
length  and  with  a  train  of  reasoning  which  must  have  been 
decisive  in  an  uncorrupted  assembly;  he  refused  every  offer, 
and  never  returned  to  any  office. 

Colonel  Maxwell  (Lord  Farnham),  Mr.  Lee  (Waterford), 
;Mr.  Barrington,  Judge  of  the  High  Court  of  Admiralty,  and 


In  the  Day8  of  Grattan  515 

many  otliers  pressed  forward  to  deliver  tlieir  sentiinents 
against  so  fatal  a  project.  Every  moment  the  debate  grew 
warmer,  and  the  determination  to  oppose  it  became  more 
obvious,  the  members  of  Government  were  staggered,  the 
storm  increased,  but  Lord  Castlereagh  was  calm ;  he  rose  and 
spoke  with  a  confident  assurance  peculiar  to  himself,  and  par- 
ticularly disavowed  all  corruj^tion,  though  he  had  dismissed 
every  man  who  would  not  promise  to  support  him,  and  had 
nearly  seventy  subsei'vient  placemen  at  that  moment  at  his 
side. 

At  length  Mr.  Plunket  arose  and,  in  the  ablest  speech  ever 
heard  by  any  member  in  that  Parliament,  went  at  once  to  the 
grand  and  decisive  point,  the  incompetence  of  Parliament; 
he  could  go  no  further  on  principle  than  Mr.  Ponsonby,  but 
his  language  was  irresistible,  and  he  left  nothing  to  be  urged. 
It  was  perfect  in  eloquence,  and  unanswerable  in  reasoning. 
Its  effect  was  indescribable;  and,  for  the  first  time,  Lord 
Castlereagh,  whom  he  personally  assailed,  seemed  to  shrink 
from  the  encounter.  That  speech  was  of  great  weight,  and  it 
proved  the  eloquence,  the  sincerity,  and  the  fortitude  of  the 
speaker. 

But  a  short  speech  on  that  night,  which  gave  a  new  sensa- 
tion and  excited  novel  observations,  was  a  maiden  speech  by 
Colonel  O'Donnell  of  Mayo  County,  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  Neil 
O'Donnell,  a  man  of  very  large  fortune  in  that  county;  lie 
was  colonel  of  the  Mayo  regiment.  He  was  a  brave  officer,  and 
a  well-bred  gentleman;  and  in  all  the  situations  of  life  he 
showed  excellent  qualities.  On  this  night,  roused  by  Lord 
Castlereagh 's  invectives,  he  could  not  contain  his  indignation; 
and  by  anticipation  '^  disclaimed  all  future  allegiance,  if  a 
Union  were  effected;  he  held  it  as  a  vicious  revolution,  and 
avowed  that  he  would  take  the  field  at  the  head  of  his  regi- 
ment to  oppose  its  execution,  and  would  resist  rebels  in  rich 
clothes  as  he  had  done  the  rebels  in  rags."  And  for  his 
speech  in  Parliament  he  was  dismissed  from  his  regiment 
without  further  notice. 

As  a  contrast  to  the  language  of  Colonel  O'Donnell,  it 
is  curious  to  observe  the  new  exhibition  of  ^fr.  Trench,  of 
WoodlaAvn,  He  was  not  satisfied  with  the  disgusting  exhibi- 
tion of  the  preceding  night,  but  again  introduced  himself  to  a 
notice  which  common  modesty  would  have  avoided.  He  now 
entered  into  a  defence  of  his  fonner  tergiversation,  and,  most 


516  Ireland's  Crowx  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

unfortunate  for  himself,  contradicted  distinctly  the  substance 
of  both  his  former  speeches.  He  thus  solved  all  the  doubts 
which  might  have  arisen  as  to  his  former  conduct,  closed  the 
mouth  of  every  friend  from  any  possibility  of  defending  him, 
and  delivered  himself,  without  reserve,  into  the  hands  of  his 
seducers.  He  said  '  *  he  had,  since  the  night  before,  been  fully 
convinced  of  the  advantages  of  a  Union,  and  would  certainly 
support  it."  The  Irish  Peerage  was  soon  honored  by  his 
addition,  as  Lord  Ashtown. 

After  the  most  stormy  debate  remembered  in  the  Irish 
Parliament  the  question  was  loudly  called  for  by  the  Oppo- 
sition, who  were  now  tolerably  secure  of  a  majority;  never 
did  so  much  solicitude  appear  in  any  public  assembly;  at 
length  above  sixty  members  had  spoken,  the  subject  was  ex- 
hausted, and  all  parties  seemed  impatient.  The  House  di- 
vided, and  the  Opposition  withdrew  to  the  Court  of  Requests. 
It  is  not  easy  to  conceive,  still  less  to  describe,  the  anxiety  of 
that  moment ;  a  considerable  delay  took  place.  Mr.  Ponsonby 
and  Sir  Laurence  Parsons  were  at  length  named  tellers  for 
the  amendment;  Mr.  W.  Smith  and  Lord  Tyrone  for  the 
address.  One  hundred  and  eleven  members  had  declared 
against  the  Union,  and  when  the  doors  were  opened  one  hun- 
dred and  five  were  discovered  to  be  the  total  number  of  the 
Minister's  adherents.  The  gratification  of  the  Anti-Unionists 
was  unbounded;  and  as  they  walked  deliberately  in,  one  by 
one,  to  be  counted,  the  eager  expectators,  ladies  as  well  as 
gentlemen,  leaning  over  the  galleries,  ignorant  of  the  result, 
were  panting  with  expectation.  Lady  Castlereagh,  then  one 
of  the  finest  women  of  the  Court,  appeared  in  the  sergeant 's 
box,  palpitating  for  her  husband's  fate.  The  desponding  ap- 
pearance and  fallen  crests  of  the  Ministerial  benches,  and  the 
exulting  air  of  the  opposition  members  as  they  entered,  were 
intelligible.  The  murmurs  of  suppressed  anxiety  would  have 
excited  an  interest  even  in  the  most  unconnected  stranger  who 
had  known  the  objects  and  importance  of  the  contest.  How 
much  more,  therefore,  must  every  Irish  breast  which  panted 
in  the  galleries  have  experienced  that  thrilling  enthusiasm 
which  accompanies  the  achievement  of  patriotic  actions,  when 
the  Minister's  defeat  was  announced  from  the  chair!  A  due 
sense  of  respect  and  decorum  restrained  the  galleries  within 
proper  bounds ;  but  a  low  cry  of  satisfaction  from  the  female 
audience  could  not  be  prevented,  and  no  sooner  was  the  event 


In  the  Days  of  Gkattan  517 

made  known  out  of  doors  than  the  crowds  that  liad  waited 
during  the  entire  night,  with  increasing  iini)atience  for  the 
vote  which  was  to  decide  upon  the  independence  of  their 
country,  sent  forth  loud  and  reiterated  shouts  of  exultation 
which,  resounding  through  the  corridors  and  penetrating  to 
the  body  of  the  House,  added  to  the  triumj^h  of  the  con- 
querors, and  to  the  misery  of  the  adherents  of  the  conquered 
Minister. 

The  members  assembled  in  the  lobby  were  preparing  to 
separate  when  Mr.  Ponsonby  requested  they  would  return  into 
the  House  and  continue  a  very  few  minutes,  as  he  had  business 
of  the  utmost  importance  for  their  consideration;  this  pro- 
duced a  profound  silence ;  Mr.  Ponsonby  then,  in  a  few  words, 
''congratulated  the  House  and  the  country  on  the  honest  and 
patriotic  assertion  of  their  liberties ;  but  declared  that  he  con- 
sidered there  would  be  no  security  against  future  attempts  to 
overthrow  their  independence,  but  by  a  direct  and  absolute 
declaration  of  the  rights  of  Irishmen,  recorded  upon  their 
journals  as  the  decided  sense  of  the  people,  through  their 
Parliament;  and  he,  therefore,  without  further  preface, 
moved  ''That  this  House  will  ever  maintain  the  undoubted 
birthright  of  Irishmen,  by  preserving  an  independent  Parlia- 
ment of  Lords  and  Commons  resident  in  this  Kingdom,  as 
stated  and  approved  by  his  Majesty  and  the  British  Parlia- 
ment in  1782." 

Lord  Castlereagh,  conceiving  that  further  resistance  was 
unavailing,  only  said  ' '  that  he  considered  such  a  motion  of  the 
most  dangerous  tendency ;  however,  if  the  House  were  deter- 
mined on  it,  he  begged  to  declare  his  entire  dissent,  and  on 
their  own  heads  be  the  consequences  of  so  wrong  and  incon- 
siderate a  measure."  No  further  opposition  was  made  by 
the  Government,  and  the  Speaker  putting  the  question,  a  loud 
cry  of  approbation  followed,  with  but  two  negatives,  those 
of  Lord  Castlereagh  and  Mr.  Toler  (Lord  Xorbury) ;  the 
motion  was  carried,  and  the  members  were  rising  to  withdraw 
when  the  Speaker,  wishing  to  be  strictly  correct,  called  to  Mr. 
Ponsonby  to  write  down  his  motion  accurately;  he,  accord- 
ingly, walked  to  the  table  to  write  it  down.  This  delay  of  a 
few  moments,  unimportant  as  it  might  seem  in  the  common 
course  of  human  occurrences,  was  an  incident  which  ulti- 
mately deranged  the  constitution  of  an  empire  and  annihilated 
the  legislature  of  an  independent  nation;  a  single  moment, 


518  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  most  critical  that  ever  occurred  in  history ;  and  of  all  the 
events  of  Ireland,  the  most  fatal  and  irretrievable. 

This  may  teach  posterity  that  the  destinies  of  nations  are 
governed  by  the  same  chances,  subject  to  the  same  fatalities, 
and  affected  by  the  same  misfortunes  as  those  of  the  humblest 
individual. 

Whilst  Mr.  Ponsonby  was  writing  his  motion,  every  mem- 
ber, in  profound  silence,  was  observing  the  sensations  of  the 
opposite  party,  and  conjecturing  the  feelings  and  anticipating 
the  conduct  of  their  adversaries. 

This  motion  involved,  in  one  sentence,  everything  which 
was  sought  after  by  the  one  party  and  dreaded  by  the  other ; 
its  adoption  must  have  ruined  the  Minister  and  dismissed  the 
Irish  Government.  The  Treasury  Bench  held  a  mournful 
silence,  the  Attorney  General,  Mr.  Toler,  alone  appeared  to 
bear  his  impending  misfortune  with  a  portion  of  that  ease 
and  playfulness  which  never  forsook  him. 

On  Mr.  Ponsonby 's  handing  up  his  motion,  he  stood  firm 
and  collected  and  looked  around  him  with  the  honest  con- 
fidence of  a  man  who  had  performed  his  duty  and  saved  his 
country;  the  silence  of  death  prevailed  in  the  galleries,  and 
the  whole  assembly  displayed  a  spectacle  as  solemn  and  im- 
portant as  any  country  or  any  era  had  ever  exhibited. 

The  Speaker  repeated  the  question— ''the  ayes"  burst 
forth  into  a  loud  peal,  the  gallery  was  in  immediate  motion,  all 
was  congratulation.  On  the  question  being  put  the  second 
time  (as  was  usual),  a  still  louder  and  more  reiterated  cry 
of  ''aye,  aye,"  resounded  from  every  quarter;  only  the  same 
two  negatives  were  heard,  feebly,  from  the  ministerial  side; 
Government  had  given  up  the  contest,  and  the  independence 
of  Ireland  was  on  the  very  verge  of  permanent  security,  when 
Mr.  "William  Charles  Fortescue,  member  for  Louth  County, 
requested  to  be  heard  before  the  final  decision  was  announced. 

He  said  "that  he  was  adverse  to  the  measure  of  a  legisla- 
tive Union,  and  had  given  his  decided  vote  against  it,  but  he 
did  not  wish  to  bind  himself  forever;  possible  circumstances 
might  hereafter  occur  which  might  tender  that  measure  ex- 
pedient for  the  empire,  and  he  did  not  approve  of  any  determi- 
nation which  forever  closed  the  doors  against  any  possibility 
of  future  discussion." 

The  opposition  were  paralyzed,  the  Government  were 
roused,  a  single  sentence  plausibly  conceived,  and  (without 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  519 

reflecting  on  its  destructive  consequence)  moderately  uttered, 
by  a  respectable  man  and  an  avowed  Anti-Unionist,  eventually 
decided  the  fate  of  the  Irish  nation.  It  offered  a  pretext  for 
timidity,  a  precedent  for  caution,  and  a  subterfuge  for  waver- 
ing venality. 

Mr.  French,  of  Roscommon,  a  country  gentleman  of  high 
character,  and  Lord  Cole,  a  young  nobleman  of  an  honest, 
inconsiderate  mind  who  had,  on  the  last  division,  voted  sin- 
cerely against  the  Minister,  now,  without  a  moment's,  reflec- 
tion on  the  ruin  which  must  necessarily  attend,  every  diversity 
of  sentiment  in  a  party  associated  by  only  one  tie,  and  bound 
together  only  upon  one  subject,  declared  themselves  of  Mr. 
Fortescue's  opinion.  Mr.  John  Cladius  Beresford,  who  had 
only  been  restrained  from  adhesion  to  the  Clare  connection 
by  being  representative  of  the  metropolis,  avowed  himself  of 
the  same  determination ;  and  thus  that  constitutional  security 
which  a  direct  and  peremptory  declaration  of  indefeasible 
rights,  one  moment  before,  was  on  the  point  of  permanently 
establishing  was,  by  the  inconsiderate  and  temporizing  words 
of  one  feeble-minded  member,  lost  forever.  It  is  impossible  to 
express  the  surprise  and  disappointment  of  the  Anti-Union- 
ists. 

To  be  defeated  by  the  effort  of  an  enemy  was  to  be  borne, 
but  to  fall  by  the  secession  of  a  friend  was  insupportable. 
The  narrow  jealousies  and  unconnected  materials  of  the  Anti- 
Unionists  were  no  longer  to  be  concealed,  either  from  friends 
or  enemies.  Mr.  Ponsonby  felt  the  critical  situation  of  the 
country,  the  opposition  had  but  a  majority  of  five  on  the  first 
division;  three  seceders  would  have  given  a  majority  for 
Government,  and  a  division  could  not  be  risked. 

Mr.  Ponsonby 's  presence  of  mind  instantly  suggested  the 
only  remaining  alternative.  He  lamented  "that  the  smallest 
contrariety  of  opinion  should  have  arisen  amongst  men  who 
ought  to  be  united  by  the  most  powerful  of  all  inducements, 
the  salvation  of  their  independence.  He  perceived,  however, 
a  wish  that  he  should  not  press  the  motion,  founded,  he  sup- 
posed, on  a  mistaken  confidence  in  the  engagements  of  the 
Noble  Lord  (Castlereagh),  that  he  would  not  again  bring 
forward  that  ruinous  measure  without  the  decided  approba- 
tion of  the  people,  and  of  the  Parliament.  Though  he  must 
doubt  the  sincerity  of  the  Minister's  engagements,  he  could 
not  hesitate  to  acquiesce  in  the  wishes  of  his  friends,  and  he 
would  therefore  withdraw  his  motion." 


520  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

The  sudden  transition  from  exultation  to  despondency 
became  instantly  apparent  by  the  dead  silence  which  followed 
Mr.  Ponsonby's  declaration;  the  change  was  so  rapid  and  so 
unexpected  that  from  the  galleries,  which  a  moment  before 
were  full  of  congratulation  and  of  pleasure,  not  a  single  word 
was  heard.  Crestfallen  and  humbled,  many  instantly  with- 
drew from  the  scene,  and  though  the  people  without  knew  of 
nothing  but  their  victory,  the  retreat  was  a  subject  of  the  most 
serious  solicitude  to  every  friend  of  Irish  independence. 

Such  an  advantage  could  not  escape  the  anxious  eye  of 
Government;  chagrin  and  disappointment  had  changed  sides, 
and  the  friends  of  the  Union  who  a  moment  before  had  con- 
sidered their  measure  as  nearly  extinguished  rose  upon  their 
success,  retorted  in  their  turn,  and  opposed  its  being  with- 
drawn. It  was,  however,  too  tender  a  ground  for  either  party 
to  insist  upon  a  division ;  a  debate  was  equally  to  be  avoided, 
and  the  motion  was  suffered  to  be  withdrawn.  Sir  Henry 
Cavendish  keenly  and  sarcastically  remarked  that  "it  was  a 
retreat  after  a  victory."  After  a  day's  and  a  night's  debate, 
without  intermission,  the  House  adjourned  at  eleven  o'clock 
the  ensuing  morning. 

Upon  the  rising  of  the  House,  the  populace  became 
tumultuous  and  a  violent  disposition  against  those  who  had 
supported  the  Union  was  manifest,  not  only  amongst  the 
common  people,  but  amongst  those  of  a  much  higher  class, 
who  had  been  mingling  with  them. 

On  the  Speaker's  coming  out  of  the  House,  the  horses 
were  taken  from  his  carriage  and  he  was  drawn  in  triumph 
through  the  streets  by  the  people,  who  conceived  the  whimsical 
idea  of  tackling  the  Lord  Chancellor  to  the  coach  and  (as  a 
captive  general  in  a  Roman  triumph)  forcing  him  to  tug  at 
the  chariot  of  his  conqueror. 

Had  it  been  effected,  it  would  have  been  a  signal  anecdote, 
and  would,  at  least,  have  immortalized  the  classic  genius  of 
the  Irish. 

The  populace  closely  pursued  his  Lordship  for  that  ex- 
traordinary purpose;  he  escaped  with  great  difficulty  and 
fled,  with  pistol  in  hand,  to  a  receding  doorway  in  Clarendon 
street.  But  the  people,  who  pursued  him  in  sport,  set  up  a 
loud  laugh  at  him  as  he  stood  terrified  against  the  door ;  they 
offered  him  no  personal  violence,  and  returned  in  high  glee 
to  their  own  innocent  amusement  of  drawing  the  Speaker. 


In  the  Day8  of  Grattan  521 

A  scene  of  joy  and  uiumph  appeared  universal,  every 
countenance  had  a  smile,  throughout  all  ranks  and  classes  of 
the  people  men  shook  their  neighbors  heartily  by  the  hand, 
as  if  the  J^linister's  defeat  was  an  event  of  individual  good 
fortune.     The  mob  seemed  as  well  disposed  to  joy  as  mis- 
chief, and  that  was  saying  much  for  a  Dublin  assemblage. 
But  a  view  of  their  enemies,  as  they  came  skulking  from 
behind  the  corridors,  occasionally  roused  them  to  no  very 
tranquil  temperature.    Some  members  had  to  try  their  speed, 
and  others  their  intrepidity.    Mr.  Richard  Martin,  unable  to 
get  clear,  turned  on  his  hunters  and  boldly  faced  a  mob  of 
many  thousands,  with  a  small  pocket  pistol  in  his  hand.    He 
swore  most  vehemently  that,  if  they  advanced  six  inches  on 
him,  he  would  shoot  ''every  mother's  babe  of  them  as  dead  as 
that  paving  stone"  (kicking  one).    The  united  spirit  and  fun 
of  his  declaration,  and  his  little  pocket  pistol  aimed  at  ten 
thousand  men,  women  and  children,  were  so  entirely  to  the 
taste  of  our  Irish  populace  that  all  symptoms  of  hostility 
ceased ;  they  gave  him  three  cheers,  and  he  regained  his  home 
without  further  molestation. 

Mr.  O'Driscol,  a  gentleman  of  the  Irish  Bar,  one  of  the 
most  sincere  and  active  Anti-Unionists,  used  great  and  suc- 
cessful efforts  to  tranquilize  the  people ;  and  to  his  persua- 
sions was  chiefly  attributed  their  peaceable  dispersion.  In 
one  particular  instance,  he  certainly  prevented  a  most 
atrocious  mischief,  if  not  a  great  crime,  by  his  prompt  and 
spirited  interference. 

The  House  of  Lords  met  on  the  22nd  of  January,  1799, 
the  same  day  as  the  Commons,  to  receive  the  speech  of  the 
Viceroy.  Though  the  nation  was  not  unprepared  for  any 
instance  of  its  subserviency,  some  patriotic  spirits  might 
reasonably  have  been  expected  on  so  momentous  a  subject 
as  the  Union.    In  this  expectation,  however,  it  was  but  feebly 

gratified. 

Never  did  a  body  of  hereditary  nobles,  many  of  ancient 
family,  and  several  of  splendid  fortune,  so  disgrace  their 
ancestry. 

After  an  ineffectual  resistance  by  some,  whose  integrity 
Was  invincible,  the  Irish  Lords  recorded  their  own  humilia- 
tion, and,  in  a  state  of  absolute  infatuation,  perpetrated  the 
most  extraordinary  act  of  legislative  suicide  which  ever 
stained  the  records  of  a  nation. 


522  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

The  reply  of  tlie  Irish  Lords  to  the  speech  of  the  British 
Viceroy  coincided  in  his  recommendation  and  virtually  con- 
sented to  prostrate  themselves  and  their  posterity  forever. 
The  prerogatives  of  rank,  the  pride  of  ancestry,  the  glory  of 
the  peerage,  and  the  rights  of  the  country  were  equally 
sacrificed. 

The  facility  with  which  the  Irish  Lords  re-echoed  their 
sentence  of  extinction  was  quite  unexampled. 

That  stultified  facility  can  only  be  elucidated  by  taking  a 
brief  statistical  view  of  what  was  once  considered  an  august 
assembly,  but  which  the  overbearing  influence  of  the  absolute 
and  vindictive  Chancellor  had  for  some  years  reduced  to  a 
mere  instrument  of  his  ambition. 

In  the  hands  of  the  Chancellor,  Lord  Clare,  the  House  was 
powerless;  it  was  his  mere  automaton  or  puppet,  which  he 
coerced  or  humored  according  to  his  ambition  or  caprice. 

There  were,  however,  amongst  the  Irish  nobility  a  few 
men  of  spirit,  pride,  talent,  and  integrity ;  but  they  were  too 
few  for  resistance. 

The  education  of  the  Irish  noblemen  of  that  day  was  little 
calculated  for  debate  or  Parliamentary  duties ;  they  very  sel- 
dom took  any  active  part  in  Parliamentary  discussions,  and 
more  rarely  attained  to  that  confidence  in  public  speaking 
without  which  no  effect  can  be  produced.  They  could  argue, 
or  might  declaim,  but  were  unequal  to  what  is  termed  debate ; 
and  being  confirmed  in  their  torpidity  by  an  habitual  absti- 
nence from  Parliamentary  discussions,  when  the  day  of  dan- 
ger came  they  were  unequal  to  the  contest. 

The  Bishop  of  Down  was  a  prelate  of  the  most  faultless 
character ;  the  extreme  beauty  of  his  countenance,  the  gentle- 
ness of  his  manners,  and  the  patriarchal  dignity  of  his  figure 
rendered  him  one  of  the  most  interesting  persons  in  society. 

His  talents  were  considerable,  but  they  were  neutralized 
by  his  modesty;  and  he  seldom  could  be  prevailed  upon  to 
rise  in  the  House  of  Peers  upon  political  subjects.  On  this 
night,  however,  stung  to  the  quick  by  the  invectives,  and  in- 
dignant at  the  designs  of  the  Chancellor,  he  made  a  reply  to 
him  of  which  he  was  supposed  incapable.  Severity  from  the 
Bishop  of  Down  was  likewise  so  unusual  that  the  few  sen- 
tences he  pronounced  stunned  the  champion  more  than  all  the 
speeches  of  his  more  disciplined  opponents. 

Nothing,  however,  could  overcome  the  influence  of  Lord 
Clare.    The  Irish  Lords  lay  prostrate  before  the  Government, 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  523 

but  the  leaders  were  not  inattentive  to  their  own  interests. 
The  defeat  of  the  Government  in  the  Commons  gave  them  an 
importance  they  had  not  expected. 

The  debates  and  conduct  of  the  Irish  peers  bear  a  com- 
paratively unimportant  share  in  the  transactions  of  that 
epoch,  and  have  but  little  interest  in  the  memoirs  of  those 
times ;  but  the  accounts  of  Lord  Annesley,  etc.,  record  their 
corruption. 

It  is  not  the  object,  therefore,  of  these  anecdotes  to  dilate 
more  upon  the  proceedings  of  that  degraded  assembly  than 
incidentally  to  introduce,  as  epistles,  their  individual  actions, 
and  to  state  that  a  great  proportion  of  the  million  and  a  half 
levied  upon  Ireland,  and  distributed  by  Lord  Castlereagh's 
Commissioners  of  Compensation,  went  into  the  pockets  of  the 
Lords  Spiritual  and  Temporal  of  Ireland. 

From  the  hour  that  Mr.  Ponsonby's  motion  was  with- 
drawn. Government  gained  strength,  the  standard  of  vision- 
ary honors  and  of  corrupt  emoluments  was  raised  for  recruits, 
a  congratulatory,  instead  of  a  consolatory  dispatch,  had  been 
instantly  forwarded  to  Mr.  Pitt,  and  another  to  the  Duke 
of  Portland ;  and  it  was  not  difficult  to  foresee  that  the  result 
of  that  night,  though  apparently  a  victory  over  the  proposi- 
tion for  a  Union,  afforded  so  strong  a  point  for  the  Minister 
in  the  subsequent  negotiations,  by  which  he  had  determined 
to  achieve  his  measure.  The  arguments  and  divisions  on 
succeeding  debates  proved,  beyond  the  possibility  of  question, 
the  overwhelming  advantage  which  Mr.  Fortescue's  precedent 
had  given  to  those  who  were  determined  to  dispose  of  their 
consistency  under  color  of  their  moderation. 

The  bad  consequences  which  were  likely  to  result  from 
this  event  did  not  at  first  occur  to  any  of  the  Opposition. 
Some  of  the  leading  members  of  that  party,  highly  elated  at 
the  success  of  the  last  division,  could  see  nothing  but  the  pros- 
pect of  an  increasing  majority  and  an  ultimate  triumph ;  these 
were  numerous  but  short-sighted.  Others  regarded,  with  a 
wise  solicitude,  the  palpable  want  of  political  connection  in 
the  party  that  opposed  the  Minister.  However,  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  who  had  so  confidently  pressed  forward  a  measure 
which  Parliament  had  decidedly  rejected,  and  the  public  uni- 
versally reprobated,  found  his  situation  the  most  difficult 
imaginable.  He  had  no  just  reason  to  expect  support  in  minor 
measures,  who  had  proved  himself  utterly  unworthy  of  the 


524  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

confidence  of  Parliament  on  one  of  the  first  magnitude.  His 
pride  was  humbled,  but  his  firmness  and  perseverance  over- 
came his  difficulties,  and  the  next  important  division  on  Lord 
Curry's  motion  clearly  proved  the  consummate  address  with 
which  he  had  trafficked  with  the  members  during  the  interval. 
All  the  weapons  of  seduction  were  in  his  hands;  and,  to 
acquire  a  majority,  he  had  only  to  overcome  the  wavering  and 
feeble.  A  motion  of  Lord  Curry's,  made  a  few  days  after- 
wards in  order  to  prevent  any  future  scheme  of  a  Union,  after 
a  long  debate  was  also  negatived  (by  a  majority  of  fifty-eight), 
and  thus  concluded  all  discussion  on  the  Union  for  that  ses- 
sion. The  session,  however,  had  scarcely  closed  when  his 
Lordship  recommended  his  warfare  against  the  country.  The 
treasury  was  in  his  hands,  patronage  in  his  note  book,  and 
all  the  influence  which  the  scourge  or  the  pardon,  reward 
or  punishment  could  possibly  produce  on  the  trembling 
rebels  was  openly  resorted  to.  Lord  Cornwallis  determined 
to  put  Irish  honesty  to  the  test,  and  set  out  upon  an  experi- 
mental tour  through  those  parts  of  the  country  where  the 
nobility  and  gentry  were  likely  to  entertain  him.  He  artfully 
selected  those  places  where  he  could  best  make  his  way  with 
corporations  at  public  dinners,  and  with  the  aristocracy,  coun- 
try gentlemen,  and  farmers,  by  visiting  their  mansions  and 
cottages.  Ireland  was  thus  canvassed  and  every  gaol  was 
converted  to  a  hustings. 

In  reflecting,  therefore,  on  the  extraordinary  fate  of  Mr. 
Ponsonby's  declaratory  motion  just  and  not  inconsiderate 
alarm  must  have  been  excited  in  the  mind  of  every  man  who 
had  determined  boldly  and  unequivocally  to  support  the 
freedom  of  his  country. 

It  was  now  difficult  to  perceive  that,  to  the  cool  and  reason- 
ing part  of  the  nation,  melancholy  forebodings  must  naturally 
arise  from  the  decided  absence  of  that  cordial,  unqualified  co- 
operation amongst  the  members  of  the  opposition,  by  whose 
imdeviating  unanimity  alone  the  revival  of  the  project  and 
the  probable  ruin  of  the  country  could  be  resisted. 

It  was  evident  that  by  the  thoughtless  conduct  of  Mr. 
Fortescue,  Lord  Cole,  and  Mr.  French,  the  conclusive  rejec- 
tion of  the  proposal  was  prevented.  Had  they  been  even  one 
moment  silent,  Ireland  would  have  been  a  proud,  prosperous, 
free,  tranquil,  and  productive  member  of  the  British  Empire, 
But  their  puerile  inconsistency  lost  their  country,  gave  a  clue 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  525 

to  the  Secretary  and  the  Government  before  plunged  in  a 
hopeless  perplexity,  and  opened  a  wide  door  for  future  dis- 
cussion which  Mr.  Ponsonby's  motion  would  have  forever 
prevented. 

In  a  body  composed  as  the  Parliament  of  Ireland,  though 
this  misfortune  must  ever  be  deplored  and  those  gentlemen 
forever  censured,  yet  such  an  event  was  not  a  subject  for 
astonishment.  A  great  number  of  those  who  composed  the 
House  were  most  inexperienced  statesmen ;  they  meddled  but 
little  individually  in  any  arrangement  of  debates,  and  voted 
according  to  their  party  or  their  sentiments,  without  the  habit 
of  any  previous  consultation. 

Such  men,  therefore,  after  the  last  division  against  the 
Minister,  could  not  suppose  he  would  again  revive  the  ques- 
tion, and  they  partook  of  the  general  satisfaction.  Modera- 
tion was  now  recommended  as  the  proper  course  for  a  loyal 
opposition,  and  the  proposal  for  a  Union  having  been  virtually 
negatived,  it  was  observed  by  the  courtly  oppositionists  to  be 
at  least  unkind,  if  not  indiscreet,  to  push  Government  further 
at  a  ''moment  like  this." 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who  wished  to  complete  the  vic- 
tory could  not  shut  their  eyes  to  the  hazard  of  moderate 
proceedings,  and  their  zeal  led  them  to  wish  to  improve  their 
advantage,  and,  if  possible,  to  remove  Lord  Cornwallis  from 
the  Government,  as  a  finishing  stroke  to  the  measure.  But 
the  conduct  of  Mr.  Fortescue  and  his  supporters  had  miser- 
ably deceived  them,  and  had  convinced  the  leaders  of  the 
Opposition  that  they  were  about  to  tread  very  uncertain 
ground,  and  that  their  first  consideration  should  be,  how  far 
the  possibility  of  attaining  their  ultimate  object  should  be 
weighed  against  the  probable  event  of  losing  their  majority 
by  another  trial  of  strength. 

Reasoning  people  without  doors  saw  the  danger  still  more 
clearly  than  those  who  had  individually  to  encounter  it.  Re- 
gardless of  the  solemn  engagements  he  had  made  in  the  House, 
and  by  which  he  had  imposed  on  many  of  the  opposition,  the 
Minister  and  his  agents  lost  no  opportunity,  nor  omitted  any 
means,  of  making  good  their  party  amongst  the  members  who 
liad  not  publicly  declared  themselves,  and  of  endeavoring  to 
pervert  the  principles  and  corrupt  the  consistency  of  those 
who  had.  Lord  Castlereagh's  ulterior  efforts  were  extensive 
and  indefatigable,  his  spirit  revived  and  every  hour  gained 


526  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ground  on  his  opponents.  He  clearly  perceived  that  the  ranks 
of  the  Opposition  were  too  open  to  be  strong,  and  too  mixed 
to  be  unanimous.  The  extraordinary  fate  of  Mr.  Ponsonby  's 
declaration  of  rights,  and  the  debate  on  a  similar  motion  by 
Lord  Corry,  which  so  shortly  afterwards  met  a  more  serious 
negative,  proved  the  truth  of  these  observations  and  identified 
the  persons  through  whom  that  truth  was  to  be  afterwards 
exemplified. 

The  disheartening  effects  of  Mr.  Fortescue's  conduct  (not- 
withstanding the  general  exultation  of  the  country)  appeared 
to  make  a  very  powerful  impression  on  the  public  mind;  it 
was  assiduously  circulated  by  Government  as  a  triumph,  and 
on  all  occasions  reluctantly  alluded  to  by  the  Anti-Unionists ; 
it  became  apparent  that  the  increasing  majority  against  the 
Minister,  on  the  second  division,  if  unaccompanied  by  that 
fatal  circumstance,  would  have  effectually  established  tlie 
progressive  power  of  the  Opposition,  and  rapidly  hastened  the 
upset  of  Government.  But  the  advantage  of  that  majority 
was  lost,  and  the  possibility  of  exciting  division  amongst  the 
Anti-Unionists  could  no  longer  be  questioned.  This  consid- 
eration had  an  immediate  and  extensive  effect;  the  timid 
recommenced  their  fears,  the  wavering  began  to  think  of  con- 
sequences, the  venal  to  negotiate;  and  the  public  mind,  par- 
ticularly amongst  the  Catholics,  who  still  smarted  from  the 
scourge,  became  so  deeply  affected  and  so  timorously  doubtful 
that  some  of  the  persons,  assuming  to  themselves  the  title  of 
Catholic  Leaders,  sought  an  audience  in  order  to  inquire  from 
Marquis  Cornwallis,  ''What  would  be  the  advantage  to  the 
Catholics  if  a  Union  should  happen  to  be  effected  in  Ireland  ? '  ^ 

However,  great  confidence  in  an  ultimate  crushing  of  the 
project  kept  its  place  in  the  Opposition.  The  Parliament, 
unaccustomed  to  see  the  Minister  with  a  majority  of  only 
one,  considered  him  as  totally  defeated.  A  rising  party  is 
sure  to  gain  proselytes.  Government,  therefore,  lost  ground 
as  the  Opposition  gained  it;  and  for  a  few  daj^s  it  was  gen- 
erally supposed  that  the  Viceroy  and  Secretary  must  resign. 
Many  of  their  adherents  shrunk  from  them.  A  large  propor- 
tion of  Parliament  was  far  beyond  the  power  either  of  fear 
or  corruption,  yet  the  impartial  history  of  these  times  must 
throw  a  partial  shade  over  the  consistency  of  L-eland  and 
exhibit  some  of  the  once  leading  characters  in  both  Houses 
in  a  course  of  the  most  humiliating,  corrupt,  and  disgusting 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan 


r.27 


servility;  contradicting  by  tlie  last  act  of  their  political  lives, 
the  whole  tenor  of  their  former  principles,  from  the  first 
moment  they  had  the  power  of  declaring  them  to  the  nation. 
In  another  quarter  those  who  formed  an  Opposition  to  the 
Minister  on  the  question  of  a  Union  had  been,  and  wished  to 
continue,  his  avowed  supporters  on  every  other.  The  custom 
of  the  times,  the  venality  of  the  court,  even  the  excessive 
habits  of  convivial  luxury  had  combined  gradually  to  blunt 
the  poignancy  of  public  spirit,  and  the  activity  of  patriotic 
exertions,  on  ordinary  subjects.  The  terrors  of  the  rebellion, 
scarcely  yet  extinguished,  had  induced  many  to  cling  for  pro- 
tection round  a  government  whose  principles  they  had  con- 
demned, and  whose  politics  they  had  resisted.  The  subtle 
Viceroy  knew  full  well  how  to  make  his  advantage  of  the 
moment,  and  by  keeping  up  the  delusion,  under  the  name  of 
loyalty  and  discretion,  he  restrained  within  narrow  limits  the 
spirit  of  constitutional  independence  wherever  he  found  he 
could  not  otherwise  subdue  it. 


Ornament  on  ieather  case  of  Book  of  Armagh. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Ireland's  fight  for  legislative  independench  ends  in  defeat 

—  THE   UNION   IS    carried  — the    NATION    IS   EXTINGUISHED. 

It  is  impossible  to  comprise  in  a  single  volume  a  tithe  of 
the  means  and  measures  of  every  description  resorted  to  by 
the  Viceroy  and  Secretary  not  only  to  seduce  the  members, 
but  to  procure  addresses  favorable  to  their  views,  from  every 
or  any  rank  or  description  of  people,  from  the  first  rank  to 
the  very  lowest  order:  beggars,  cottagers,  tradesmen,  every 
individual  who  could  be  influenced  were  tempted  to  put  their 
names  or  marks  to  addresses,  not  one  word  of  which  they 
understood  the  intent,  still  less  the  ruinous  result  of.  Even 
public  instances  were  adduced,  some  mentioned  in  Parliament, 
and  not  denied,  of  felons  in  the  gaols  purchasing  pardon,  or 
transmutation,  by  signatures  or  by  forging  names  to  Union 
eulogiums. 

English  generals  who,  at  a  moment  when  martial  law 
existed  or  a  recollection  of  its  execution  was  still  fresh  in 
every  memory,  could  not  fail  to  have  their  own  influence  over 
proclaimed  districts  and  bleeding  peasantry ;  of  course,  their 
success  in  procuring  addresses  to  Parliament  was  not  limited 
either  by  their  power,  their  disposition  or  their  instructions. 

The  Anti-Union  addresses,  innumerable  and  fervid,  in 
their  very  nature  voluntaiy,  and  the  signatures  of  high  con- 
sideration, were  stigmatized  by  the  title  of  seditious  and 
disloyal;  whilst  those  of  the  compelled,  the  bribed,  and  the 
culprit  were  printed  and  circulated  by  every  means  that  the 
treasury  or  the  influence  of  the  Government  could  effect. 

Mr.  Darby,  High  Sheriff  of  King's  County,  and  Major 
Rogers  of  the  artillery  had  gone  so  far  as  to  place  two  six- 
pounders  towards  the  doors  of  the  Court  House,  where  the 
gentlemen  and  freeholders  of  the  county  were  assembling  to 
address  as  Anti-Unionists;  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  the  dread  of  grape  shot  not  only  stopped  those,  but 
numerous  meetings  for  similar  purposes;  yet  this  was  one 
of  the  means  taken  to  prevent  the  expression  of  public  meet- 
ings without,  and  formed  a  proper  comparison  for  the  meas- 
ures resorted  to  within  the  walls  of  Parliament. 

529 


530  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

As  this  volume  cannot  detail  the  innumerable  circum- 
stances and  episodes  which  a  perfect  history  of  those  times 
would  embody,  it  may  be  enough  to  say  that  if  the  British 
readers  of  this  work  will  imagine  any  act  that  an  indefatig- 
able, and,  on  this  subject,  the  most  corrupt  of  Governments 
could  by  possibility  resort  to,  to  carry  a  measure  they  had 
determined  on,  such  readers  cannot  imagine  acts  more  illegal, 
unconstitutional,  and  corrupt  than  those  of  the  Viceroy  of 
Ireland,  his  secretary  and  under-secretary  employed  from  the 
close  of  the  session  of  1799  to  that  of  1800;  in  the  last  of  the 
Irish  Parliament  everything,  therefore,  is  passed  over,  or 
but  slightly  touched  on,  till  the  opening  of  the  last  session. 

Lords  Cornwallis  and  Castlereagh,  having  made  good 
progress  during  the  recess,  now  discarded  all  secrecy  and 
reserve.  To  recite  the  various  acts  of  simple  metallic  cor- 
ruption which  were  practised  without  any  reserve,  during  the 
summer  of  1799,  are  too  numerous  for  this  volume.  It  will 
be  sufficient  to  describe  the  proceedings,  without  particular- 
izing the  individuals.  Many  of  the  Peers  and  several  of 
the  Commoners  had  the  patronage  of  boroughs,  the  control 
of  which  was  essential  to  the  success  of  the  Minister's  project. 
These  patrons  Lord  Castlereagh  assailed  by  every  means 
which  his  power  and  situation  afforded.  Lord  Cornwallis  was 
the  remote,  Lord  Castlereagh  the  intermediate,  and  Mr.  Sec- 
retary Cooke  the  immediate  agents  on  many  of  these  bar- 
gains. Lord  Shannon,  the  Marquis  of  Ely,  and  several  other 
Peers  commanding  votes,  after  much  coquetry,  had  been  se- 
cured during  the  first  session;  but  the  defeat  of  Government 
rendered  their  future  supjDort  uncertain.  The  Parliamentary 
patrons  had  breathing  time  after  the  preceding  session  and 
began  to  tremble  for  their  patronage  and  importance;  and 
some  desperate  step  became  necessary  to  Government  to 
insure  a  continuance  of  the  supporters  of  these  patronages. 
This  object  gave  rise  to  a  measure  which  the  British  nation 
will  scarcely  believe  possible,  its  enormity  is  without  parallel. 

Lord  Castlereagh 's  first  object  was  to  introduce  into  the 
House,  by  means  of  the  Place  Bill,  a  sufficient  number  of 
dependents  to  balance  all  opposition.  He  then  boldly  an- 
nounced his  intention  to  turn  the  scale  by  bribes  to  all  who 
would  accept  them,  under  the  name  of  compensation  for  the 
loss  of  patronage  and  interest.  He  publicly  declared,  first, 
that  every  nobleman  who  returned  members  to  Parliament 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  531 

should  be  paid,  in  cnsli,  £l;j,000,  for  every  member  so  re- 
turned; secondly,  that  every  member  who  had  purchased  a 
seat  in  Parliament  should  have  his  purchase-money  repaid  to 
him,  by  the  Treasury  of  Ireland;  thirdly,  that  all  members 
of  Parliament,  or  others,  who  were  losers  by  a  Union,  should 
be  fully  recompensed  for  their  losses  and  that  £1,500,000 
should  be  devoted  to  this  service;  in  other  terms,  all  who  sup- 
ported his  measure  were,  under  some  pretense  or  other,  to 
share  in  this  bank  of  corruption. 

A  declaration  so  flagitious  and  treasonable  was  never  made 
in  any  country;  but  it  had  a  powerful  effect  in  his  favor,  and, 
before  the  meeting  of  Parliament,  he  had  secured  a  small 
majority  (as  heretofore  mentioned)  of  eight  above  a  moiety 
of  the  members,  and  he  courageously  persisted. 

After  the  debate  on  the  Union,  in  1800,  he  performed  his 
promise  and  brought  in  a  bill  to  raise  one  million  and  a 
half  of  money  upon  the  Irish  people,  nominally  to  compen- 
sate, but  really  to  bribe  their  representatives  for  betraying 
their  honor  and  selling  their  country.  This  bill  was  feebly 
resisted;  the  division  of  January  and  February  (1800)  had 
reduced  the  success  of  the  Government  to  a  certainty,  and  all 
further  opposition  was  abandoned.  It  was  unimportant  to 
Lord  Castlereagh,  who  received  the  plunder  of  the  nation; 
the  taxes  were  levied  and  a  vicious  partiality  was  effected  in 
the  i^artition. 

The  assent  to  the  bill  by  his  Majesty,  as  King  of  Ireland, 
gives  rise  to  perhaps  the  most  grave  consideration  suggested 
in  these  Memoirs. 

A  king,  bound  by  the  principles  of  the  British  Constitu- 
tion, giving  his  sacred  and  voluntary  fiat  to  a  bill  to  \evy 
taxes  for  the  compensation  of  members  of  Parliament  for 
their  loss  of  the  opportunities  of  selling  what  it  was  criminal 
to  sell  or  purchase,  could  scarcely  be  believed  by  the  British 
people. 

It  may  be  curious  to  consider  how  the  English  would  en- 
dure the  proposal  of  such  a  measure  in  their  own  country ;  a 
British  Premier  who  should  advise  his  Majesty  to  give  his 
assent  to  such  a  statute  would  experience  the  utmost  punish- 
ment that  the  severest  law  of  England  could  inflict  for  that 
enormity.  Nor  should  the  Irish  people  be  blamed  for  refus- 
ing to  acquiesce  in  a  measure  which  was  carried  in  direct 
violation  of  the  law,  and  infraction  of  the  statutes  against 


532  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

bribery  and  corruption  and  in  defiance  of  every  precept,  moral 
and  political. 

There  were  times  when  Mr.  Pitt  would  have  lost  his  head 
for  a  tithe  of  his  Government  in  Ireland;  Stafford  was  an 
angel  compared  to  that  celebrated  statesman. 

When  the  compensation  statute  had  received  the  royal 
assent  the  Viceroy  appointed  four  commissioners  to  carry  its 
provisions  into  execution.  Three  were  members  of  Parlia- 
ment, whose  salaries  of  £1,200  a  year  each  (with  probable 
advantages)  were  a  tolerable  consideration  for  their  former 
services.  The  Honorable  Mr.  Annesley,  Secretary  Hamilton, 
and  Dr.  Duigenan  were  the  Drincipal  ministers  of  that  ex- 
traordinary distribution. 

It  is,  however,  to  be  lamented  that  the  records  of  the  pro- 
ceedings have  been  unaccountably  disposed  of.  A  voluminous 
copy  of  claims,  accepted  and  rejected,  was  published  and  par- 
tially circulated;  but  the  great  and  important  grants,  the  pri- 
vate pensions  and  occult  compensations  have  never  been  made 
public  further  than  by  those  who  received  them.  It  is  known 
that 

£         s.     d. 
Lord  Shannon  received  for  his  patronage  in  the 

Commons  45,000    0    0 

The  Marquis  of  Ely 45,000     0     0 

The  Clanmorris,  besides  a  Peerage 23,000    0    0 

Lord  Bel videre,  besides  his  douceur 15,000    0    0 

Sir  Hercules  Langrishe 15,000     0    0 

At  length,  the  Parliament  being  sufficiently  arranged  to 
give  Government  a  reasonable  assurance  of  success.  Lord 
Castlereagh  determined  to  feel  the  impulse  of  the  House  of 
Commons  distinctly  before  he  proposed  the  measure  of  the 
Union. 

The  British  Parliament  had  already  framed  the  terms  on 
which  the  proposition  was  to  be  founded,  giving  to  its  own 
project  a  complexion  of  a  favor  and  triumphing  by  anticipa- 
tion over  the  independence  of  Ireland. 

This  was  a  masterpiece  of  arrogance;  and  it  was  deter- 
mined to  try  the  feelings  of  the  Commons  by  a  negative 
measure  before  the  insulting  one  should  be  substantially  pro- 
pounded to  them.  The  fifteenth  day  of  January,  1800  (the 
last  session  of  the  Irish  Parliament),  gave  rise  to  a  debate 
of  the  most  acrimonious  nature  and  of  great  importance. 


In  the  Days -of  Gkattan  533 

The  speech  of  Lord  Cornwallis  from  the  throne  was  ex- 
pected to  avow  candidly  the  determination  of  the  Minister  to 
propose,  and  if  jjossible  to  achieve  a  Legislative  Union.  Every 
man  came  prepared  to  hear  that  proposal,  but  a  more  crafty 
course  was  taken  by  the  Secretary. 

To  the  surprise  of  the  Anti-Unionists,  the  Viceroy's  speech 
did  not  even  hint  at  the  measure,  the  suggestion  of  Union  was 
sedulously  avoided.  Lord  Viscount  Loftus  (now  Marquis  of 
Ely)  moved  the  address,  which  was  as  vague  as  the  speech 
was  empty.  Lord  Loftus  was  another  of  those  young  noble- 
men who  were  emitted  by  their  connections  to  mark  their 
politics;  but  neither  the  cause  nor  his  Lordship's  oration 
conferred  any  honor  on  the  author ;  and  his  speech  would  have 
answered  any  other  subject  just  as  well  as  that  upon  which 
it  was  uttered. 

There  was  not  a  point  in  the  Viceroy's  speech  intended 
to  be  debated.  Lord  Castlereagh,  having  judiciously  collected 
his  flocks,  was  better  enabled  to  decide  on  numbers  and  to 
count  with  sufficient  certainty  on  the  result  of  his  labors  since 
the  preceding  session,  without  any  hasty  or  premature  dis- 
closure of  his  definite  measure. 

This  negative  and  insidious  mode  of  proceeding,  however, 
could  not  be  permitted  by  the  opposition;  and  Sir  Laurence 
Parsons,  after  one  of  the  most  able  and  luminous  speeches  he 
had  ever  uttered,  moved  an  amendment,  declaratory  of  the 
resolution  of  Parliament  to  preserve  the  Constitution  as 
established  in  1782,  and  to  support  the  freedom  and  inde- 
pendence of  the  nation.  This  motion  was  the  touchstone  of 
the  parties ;  the  attendance  of  the  Unionists  in  the  House  was 
compulsory,  that  of  its  opponents  optional ;  and  on  counting 
the  members,  sixty-six  (about  a  fifth  of  the  whole)  were 
absent,  a  most  favorable  circumstance  for  the  Minister. 
Every  mind  was  at  its  stretch,  every  talent  was  in  its  vigor; 
it  was  a  momentous  trial,  and  never  was  so  general  and  so 
deep  a  sensation  felt  in  any  country.  Numerous  British 
noblemen  and  commoners  were  present  at  that  and  the  suc- 
ceeding debate,  and  they  expressed  opinions  of  Irish  eloquence 
which  they  had  never  before  conceived,  nor  ever  after  had  an 
opportunity  of  appreciating.  Every  man  on  that  night 
seemed  to  be  inspired  by  the  subject.  Speeches  more  replete 
with  talent  and  energy  on  both  sides  never  were  heard  in  the 
Irish  Senate;  it  was  a  vital  subject.    The  sublime,  the  elo- 


534  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

quent,  the  figurative  orator,  the  plain,  the  connected,  the 
metaphysical  reasoner,  the  classical,  the  learned,  and  the  sol- 
emn declaimer,  in  a  succession  of  speeches  so  full  of  energy 
and  enthusiasm,  so  interesting  in  their  future,  so  important 
in  their  consequence,  created  a  variety  of  sensations,  even  in 
the  bosom  of  a  stranger,  and  could  scarcely  fail  of  exciting 
some  sympathy  with  a  nation  which  was  doomed  to  close  for- 
ever that  school  of  eloquence  which  had  so  long  given  char- 
acter and  celebrity  to  Irish  talent. 

The  debate  proceeded  with  increasing  heat  and  interest  till 
past  ten  o'clock  the  ensuing  morning  (16th).  Many  members 
on  both  sides  signalized  themselves  to  an  extent  that  never 
could  have  been  expected.  The  result  of  the  convivial  resolu- 
tion at  Lord  Castlereagh's  house  was  actually  exemplified  and 
clearly  discernible;  an  unexampled  zeal,  an  uncongenial 
energy,  an  uncalled-for  rancor,  and  an  unusual  animation 
broke  out  from  several  supporters  of  Government  to  an  extent 
which  none  but  those  who  had  known  the  system  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  had  skillfully  suggested  to  his  followers  could  in  any 
way  account  for.  This  excess  of  ardor  gave  to  this  debate  not 
only  a  new  and  extraordinary  variety  of  language,  but  an 
acrimony  of  invective  and  an  absence  of  all  moderation  never 
before  so  immoderately  practised. 

This  violence  was  in  unison  with  the  pugnacious  project 
of  anticipating  the  Anti-Unionists  in  offensive  operations, 
some  remarkable  instances  of  that  project  were  actually  put 
into  practice,  and  are  not  unworthy  of  being  recorded  in  the 
Irish  chronicles. 

Mr.  Bushe,  the  late  Chief  Justice  of  Ireland,  was  as  nearly 
devoid  of  private  and  public  enemies  as  any  man.  Endowed 
with  superior  talents,  he  had  met  with  a  corresponding  suc- 
cess in  an  ambitious  profession  and  in  a  jealous  country. 
His  eloquence  was  of  the  purest  kind,  but  the  more  delicate 
the  edge  the  deeper  cuts  the  irony,  and  his  rebukes  were  of 
that  description ;  and  when  embellished  by  his  ridicule,  coarse 
minds  might  bear  them,  but  the  more  sensitive  ones  could 
not.  Mr.  Plunket's  satire  was  of  a  different  nature;  his 
weapon  cut  in  every  direction,  and  when  once  unsheathed 
little  quarter  could  be  expected.  His  satire  was,  at  times,  of 
that  corroding  yet  witty  nature  that  no  patience  could  endure ; 
yet,  on  this  debate,  both  these  gentlemen  were  assailed  with 
intrepidity  by  a  person  whose  talents  were  despised,  and  the 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  535 

price  of  whose  seductiou  glared  iu  an  appointment  to  the 
highest  office  at  the  Irish  bar-a  barrister  without  profes- 
sional practice  or  experience,  and  who  was  not  considered 
susceptible  of  black  letter.    As  a  statesman  he  had  no  capacity, 
and  as  an  orator  he  was  below  even  mediocrity,  from  an  em- 
barrassed pronunciation  which  seemed  to  render  an  attempt 
at  elocution  a  hopeless  experiment.    Such  was  Mr.  St.  George 
Daly,  appointed  Prime  Sergeant  of  Ireland  in  the  place  of 
Mr.  Fitzgerald,  raised  over  the  heads  of  the  Attorney  and 
Solicitor  General,  and,    from    a    simple    briefless    advocate 
elevated  to  the  very  highest  rank  of  a  talented  and  learned 
profession.    Mr.  Daly,  however,  was  a  man  of  excellent  fam- 
ily and  common  sense,  and  what  was  formerly  highly  esteemed 
in  Ireland,  of  a  '' fighting  family."    He  was  the  brother  of 
Mr.  Denis  Daly,  of  so  much  talent  and  of  so  much  reputation 
amongst  the  patriots  of  eighty-two.     He  was  proud  enough 
for  his  pretensions,  and  sufficiently  conceited  f (*'  his  capacity ; 
and  a  private  gentleman  he  would  have  remained  had  not 
Lord  Castlereagh  and  the  Union  placed  him  in  public  situa- 
tions where  he  had  himself  too  much  sense  not  to  feel  that 
he  certainly  was  over-elevated.     This  gentleman  is  particu- 
larly noticed,  as,  on  this  night,  he,  in  some  points,  overcame 
the  public  opinion  of  his  incapacity,  and  he  surprised  the 
House  by  one  of  the  most  clever  and  severe  philippics  which 
had  been  pronounced  during  the  discussions  upon  the  Union, 
more  remarkable  from  being  directed  against  two  of  the  most 
pure  and  formidable  orators  in  the  country. 

The  contempt  with  which  Mr.  Daly  conceived  his  capacity 
was  viewed  by  the  superior  members  of  his  profession,  the 
inaptitude  he  himself  felt  for  the  ostensible  situation  he  was 
placed  in,  the  cutting  sarcasms  liberally  lavished  on  his  in- 
experience and  infirmity,  in  lampoons  and  pamphlets,^  com- 
bined to  excite  an  extraordinary  exertion  to  extricate  himself 
from  the  humiliating  taunts  that  he  had  been  so  long  expe- 
riencing.    Mr.  Daly's  attack  on  Mr.  Bushe  was  of  a  clever 
description,  and  had  Mr.  Bushe  had  one  vulnerable  point,  his 
assailant  might    have    prevailed.      He    next    attacked    Mr. 
Plunket,  who  sat  immediately  before  him ;  but  the  materials 
of  his  vocabulary  had  been  nearly  exhausted;  however,  he 
was  making  some  progress  when  the  keen  visage   of  Mr. 
Plunket  was  seen  to  assume  a  curled  sneer  which,  like  a  legion 
offensive  and  defensive,  was  prepared  for  any  enemy.     No 


536  iRELAxND'ib   CrOWN   OF  ThORNS   AND   RoSES 

speech  could  equal  his  glance  of  contempt  and  ridicule.  Mr. 
Daly  received  it  like  an  arrow ;  it  pierced  him,  he  faltered  like 
a  wounded  man,  his  vocal  infirmity  became  more  manifest, 
and  after  an  embarrassed  pause  he  yielded,  changed  his 
ground  and  attacked  by  wholesale  every  member  of  his  own 
profession  who  had  opposed  a  Union,  and  termed  them  a  dis- 
affected and  dangerous  faction.  Here  again  he  received  a 
reply  not  calculated  to  please  him,  and  at  length  he  concluded 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  speeches,  because  one  the  most 
unexpected,  that  had  been  made  during  the  discussion.  Every 
member  who  had  been  in  the  habit  of  addressing  the  House, 
new  ones  who  had  never  spoken,  on  that  night  made  warm 
and  several  of  them  eloquent  orations. 

Mr.  Peter  Burrows,  a  veteran  advocate  for  the  rights  of 
Ireland,  wherever  and  whenever  he  had  the  power  of  declaring 
himself,  on  this  night  made  an  able  effort  to  uphold  his  prin- 
ciples. He  was  a  gentleman  of  the  bar  who  had  many  friends, 
and  justly;  nothing  could  be  more  ungracious  than  the  man- 
ner, nothing  much  better  than  the  matter,  of  his  orations., 
His  mind  had  ever  been  too  independent  to  cringe,  and  his 
opinions  too  intractable  for  an  arbitrary  minister;  on  this 
night  he  formed  a  noble  and  distinguished  contrast  to  those 
of  his  own  profession,  who  had  sold  themselves  and  the  rep- 
resentation for  a  mess  of  pottage. 

The  House  had  nearly  exhausted  itself  and  the  subject, 
when  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  an  incident  the  most 
affecting  and  unexpected  occurred,  and  which  is  too  precious 
a  relic  of  Irish  Parliamentary  chronicles  not  to  be  recorded. 

The  animating  presence  of  Mr.  Grattan  on  this  first  night 
of  the  debate  was  considered  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the 
patriots ;  it  was  once  more  raising  the  standard  of  liberty  in 
Parliament.  He  had  achieved  the  independence  of  his  coun- 
try in  1782,  and  was  the  champion  best  calculated  at  this  crisis 
to  defend  it ;  a  union  of  spirit,  of  talent,  and  of  honesty  gave 
him  an  influence  above  all  his  contemporaries.  He  had  been 
ungratefully  defamed  by  the  people  he  had  liberated,  and,  tak- 
ing the  calumny  to  heart,  his  spirit  had  sunk  within  him,  his 
health  had  declined,  and  he  had  most  unwisely  seceded  in  dis- 
gust from  Parliament  at  the  very  moment  when  he  was  most 
required  to  defend  both  himself  and  his  country.  He  seemed 
fast  approaching  to  the  termination  of  all  earthly  objects, 
when  he  was  induced  once  more  to  shed  his  influence  over  the 
political  crisis. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  537 

At  that  time  Mr.  Tiglie  returned  the  members  for  the  close 
borough  of  Wicklow,  aud,  a  vacancy  having  occurred,  it  was 
tendered  to  Mr.  Grattan,  who  would  willingly  have  declined 
it  but  for  the  imijortunities  of  his  friends. 

The  Lord  Lieutenant  and  Lord  Castlereagh,  justly  appre- 
ciating the  effect  his  presence  miglit  have  on  the  first  debate, 
had  withheld  the  writ  of  election  till  the  last  moment  the  law 
allowed,  and  till  they  conceived  it  might  be  too  late  to  return 
Mr.  Grattan  in  time  for  the  discussion.  It  was  not  until  the 
day  of  the  meeting  of  Parliament  that  the  writ  was  delivered 
to  the  returning  officer.  By  extraordinary  exertions,  and  per- 
haps by  following  the  example  of  government  in  overstrain- 
ing the  law,  the  election  was  held  immediately  on  the  arrival 
of  the  writ;  a  sufficient  number  of  voters  were  collected  to 
return  Mr.  Grattan  before  midnight.  By  one  o'clock  the  re- 
turn was  on  its  road  to  Dublin ;  it  arrived  by  five ;  a  party  of 
Mr.  Grattan 's  friends  repaired  to  the  private  house  of  the 
proper  officer,  and  making  him  get  out  of  bed,  compelled  him 
to  present  the  writ  to  Parliament  before  seven  in  the  morn- 
ing, when  the  House  was  in  warm  debate  on  the  Union.  A 
whisper  ran  through  every  party  that  Mr.  Grattan  was  elect- 
ed and  would  immediately  take  his  seat.  The  Ministerialists 
smiled  with  incredulous  derision,  and  the  opposition  thought 
the  news  too  good  to  be  true. 

Mr.  Egan  was  speaking  strongly  against  the  measure  when 
Mr.  George  Ponsonby  and  Mr.  Arthur  Moore  walked  out,  and 
immediately  returned,  leading,  or  rather  helping,  Mr.  Grat- 
tan, in  a  state  of  total  feebleness  and  debility.  The  effect 
was  electric.  Mr.  Grattan 's  illness  and  a  deep  chagrin  had 
reduced  a  form,  never  symmetrical,  and  a  visage  at  all  times 
thin,  nearly  to  the  appearance  of  a  spectre.  As  he  feebly 
tottered  into  the  House  every  member  simultaneously  rose 
from  his  seat.  He  moved  slowly  to  the  table;  his  languid 
countenance  seemed  to  revive  as  he  took  those  oaths  that  re- 
stored him  to  his  pre-eminent  station;  the  smile  of  inward 
satisfaction  obviously  illuminated  his  features,  and  reanima- 
tion  and  energy  seemed  to  kindle  by  the  labor  of  his  mind. 
The  House  was  silent ;  Mr.  Egan  did  not  resume  his  speech ; 
Mr.  Grattan,  almost  breathless,  as  if  by  instinct,  attempted 
to  rise,  but  was  unable  to  stand;  he  paused  and  with  diffi- 
culty requested  permission  of  the  House  to  deliver  his  senti- 
ments without  moving  from  his  seat.    This  was  acceded  to 


538  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

b}^  acclamation,  and  he-  who  had  left  his  bed  of  sickness  to 
record,  as  he  thought,  his  last  words  in  the  Parliament  of 
his  country  kindled  gradually  till  his  language  glowed  with 
an  energy  and  feeling  which  he  had  seldom  surpassed.  Af- 
ter nearly  two  hours  of  the  most  powerful  eloquence  he  con- 
cluded with  an  undiminished  vigor,  miraculous  to  those  who 
were  unacquainted  with  his  intellect. 

Never  did  a  speech  make  more  aifecting  impression,  but 
it  came  too  late.  Fate  had  decreed  the  fall  of  Ireland,  and 
her  patriot  came  only  to  witness  her  overthrow.  For  two 
hours  he  recapitulated  all  the  pledges  that  England  had  made 
and  had  broken ;  he  went  through  the  great  events  from  1780 
to  1800,  proved  the  more  than  treachery  which  had  been  prac- 
tised towards  the  Irish  people.  He  had  concluded,  and  the 
question  was  loudly  called  for,  when  Lord  Castlereagh  was 
perceived  earnestly  to  whisper  to  Mr.  Corry;  they  for  an  in- 
stant looked  round  the  House,  whispered  again;  Mr.  Corry 
nodded  assent,  and,  amidst  the  cries  of  question,  he  began 
a  speech,  which,  as  far  as  it  regarded  Mr.  Grattan,  few  per- 
sons in  the  House  could  have  prevailed  upon  themselves  to 
utter.  Lord  Castlereagh  was  not  clear  what  impression  Mr. 
Grattan 's  speech  might  have  made  upon  a  few  hesitating 
members ;  he  had,  in  the  course  of  the  debate,  moved  the  ques- 
tion of  adjournment;  he  did  not  like  to  meet  Sir  Lawrence 
'Parsons  on  his  motion,  and  Mr.  Corry  commenced  certainly 
an  able,  but,  towards  Mr.  Grattan,  an  ungenerous  and  an  un- 
feeling personal  assault;  it  was  useless,  it  was  like  an  act  of 
a  cruel  disposition,  and  he  knew  it  could  not  be  replied  to. 
At  length  the  impatience  of  the  House  rendered  a  division 
necessary,  and  in  half  an  hour  the  fate  of  Ireland  was  de- 
cided.    The  numbers  were : 

For  an  adjournment  Lord  Castlereagh  had.  .138 
For  the  amendment 96 

Majority   42 

This  decision,  undoubtedly,  gave  a  death  blow  to  the  Irish 
nation.  Many,  however,  still  fostered  the  hope  of  success 
in  the  opposition,  and  Lord  Castlereagh  did  not  one  moment 
relax  his  efforts  to  bribe,  to  seduce,  and  to  terrify  his  oppo- 
nents. 

The  Anti-Unionists  also  lost  no  opportunity  of  improving 
their  minority,  and  the  next  division  proved  that  they  had 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  539 

not.  The  adjournment  was  on  the  5th  of  February;  the 
Union  propositions,  as  passed  by  the  British  Parliament, 
were,  after  a  long  speech,  laid  before  the  House  of  Commons 
by  Lord  Castlereagh.  On  that  day  Mr.  Bagwell,  of  Tippe- 
rary  County,  seceded  from  the  Government;  the  ISIarquis  of 
Ormonde  had  also  divided  it,  and  the  minority  appeared  to 
have  received  numerous  acquisitions.  Mr.  Saurin,  Mr.  Peter 
Burns  and  other  prominent  gentlemen  of  the  bar  now  ap- 
peared to  make  the  last  effort  to  rescue  their  country. 

Lord  Castlereagh,  upheld  by  his  last  majority,  now  kept 
no  bounds  in  his  assertions  and  in  his  arrogance,  and  after 
a  debate  of  the  entire  night,  at  eleven  the  ensuing  morning, 
the  division  took  place.  It  appeared  that  the  Anti-Unionists 
had  gained  ground  since  the  former  session,  and  that  there 
existed  115  members  of  the  Irish  Parliament  whom  neither 
promotion,  nor  office,  nor  fear,  nor  reward,  nor  ambition  could 
procure  to  vote  against  the  independence  of  their  country; 
though  nations  fall,  that  opposition  will  remain  immortal. 

Lord  Castlereagh 's  motion  was  artful  in  the  extreme;  he 
did  not  move  expressly  for  any  adoption  of  the  propositions, 
but  that  they  should  be  printed  and  circulated,  with  a  view 
to  their  ultimate  adoption. 

This  was  opposed  as  a  virtual  acceptation  of  the  subject ; 
on  this  point  the  issue  was  joined,  and  the  Irish  nation  was 
on  that  night  laid  prostrate.     The  division  was: 

Number  of  members 300 

For  Lord  Castlereagh 's  motion 158 

Against  it 115 

Of  members  present,  majority 43 

Absent 27 

By  this  division  it  appears  that  the  Government  had  a 
majority  of  the  House  of  only  eight ;  by  their  utmost  efforts 
27  were  absent,  of  whom  every  man  refused  to  vote  for  a 
Union,  but  did  not  vote  at  all,  being  kept  away  by  different 
causes,  and  of  consequence  eight  above  a  moiety  carried  the 
Union,  and  of  the  158  who  voted  for  it  in  1800,  28  were  no- 
toriously bribed  or  influenced  corruptly. 

Although  this  was  ominous  to  the  ultimate  fate  of  the 
nation,  the  contest  still  proceeded  with  unremitting  ardor; 
numerous  debates  and  numerous  divisions  took  place  before 
the  final  catastrophe;  in  numbers  the  Government  made  no 
progress,  and  never  could  or  did  contain  a  majority  of  fifty 
on  the  principle  of  a  Union. 


540  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

The  details  of  the  subsequent  proceedings  are  not  within 
the  range  of  this  desultory  memoir.  The  speech  of  Mr.  Fos- 
ter, the  Speaker,  against  the  measure  occupied  four  hours; 
a  deference  to  his  opinion  and  a  respect  for  his  true  patriot- 
ism caused  a  dead  silence  throughout  the  entire  of  his  ora- 
tion. On  any  other  occasion  that  oration  would  have  been 
overwhelming,  but  the  question  was,  in  fact,  decided  before 
he  had  in  the  committee  any  opportunity  of  declaring  his 
opinion,  and  his  speech  was  little  more  than  recording  his 
sentiments. 

Some  very  serious  facts  occurred  during  the  progress  of 
the  discussion  which  may  be  worth  reciting.  The  House  was 
surrounded  by  military,  under  pretence  of  keeping  the  peace, 
which  was  not  in  danger,  but,  in  fact,  to  excite  terror.  Lord 
Castlereagh  also  threatened  to  remove  the  Parliament  to 
Cork  if  its  proceedings  were  interrupted.  But,  unfortunate- 
ly, the  Anti-Unionists  had  no  efficient  organization,  no  de- 
cided leader ;  scattered  and  desponding,  they  did  not  excite  suf- 
ficient external  exertion;  destiny  seemed  to  resign  the  nation 
to  its  fate;  their  own  brethren  forsook  them.  The  Bishops 
Troy,  Lanigan  and  others'  deluded  the  Viceroy,  sold  their 
country,  and  basely  betrayed  their  flocks  by  promoting  the 
Union;  the  great  body  of  Catholics  were  true  to  their  coun- 
try, but  the  rebellion  had  terrified  them  from  every  overt 
act  of  opposition ;  all  was  confusion,  nothing  could  be  effected 
against  Lord  Castlereagh,  who  had  one  million  and  a  half  to 
bribe  with,  under  pretence  of  compensation,  besides  the  se- 
cret-service money  of  England  was  at  his  command,  and  that 
was  boundless.  Had  the  proposal  been  made  two  years  later 
all  the  wealth  and  power  of  England  could  not  have  eifected 
the  annexation. 

The  subject  is  now  ended,  posterity  will  appreciate  the 
injuries  of  Ireland.  The  on\j  security  England  has  for  the 
permanence  of  the  Union  is  a  radical  change  in  the  nature 
and  genius  of  the  people,  or  a  total  change  of  system  in  the 
mode  of  governing.  How  blind  must  those  Governments  be 
which  suppose  that  Ireland  ever  can  be  retained  permanently 
by  the  coercive  system !  Eight  millions  of  people  whose  lives 
cannot  be  precious  to  them  never  can  be  permanently  yoked 
to  any  other  nation  not  much  more  physically  powerful,  and 
not  near  so  warlike,  save  by  a  full  particpation  of  rights  and 
industry;  with  employment,  protection  and  any  means  of 


In  the  Days  of  G rattan  541 

subsistence,  the  Irish  might  he  the  easiest  managed  people 
on  the  face  of  Europe;  naturally  loyal,  naturally  tractable, 
naturally  adapted  to  labor,  it  is  a  total  ignorance  of  their 
character  abroad,  with  a  system  of  petty  tyranny  at  home, 
that  destroys  this  people.  Governing  by  executions  has  the 
very  opposite  effect  from  that  intended;  death  is  too  com- 
mon to  have  much  terrors  for  a  desperate  peasantry;  hang 
100,000  every  year,  it  would  make  no  sensible  diminuation 
of  the  Irish  population,  and  certainly  would  add  nothing  to 
the  tranquillity  of  the  country.  On  the  contrary,  every  ex- 
ecution increases  the  number  of  the  dissatisfied,  ivho  can  be 
contented  with  the  execution  of  his  kindred?  The  only  guard- 
ians of  that  devoted  people,  the  only  persous  who  could  direct 
or  guide  them,  are  now,  by  the  Union,  forever  taken  away 
from  them;  their  landlords  now  reside  in  other  countries; 
no  laborers  are  now  employed  on  the  old  demesnes  that  sup- 
ported them.  What  are  they  to  subsist  upon?  An  idle  pop- 
ulation can  never  cease  to  be  a  disturbed  one,  and  if  it  be  pos- 
sible to  convince  the  English  people  that  the  state  of  Ire- 
land must  soon  influence  their  own  condition,  much  will  be 
effected.  If  England  should  be  convinced  that  Ireland  has 
been  plundered  by  a  British  Minister  of  the  only  certain 
means  of  insuring  her  tranquillity  (a  resident  Parliament), 
that  the  plunder  has  been  without  any  beneficial  operation  to 
England  herself,  great  progress  will  be  made  toward  some 
better  system.  Half  the  time  of  the  Imperial  Parliament 
is  now  occupied  upon  a  subject  of  which  nothing  but  local 
knowledge  can  give  a  competent  idea;  and  it  is  the  opinion 
of  the  wisest  and  most  dispassionate  people  that  now  reflect 
upon  the  state  of  the  connection  that  either  the  Union  must 
be  rendered  closer  and  more  operative  for  its  professed  ob- 
jects, interests  must  be  more  amalgamated,  and  the  nations 
dovetailed  together,  or  the  Union  be  altogether  relinquished, 
the  dilemma  is  momentous,  but  the  alteraative  is  inevitable. 

This  digression  arises  from  the  circumstances  which  have 
been  mentioned  just  preceding  it.  To  a  true-hearted  Irish- 
man it  must  be  a  subject  of  solicitude,  but  a  reflection  on  1800 
never  can  arise  without  exciting  emotions  of  disgust  and  feel- 
ings of  indignation. 

After  a  long  and  ardent  but  an  ineffective  struggle  the 
Anti-Unionists  gave  way  entirely,  and  but  little  further  re- 
sistance was  offered  to  anything. 


542  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

During  tlie  progress  of  the  Union  bill  through  the  com- 
mittee a  circumstance  took  place  which,  with  reference  to 
analogous  subjects,  is  of  the  utmost  legal  and  constitutional 
consequence  and  importance. 

Mr.  Richard  Annesley  (afterwards  Lord  Annesley)  was 
called  to  the  chair  of  the  committee,  on  the  motion  of  Lord 
Castlereagh,  and  sat  as  chairman  nearly  throughout  the  en- 
tire discussion. 

Mr.  R.  Annesley  and  General  Gardner  had  been  returned 
members  for  the  city  of  Clogher  by  the  Bishop,  whose  prede- 
cessors had  exercised  that  patronage  through  the  votes  of 
four  or  five  of  their  own  domestics,  or,  perhaps,  of  only  their 
steward  or  chaplain,  and  in  their  own  hall.  On  this  occa- 
sion, however,  the  Bishop's  nomination  of  Mr.  Annesley  and 
General  Gardner  was  opposed  by  Mr.  Charles  Ball  and  Col- 
onel King,  as  an  experiment,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Plunket. 
On  the  election  these  candidates  tendered  a  number  of  the 
resident  inhabitants  of  the  district  as  legal  constituents  of 
that  ancient  city,  over  which  the  Bishops  had  in  despotic 
times  assumed  a  patronage,  not  only  contrary  to  the  inherent 
rights  of  franchise,  but  altogether  unconstitutional,  it  being 
merely  a  nomination  of  members  of  the  Commons  by  a  spir- 
itual Lord.  The  Bishop's  returning  officer  had,  of  course,  re- 
jected all  la}^  interference,  and  Mr.  Annesley  and  General 
Gardner  were  returned  by  five  or  six  domestics  of  the  pre- 
late. 

This  election,  however,  was  most  vigorously  contested  by 
Mr.  Ball  and  Colonel  King;  they  canvassed  the  vicinity,  in- 
formed the  landholders  of  their  inherent  rights  and  of  the 
Bishop's  usurpation.  A  great  number  appeared  and  ten- 
dered their  votes  for  the  new  candidates,  who,  in  their  turn, 
objected  to  every  vote  received  for  those  of  the  Bishop,  and 
thus  circumstanced,  the  return  came  back  to  Parliament. 

The  Bishop's  nominees  took  their  seats  as  lawful  mem- 
bers of  Parliament,  and  as  such  Mr.  Annesley  was  named 
chairman  to  the  committee  of  the  whole  House,  which  voted 
all  the  details  and  articles  of  the  Union.  Mr.  Ball  and  Col- 
onel King,  however,  petitioned  against  that  return.  A  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  decide  the  question;  every  possible 
delay  was  contrived  by  the  Government,  and  every  influence 
was  attempted,  even  over  the  members  of  the  committee; 
nothing  was  too  shameful  for  the  arrogance  of  the  Chancel- 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  543 

lor  (who  took  a  furious  part)  and  the  corruption  of  the  Sec- 
retary. 

After  a  month  of  arduous  and  minute  investigation  an  old 
document  was  traced  to  the  Paper  Office  at  the  Castle,  which 
the  Viceroy  endeavored  to  have  suppressed  by  the  keeper  of 
the  records.  On  its  production  the  usurpation  of  the  Bish- 
ops was  proved  beyond  all  possibility  of  argument,  and  Mr. 
Annesley,  through  whose  voice  every  clause  of  the  Union 
had  been  put  and  carried,  was  declared  by  the  House  a  usurp- 
er, and  his  election  and  the  return  thereupon  was  pronounced 
null  and  void.  By  this  decision  the  whole  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  committee  had  been  carried  on,  through  the  instru- 
mentality and  functions  of  a  person  not  de  jure  a  member 
of  Parliament  at  the  time  he  so  acted.  This  point,  if  it  had 
not  been  then  vigorously  pushed,  must  have  led  to  the  most 
serious  and  deep  constitutional  questions. 

It  was  the  lex  Parliamentaria  that,  on  an  election  for  a 
member  of  Parliament,  all  votes  taken  before  a  returning 
officer  not  legally  qualified  as  such,  were  null  and  void. 

Mr.  Charles  Ball  was  excluded  from  voting  against  the 
Union  the  whole  time  of  Mr.  Annesley 's  so  usurping  the  du- 
ties of  a  member  and  voting  in  its  favor.  Whether  his  acts 
could  be  construed  to  be  legal  was  a  point  rendered  useless 
by  the  certainty  of  the  Union  being  effected. 

Mr.  Annesley  was  in  his  seat  in  the  House  when  the  re- 
port of  the  committee  was  read ;  the  effect  was  considerable. 
Mr.  Annesley  and  General  Gardner  instantly  rose  and  left 
the  House,  and  Mr.  Charles  Ball  and  Colonel  King  were  as 
quickly  introduced,  dressed  in  the  Anti-Union  uniform,  and 
took  their  seats  in  the  place  of  the  discarded  members.  A 
new  chairman  was  substituted  for  Mr.  Annesley. 

Another  curious  instance  of  palpable  corruption  remains 
on  record.  Sir  William  Gladowe  Newcomen,  Bart.,  member 
for  the  county  of  Longford,  in  the  course  of  the  debate  de- 
clared he  supported  the  Union,  as  he  was  not  instructed  to 
the  contrary  by  his  constituents.  This  avowal  surprised 
many,  as  it  was  known  that  the  county  was  nearly  unani- 
mous against  the  measure,  and  that  he  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  fact.  However,  he  voted  for  Lord  Castlereagh,  and 
he  asserted  that  conviction  alone  was  his  guide;  his  veracity 
was  doubted  and  in  a  few  months  some  of  his  bribes  were  pub- 
lished.   His  wife  was  also  created  a  peeress. 


544  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

One  of  liis  bribes  has  been  discovered,  registered  in  the 
Rolls  office,  a  document  which  it  was  never  supposed  would 
be  exposed,  but  which  would  have  been  grounds  for  impeach- 
ment against  every  member  of  the  Government  who  thus  con- 
tributed his  aid  to  plunder  the  public  and  corrupt  Parlia- 
ment. 

The  following  is  a  copy  from  the  Rolls  office  of  Ireland: 
By  the  Lord  Lieutenant  and  General  Governor  of   Ireland, 
Cornwallis. 

''Whereas,  Sir  William  Gladowe  Newcomeu,  Bart.,  hath 
by  his  memorial  laid  before  us  represented  that  on  the  25th 
day  of  June,  1785,  John,  late  Earl  of  Mayo,  then  Lord  Vis- 
count Naas,  Receiver  General  of  Stamp  Duties,  together  with 
Sir  Thomas  Newcomen,  Bart.,  and  Sir  Barry  Denny,  Bart., 
both  since  deceased,  as  sureties  for  the  said  John,  Earl  of 
Mayo,  executed  a  bond  to  his  Majesty,  conditioning  to  pay 
into  the  treasury  the  stamp  duties  received  by  him;  that  the 
said  Earl  of  Mayo  continued  in  the  said  office  of  Receiver 
General  until  the  30th  day  of  July,  1786,  when  he  resigned 
the  same,  at  which  time  it  is  stated  that  he  was  indebted  to 
his  Majesty  in  the  sum  of  about  five  thousand  pounds,  and  died 
on  the  7th  of  April,  1793 ;  that  the  said  sureties  are  dead,  and 
the  said  Sir  Thomas  Newcomen,  Bart.,  did  by  his  last  will 
appoint  the  memorialist  executor  of  his  estate ;  that  the  memo- 
rialist proposed  to  pay  into  his  Majesty's  Exchequer  the 
sum  of  two  thousand  pounds  as  a  compensation  for  any  money 
that  might  be  recovered  thereon,  upon  the  estate  being  re- 
leased from  any  further  charge  on  account  of  the  said  debt 
due  to  his  Majesty.  And  the  before-mentioned  memorial 
having  been  referred  to  his  Majesty's  Attorney  General  for 
his  opinion  what  would  be  proper  to  be  done  in  this  matter, 
and  the  said  Attorney  General  having  by  his  report  unto 
us,  dated  the  20th  day  of  August,  1800,  advised  that,  under 
all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  the  sum  of  two  thousand 
pounds  should  be  accepted  of  the  memoralist  on  the  part  of 
the  Govermnent, "  etc.,  etc. 

'M.  Toler.'' 

By  this  abstract  it  now  appears,  even  by  the  memorial  of 
Sir  William  Gladowe,  that  he  was  indebted  at  least  five  thou- 
sand pounds,  from  the  year  1786,  to  the  public  treasury  and 
revenue  of  Ireland ;  that,  with  the  interest  thereon,  it  amount- 
ed in  1800  to  ten  thousand  pounds ;  that  Sir  William  had  as- 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  645 

sets  in  his  hands,  as  executor,  to  pay  that  debt,  and  that,  on 
the  Union,  when  all  such  arrears  must  have  been  paid  into 
the  Treasury,  the  Attorney  General,  under  a  reference  of 
Lords  Cornwallis  and  Castlereagh,  was  induced  to  sanction 
the  transaction  as  reported,  viz.:  ** under  all  its  circum- 
stances," to  forego  the  debt,  except  two  thousand  pounds. 
Every  effort  was  made  to  find  if  any  such  sum  as  two  thou- 
sand pounds  was  credited  to  the  public,  and  none  such  was 
discovered.  The  fact  is  that  Lord  Naas  owed  ten  thousand 
pounds,  consequently  Sir  William  owed  twenty  thousand; 
that  he  never  bona  fide  paid  to  the  public  one  shilling,  which, 
with  a  peerage,  the  patronage  of  his  county  and  the  pecuniary 
pickings  also  received  by  himself,  altogether  formed  a  tol- 
erably strong  bribe,  even  for  a  more  qualmish  conscience  than 
that  of  Sir  William. 

But  all  the  individual  instances  of  the  corrupt  influence 
which  seduced  so  many  members  of  the  Irish  Parliament  to 
betray  their  trusts  and  transmit  their  names  to  posterity  as 
the  most  fatal  enemies  of  that  island  where  they  drew  their 
breath,  would  be  a  labor  of  too  great  an  extent  for  a  work 
of  this  description.  But  it  will  suffice  to  convince  the  Brit- 
ish Empire  that  the  Union  between  England  and  Ireland  was 
the  corrupt  work  of  the  very  minister  who  was  called  over 
with  his  Irish, flock  to  become  the  shepherd  of  the  British  na- 
tion. 

The  few  following  authenticated  examples  of  corrupt  se- 
duction by  Lords  Cornwallis  and  Castlereagh  individually 
may  give  some  slight  idea  of  the  general  system: 

Mr.  Francis  Knox  and  Mr.  Crowe,  two  Irish  barristers, 
were  returned  to  Parliament  for  the  close  borough  of  Philips- 
town,  under  the  patronage  of  Lord  Belvidere.  In  the  session 
of  1799  they  violently  opposed  the  Union.  Mr.  Knox  said: 
' '  I  am  satisfied  that  in  point  of  commerce  England  has  noth- 
ing to  give  to  this  country ;  but,  where  it  otherwise,  I  would 
not  condescend  to  argue  the  subject,  for  I  would  not  surren- 
der the  liberties  of  my  country  for  the  riches  of  the  universe ! 
I  cannot  find  words  to  express  the  horror  I  feel  at  a  propo- 
sition so  extremely  degrading.  It  is  insulting  to  entertain 
it,  even  for  a  moment.  Wliat!  Shall  we  deliberate  whether 
this  kingdom  shall  cease  to  exist;  whether  this  land  shall  be 
struck  from  the  scale  of  nations;  whether  its  very  name  is 
to  be  erased  from  the  map  of  the  world  forever?     Shall  it, 


546  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

I  say,  be  a  question  whether  we  surrender  to  another  sep- 
arate country  and  to  another  separate  legislature  the  lives, 
the  liberties  and  the  properties  of  five  millions  of  people  who 
delegated  us  to  defend  but  not  to  destroy  the  constitution? 
It  is  a  monstrous  proposition,  and  should  be  considered  mere- 
ly in  order  to  mingle  our  disgust  and  execration  with  those 
of  the  people  and  then  to  dash  it  from  us,  never  to 
be  resumed!"    Mr.  Crowe  held  similar  language. 

The  Earl  of  Belvidere  then  called  a  meeting  of  the  county 
of  Westmeath  to  enter  into  resolutions  against  the  Union, 
and  his  proposed  resolutions,  in  his  own  handwriting,  declar- 
atory of  his  resistance  to  that  measure,  are  here  inserted. 
Mr.  Crowe  termed  its  supporters  "flagitious  culprits,"  and 
boldly  declaimed  against  the  unexampled  profligacy  of  the 
Viceroy  and  his  Irish  Secretary.  It  is  fortunate  for  history 
that  irrefragable  proofs  exist  of  this  statement,  and  that 
Great  Britain  may  pursue  the  mode  by  which  Ireland  has 
been  united  to  her.  Every  line  of  such  documents  might  well 
form  a  ground  of  prosecution  or  impeachment  for  high  crimes 
and  misdemeanors  against  both  the  Viceroy  and  the  Secre- 
tary. 

The  Earl  of  Belvidere  and  his  two  friends  had  expressed 
themselves  too  strongly  against  the  Union,  and  were  of  too 
much  importance  to  be  left  untempted.  The  Marquis,  there- 
fore, undertook  to  manage  the  Peer,  whilst  Lord  Castlereagh 
engaged  to  seduce  the  Commoners.  Mr.  Usher,  the  Earl's 
chaplain,  wise  man  and  adviser,  was  also  enlisted  to  effect  the 
seduction  of  his  patron  and  of  his  accessories.  The  negotia- 
tion completely  succeeded. 

The  English  nation  will  scarcely  believe  the  fact  that, 
within  a  few  months,  his  Lordship,  with  Mr.  Knox  and  Mr. 
Crowe,  were  literally  purchased,  and  in  four  months  after 
publishing  the  resolutions  in  favor  of  the  measure  were  cir- 
culated by  his  Lordship  among  his  tenantry.  As  soon  as 
the  bribe  was  fixed,  as  he  conceived,  the  whole  of  his  Lord- 
ship's former  principles  were  recanted  and  condemned  as 
hasty  and  against  the  general  opinion  of  the  people. 

Lord  Cornwallis  had  now  gained  his  point,  and  turned 
round  on  the  apostates;  they  were  disgraced  traitors;  they 
were  now  helpless ;  they  durst  not  again  recant.  The  terms 
had  been  munificent;  nothing  required  by  Lord  Belvidere 
had  been  refused  by  the  Marquis ;  but  after  he  had  made  their 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  547 

defection  public  and  irrevocable  he  gave  his  Lordship  to  un- 
derstand that  there  was  a  misconception  as  to  the  terms, 
which,  being  matters  of  detail,  could  be  more  properly  ar- 
ranged by  the  Secretary;  and  thus  he  turned  them  over  to 
the  mercy  of  Lord  Castlereagh.  His  Lordsliip,  seeing  they 
were  entrapped  beyond  the  power  of  escaping,  soon  con- 
vinced them  that  he  also  knew  how  to  despise  the  instru- 
ments he  had  corrupted.  Mr.  Usher,  the  chaplain,  was  to  be 
remunerated  for  soothing  the  conscience  of  Lord  Belvidere; 
the  clergy  are  seldom  reluctant  when  good  bargains  are  go- 
ing forward,  but  a  general  dissatisfaction  now  arose  among 
all  the  parties.  Usher,  however,  was  contented;  he  got  a 
cure  of  souls  for  his  political  guilt,  and,  after  having  aided 
in  corruption,  went  to  preach  purity  to  his  parishioners! 

The  English  people  would  scarcely  credit  the  most  ac- 
curate historian,  did  not  the  annexed  letter  prove  the  whole 
transaction  and  leave  them  to  ruminate  upon  the  nefarious 
system  to  which  they  were  themselves  subject,  under  the  same 
minister.  In  England  an  impeachment  would  have  been  the 
result  of  this  disclosure,  but  in  Ireland  it  was  the  least  of 
Lord  Castlereagh 's  malpractices. 

Mr.  Crowe's  letter,  shortly  after  Lord  Belvidere  was  pur- 
chased by  Lord  Cornwallis : 

'^October  4th,  1799. 

''My  Dear  LofY?— This  moment  yours  of  the  3rd  inst.  has 
been  delivered  by  the  postman.  I  am  heartily  concerned  that 
I  am  obliged  to  differ  with  your  Lordship  (for  the  first  time 
during  a  three  and  twenty  years'  friendship)  in  point  of 
fact :  as  to  what  passed  between  Lord  Cornwallis  it  has  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  present  question,  which  is  simply  'whether 
the  agreement  made  by  Mr.  Knox  with  Lord  Castlereagh 
is  to  be  adhered  to  or  violated.'  This  agreement  was  two 
months  subsequent  to  your  conversation  with  Lord  Corn- 
wallis, and  you  will  recollect  you  had  two  interviews  with 
the  Viceroy,  the  latter  of  which  was  by  no  means  so  flatter- 
ing as  the  first,  and  was  very  far  from  holding  out  splendid 
expectations,  but  all  prior  discussions  are  always  done  away 
by  a  subsequent  agreement,  for  otherwise  it  would  be  absurd 
ever  to  think  of  making  one,  which  would  always  be  open  to 
be  departed  from  by  any  of  the  parties  on  a  suggestion  that 
in  a  prior  conversation  this  thing  was  said  or  the  other  thing 
was  done.    An  agreement  once  made,  nothing  remains  but 


548  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

to  carry  it  into  effect  according  to  its  terms  as  fast  as  pos- 
sible. The  business  then  comes  to  this,  what  was  the  agree- 
ment made  by  Mr.  Knox  with  Lord  Castlereagh  respecting 
the  only  point  that  has  induced  your  Lordship  to  delay  mat- 
ters, al]  the  rest  being  confessedly  understood,  namely,  'the 
vacating  Mr.  Knox's  seat  and  mine  in  order  to  give  the  re- 
turn of  the  two  members  to  Government  in  our  places.* 

' '  This  particular  Mr.  Knox  stated  distinctly  and  explicitly 
that  Lord  Castlereagh,  at  the  outset  of  the  negotiation,  laid 
it  down  as  a  sine  qua  non  that  we  must  vacate  our  seats  in  the 
present  Parliament,  and  that  he  should  have  the  nomination 
of  the  two  new  members.  But  such  a  distinction  as  your 
Lordship  conceives  of  vacating  for  the  question  of  Union, 
and  in  case  Government  should  be  defeated  on  that  meas- 
ure, that  those  two  new  members  should  vacate,  and  that 
you  should  have  a  power  of  nominating  in  their  stead  the 
remainder  of  the  Parliament,  never  in  the  slightest  degree 
was  made  by  Mr.  Knox,  nor  even  by  your  Lordship ;  but,  on 
the  contrary,  your  Lordship  assented  to  that  part  as  well  as  to 
every  other  part  of  the  treaty  with  Lord  Castlereagh,  and 
from  the  instant  you  thus  gave  your  assent  a  full,  complete 
and  perfect  agreement  took  place.  Mr.  Usher  was  present 
at  all  this,  and  it  is  his  duty  to  come  forward  and  declare 
the  fact. 

'*0n  the  10th  of  July  this  negotiation  commenced,  and 
from  that  period  to  this  I  have  been  kept  in  town  from  my  con- 
cerns in  law,  in  constant  expectation  of  having  it  concluded, 
and  now,  nearly  at  the  end  of  three  months,  to  have  it  all 
upset  is  very  severe. 

"As  to  the  engagement  that  your  Lordship  describes  and 
that  your  burgesses  signed,  it  is  a  direct  contradiction  to  that 
part  of  the  agreement  it  professes  to  be  conformable  to,  and 
is  so  much  trouble  for  nothing,  but  what  appears  extraordi- 
nary to  me,  along  with  all  the  rest  of  this  extraordinary  busi- 
ness, is  that  your  Lordship  should  prepare  or  get  this  en- 
gagement signed  after  you  were  apprised,  both  by  Mr.  Knox's 
letters  and  mine  to  you  and  Mr.  Usher,  that  anything  short 
of  the  identical  paper  sent  down  by  Mr.  Knox  would  not 
answer.  I  have  nothing  more  to  add  than  to  request  your 
Tiordship  will  bring  Mr.  Usher  up  with  you  directly. 

*'I  am,  my  dear  Lord,  Yours  most  sincerely, 

**RoB.  Crowe." 

*'To  the  Earl  of  Belvidere,"  etc.,  etc. 


In  the  Days  of  Grattan  549 

RESOLUTIONS. 

In  the  handwriting  of  the  Earl  of  Belvidere,  prepared  by 
him  for  the  Freeholders  of  the  County  of  Westmeath,  against 
a  Legislative  Union  in  1799.  His  Lordship  afterwards  voted 
for  and  supported  that  measure  warmly. 

''Eesolved,  That  the  free  and  independent  Legislature  of 
Ireland  having  been  unequivocally  established,  every  meas- 
ure that  tends  to  encroach  on  it  calls  for  our  implicit  disap- 
jirobation. 

The  depending  project  of  a  Union  with  Great  Britain, 
the  appearance  of  being  merely  a  transfer  of  the  Parlia- 
ment, is,  in  fact,  a  complete  extinction  of  it ;  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  Irishmen  of  every  descrij)tion  to  come  forward  and  by 
all  constitutional  means  to  resist  a  scheme  so  subversiTe  of 
the  real  interest,  prosperity  and  dignity  of  their  country. 

That  we  entertain  too  high  an  opinion  of  the  integrity  of 
our  representatives  to  suppose  them  capable  of  voting  away 
the  rights  of  the  people,  had  a  power  of  such  nature  been  ever 
invested  in  them." 

This  transaction  between  Lord  Cornwallis  and  Castle- 
reagh,  and  Lord  Belvidere  and  Messrs.  Knox  and  Crowe, 
ought  to  be  one  of  the  most  useful  lessons  to  the  British  na- 
tion ;  there  will  be  seen  in  the  sad  fate  of  Ireland  the  means 
by  which  their  own  liberties  may  be  destroyed. 

Before  the  third  reading  of  the  bill,  when  it  was  about 
to  be  reported,  Mr.  Charles  Ball,  member  for  Clogher,  rose 
and,  without  speaking  one  word,  looked  around  impressively ; 
every  eye  was  directed  to  him ;  he  only  pointed  his  hand  sig- 
nificantly to  the  bar  and  immediately  walked  forth,  casting 
a  parting  look  behind  him  and  turning  his  eyes  to  Heaven,  as 
if  to  invoke  vengeance  on  the  enemies  of  his  country.  His 
example  was  contagious.  Those  anti-Unionists  who  were  in 
the  House  immediately  followed  his  example,  and  never  re- 
turned into  that  Senate  wiiich  had  been  the  glory,  the  guard- 
ian, and  the  protection  of  their  country.  There  was  but  one 
scene  more  and  the  curtain  was  to  drop  forever. 

The  day  of  extinguishing  the  liberties  of  Ireland  had  now 
arrived  and  the  sun  took  his  last  view  of  an  independent  Ire- 
land; he  rose  no  more  over  a  proud  and  prosperous  nation. 
She  was  now  condemned  by  the  British  Minister  to  renounce 
her  rank  amongst  the  States  of  Europe,  she  was  sentenced 


550  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

to  cancel  lier  constitution,  to  disband  her  Commons,  and  dis- 
franchise her  nobility,  to  proclaim  her  incapacity,  and  regis- 
ter her  corruption  in  the  records  of  the  empire.  On  this 
fatal  event  some  whose  honesty  the  tempter  could  not  de- 
stroy, some  whose  honor  he  dare  not  assail,  and  many  who 
could  not  control  the  useless  language  of  indignation,  pru- 
dently withdrew  from  a  scene  where  they  would  have  wit- 
nessed the  downfall  of  their  country.  Every  precaution  was 
taken  by  Lord  Clare  for  the  security,  at  least,  of  his  own  per- 
son. The  Houses  of  Parliament  were  closely  invested  by 
the  military.  No  demonstration  of  popular  feeling  was  per- 
mitted. A  British  regiment  near  the  entrance  patrolled 
through  the  Ionic  colonnades.  The  chaste  architecture  of  that 
classic  structure  seemed  as  a  monument  to  the  falling  Irish, 
to  remind  them  of  what  they  had  been  and  to  tell  them  what 
they  were.  It  was  a  heart-rending  sight  to  those  who  loved 
their  country ;  it  was  a  sting  to  those  who  sold  it,  and  to  those 
who  purchased  it,  a  victory;  but  to  none  has  it  been  a  tri- 
umph. Thirty-three  years  of  miserable  experience  should 
now  convince  the  British  people  that  they  have  gained  neither 
strength,  nor  affection,  nor  tranquillity  by  their  acquisition, 
and  that  if  population  be  the  '* wealth  of  nations,"  Ireland 
is  getting  far  too  rich  to  be  governed  much  longer  as  a  pauper. 

The  British  people  knew  not  the  true  history  of  the  Union, 
that  the  brilliant  promises,  the  predictions  of  rapid  pros- 
perity and  ''consolidating  resources"  were  but  chimerical. 
"Whilst  the  finest  principles  of  the  constitution  were  sapped 
to  effect  the  measure,  England,  by  the  subjugation  of  her  sis- 
ter kingdom,  gained  only  an  accumulation  of  debt,  an  acces- 
sion of  venality  to  her  Parliament,  an  embarrassment  in  her 
councils,  and  a  prospective  danger  to  the  integrity  of  the 
empire.  The  name  of  Union  has  been  acquired,  but  the  at- 
attainment  of  the  substance  has  been  removed  farther  than 
ever. 

The  Commons  House  of  Parliament,  on  the  last  evening 
afforded  the  most  melancholy  example  of  a  fine,  independent 
people,  betrayed,  divided,  sold,  and,  as  a  State,  annihilated. 
British  clerks  and  officers  were  smuggled  into  her  Parlia- 
ment to  vote  away  the  constitution  of  a  country  to  which 
they  were  strangers,  and  in  which  they  had  neither  interest 
nor  connection.  They  were  employed  to  cancel  the  royai 
charter  of  the  Irish  nation,  guaranteed  by  the  British  Gov- 


In  the  Days  of  (J rattan  551 

ernmcnt,  sanctioned  by  the  British  legislature,  and  unequiv- 
ocally confirmed  by  the  words,  the  signature,  and  the  great 
seal  of  their  monarch. 

The  situation  of  the  Speaker  on  that  night  was  of  the 
most  distressing  nature;  a  sincere  and  ardent  enemy  of  the 
measure,  he  headed  its  opponents ;  he  resisted  it  with  all  the 
power  of  his  mind,  the  resources  of  his  experience,  his  in- 
fluence and  his  eloquence. 

It  was,  however,  through  his  voice  that  it  was  to  be  pro- 
claimed and  consummated.  His  only  alternative  (resigna- 
tion) would  have  been  unavailing,  and  could  have  added  noth- 
ing to  his  character.  His  expressive  countenance  bespoke  the 
inquietude  of  his  feeling ;  solicitude  was  perceptible  in  every 
glance,  and  his  embarrassment  was  obvious  in  every  word  he 
uttered. 

The  galleries  were  full,  but  the  change  was  lamentable; 
they  were  no  longer  crowded  with  those  who  had  been  ac- 
customed to  witness  the  eloquence  and  to  animate  the  debates 
of  that  devoted  assembly.  A  monotonous  and  melancholy 
murmur  ran  through  the  benches,  scarcely  a  word  was  ex- 
changed amongst  the  members,  nobody  seemed  at  ease,  no 
cheerfulness  was  apparent,  and  the  ordinary  business  for 
a  short  time  proceeded  in  the  usual  manner. 

At  length  the  expected  moment  arrived,  the  order  of  the 
day  for  the  third  reading  of  the  bill,  for  a  "Legislative  Union 
between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,'*  was  moved  by  Lord 
Castlereagh ;  unvaried,  tame,  cold-blooded,  the  words  seemed 
frozen  as  they  issued  from  his  lips,  and,  as  if  a  simple  citi- 
zen of  the  world,  he  seemed  to  have  no  sensation  on  the  sub- 
ject. 

At  that  moment  he  had  no  country,  no  god  but  his  ambi- 
tion; he  made  his  motion  and  resumed  his  seat  with  the  ut- 
most composure  and  indifference. 

Confused  murmurs  again  ran  through  the  House;  it  was 
visibly  affected;  every  character  in  a  moment  seemed  invol- 
untarily rushing  to  its  index,  some  pale,  some  flushed,  some 
agitated;  there  were  few  countenances  to  which  the  heart 
did  not  dispatch  some  messenger.  Several  members  with- 
drew before  the  question  could  be  repeated,  and  an  awful 
momentary  silence  succeeded  their  departure.  The  Speaker 
rose  slowly  from  that  chair  which  had  been  the  proud  source 
of  his  honors,  and  of  his  high  character;  for  a  moment  he 


652  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

resumed  his  seat,  but  the  strength  of  his  mind  sustained  him 
in  his  duty,  though  his  struggle  was  ajwarent.  With  that 
dignity  which  never  failed  to  signalize  his  official  actions  he 
held  up  the  bill  for  a  moment  in  silence;  he  looked  steadily 
around  him  on  the  last  agony  of  the  expiring  Parliament. 
He  at  length  repeated  in  an  emphatic  tone,  **As  many  as  are 
of  opinion  that  THIS  BILL  do  pass,  say  aye. ' '  The  affirma- 
tive was  languid  but  indisputable ;  another  momentary  pause 
ensued,  again  his  lips  seemed  to  decline  their  office ;  at  length, 
with  an  eye  averted  from  the  object  which  he  hated,  he  pro- 
claimed, with  a  subdued  voice,  ''THE  AYES  HAVE  IT." 

The  fatal  sentence  was  now  pronounced;  for  an  instant 
he  stood  statue-like ;  then  indignantly,  and  with  disgust,  flung 
the  bill  upon  the  table  and  sank  into  his  chair  with  an  ex- 
hausted spirit.  An  independent  country  was  thus  degraded 
into  a  province ;  Ireland,  as  a  nation,  was  EXTINGUISHED. 


Ornament  on  top  of  Devenish  Round  Tuwer. 
From  Petrie  s  "Round  Towers,"  400. 


SECTION  V. 


THE  MEN  WHO  DIED 
FOR  IRELAND  IN  '48  AND  '67 


O'NEILL  CROWLEY'S  LAST  STAND 


BT 


M.  A.  MANNING,  First  Editor,  Dublin  Weekly  Independent 


CONTAINING 


A  GRAPHIC  AND  PICTURESQUE  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  FENIAN 
DAYS  IN  IRELAND 


553 


DANIEL  O'COXXELL, 
The  Liberator  Wlio  Won  Catholic   Emancipation. 


THE  MEN  WHO  DIED  FOR  IRELAND 

IN  '48  AND  '67. 

BY  M.  A.  MANNING,  FIRST  EDITOR,  DUBLIN  WEEKLY 
INDEPENDENT. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

DANIEL  O'CONNELL  had  won  Catholic  Emancipation 
at  a  large  price— the  sacrifice  of  the  Forty  Shilling  FreehoLd- 
ers;  but  even  at  such  a  price,  Catholic  Emancipation  meant 
a  great  deal  to  Ireland,  and  earned  for  0 'Council  the  proud 
title  of  "Liberator."  The  tithes  still  existed,  however,  and 
the  Protestant  clergjanen  of  the  established  church,  assisted 
by  the  soldiers  and  police,  compelled  the  Catholic  people  to 
deliver  to  them  a  share  of  the  products  of  their  farms.  O'Con- 
nell's  attempts  in  Parliament  to  abolish  this  unjust  and  un- 
reasonable system  came  to  naught.  It  remained  for  the  men 
of  Kilkenny  '*in  the  narrow  boreen  at  Carrickshock"  to  deal 
a  deathblow  to  the  Tithes  Act,  and  well  and  fearlessly  they 
did  it. 

When  Mitchell,  Davis,  Dillon  and  Duffy  came  upon  the 
scene  and  began  to  preach  the  doctrines  that  culminated  in 
the  abortive  rising  of  '48,  0  'Connell  's  power  began  to  wane, 
and  he  was  no  longer  an  important  factor  in  Irish  politics. 
The  story  of  '48  has  been  told  so  often  in  song  and  story  that 
the  compilers  feel  it  would  be  superfluous  to  include  it  in  this 
work.  It  is  their  purpose  to  preserve  for  the  Irish  people 
and  their  descendants  in  America  some  of  the  things  that 
are  in  danger  of  being  lost,  and  to  add  many  things  more 
that  have  not  been  touched  upon  already.  Hence  the  promi- 
nence given  in  the  book  to  several  new  articles  on  new  sub- 
jects as  well  as  to  the  accounts  of  the  "Wexford  Rebellion  and 
the  history  of  Grattan's  Parliament,  both  books  being  now 
out  of  print. 

The  thrilling  narrative  of  the  Fenian  movement,  center- 
ing around  the  heroic  O'Neill  Crowley,  is  given  as  a  sample 
of  the  sacrifices  and  patriotism  of  the  men  of  that  period— 

555 


556 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


Stephens,  Kickham,  O'Leary,  tlie  Sheares  brothers,  Allen, 
Larkin,  O'Brien  and  scores  of  others.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
beautifully  written  stories  of  an  Irish  Revolutionary  move- 
ment that  has  ever  been  given  to  the  public.  It  is  impossible 
for  an  Irishman  to  read  it  without  becoming  a  more  ardent 
patriot  and  truer  friend  of  liberty  than  he  was  before. 

As  regards  Emmet  and  Tone,  it  may  be  said  that  their 
efforts  for  Irish  freedom  are  known  to  every  man,  woman 
and  child  of  the  Irish  race  to-day,  and  annually  meetings  are 
held  in  their  honor  at  which  their  exploits  are  extolled  and 
their  principles  adopted.  Hence,  any  lengthened  account  of 
the  part  which  they  took  in  the  fight  for  the  independence  of 
Ireland  would  not  be  new,  and,  it  seems  to  us,  at  the  present 
time  is  unnecessary.  But,  in  another  section,  Emmet's  im- 
mortal speech  from  the  dock  will  be  found  in  full.  It  gives 
a  better  insight  into  his  character  and  motives  than  any  biog- 
raphy, however  excellent,  could  supply.         P.  F.  Holden. 


CkimpQsed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  I. 

0*NEILL  CROWLEY *S  LAST  STAND  ' '  FOR  IRELAND"— BY  M.  A.   MAN- 
NING, FIRST  EDITOR  OF  THE  DUBLIN   WEEKLY  INDEPENDENT. 

In  the  very  southeast  of  Cork  county,  a  mile  or  so  inland 
from  the  bold  cliffs  that  stand  eternal  sentinel  at  the  entrance 
to  Youghal  Harbor,  is  the  little  village  of  Ballymacoda.  Just 
one  street  of  low-roofed,  tidy  houses  and  the  village  church, 
built  on  the  rising  ground,  solid  and  unpicturesque.  All 
around  are  green  fields,  and  here  and  there  clusters  of  firs 
and  young  oaks.  'Tis  a  fair  country  around  this  quiet  vil- 
lage, no  broad  rivers  or  tall  mountains,  no  hillsides  with 
golden  gorse  and  purple  heather,  no  background  like  the 
frowning  Comeraghs  or  the  grey  hills  that  frame  the  Golden 
Vale  of  Tipperary,  but  yet  a  fair  country— a  fair,  green  old 
land,  where  Irishmen  and  Irishwomen  might  live  in  gentle 
peace  and  in  quiet.  An  old  historic  country,  too,  this  stretch 
of  land  from  Glanmire  to  Knockadoon,  with  its  traditions  of 
bloody  massacres  and  burnings,  incursions  and  devastations. 
Storm-beaten  and  shattered  on  many  a  surrounding  hill,  sil- 
houetted against  the  sky,  grim  even  in  their  desolation  and 
decay,  stand  the  broken  walls  of  many  a  castle-fortress  and 
the  grey  ruins  of  many  a  watch-tower.  The  winds  that  blow 
from  the  sea  sigh  through  the  hollow  keeps;  but  on  wild 
nights,  when  the  roar  of  the  distant  ocean  is  heard  like  the 
moan  of  a  man,  and  the  sea  spume  is  carried  inland,  the 
hoarse  winds  howl  as  they  hurry  through  the  ruined  halls, 
tearing  the  ivy  from  crumbling  stones,  and  oftentimes  wrench- 
ing great  mullions  from  the  walls  and  dashing  them  down  in 
mad  fury,  just  as  if  the  spirits  of  the  old  lords  rode  on  the 
tempests  and  were  furious  at  these  headstones  to  their  fallen 
fortunes. 

In  the  chapel  grounds  are  two  monuments,  things  of  stone, 
but  beautiful  in  their  simplicity,  telling  a  pathetic  and  terrible 
tale.  One,  time-stained,  weather-worn,  enclosed  with  iron 
railings,  the  enclosure  overrun  with  sweetbriar  and  ivy;  the 
other  more  modem,  tall  and  stately,  standing  erect  and  proud, 
as  if  challenging  the  verdict  of  all  men  on  him  who  sleeps 
below.    The  first  marks  the  place  where  were  laid  the  bones 

557 


558 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


of  Father  Peter  O'Neill,  the  poor  priest  the  English  Chris- 
tians flogged  as  a  rebel  through  the  streets  of  Cork  in  '98 ;  and 
beneath  the  other  was  buried  the  corpse  of  O'Neill  Crowley, 
who  died  on  the  slopes  of  Kilclooney  Wood  in  '67,  with  an 
English  bullet  in  his  heart. 

Facing  the  east,  let  into  the  base  of  a  glorious  Celtic  cross, 
is  a  panel,  on  which  is  graven  the  brief  record  of  a  man's  life 
in  the  language  of  the  country  in  which  he  lived  and  for  whose 
freedom  he  died;  and  when  the  sun  dies  amid  the  blood-red 
glory  of  the  west  it  lights  up  the  same  record  graven  in  the 
tongue  of  the  men  who  slew  him. 


Erected  by  the  Irish  People 

To  the  memory  of  the  patriot, 

PETER  O'NEILL  CROWLEY, 

Who  was  shot  down  by  the  British  Soldiery 

whilst  bravely  fighting 

For  his  country's  independence 

At  Kilclooney  Wood,  March  31,  1867, 

in  the  35th  year  of  his  age. 

R.  I.  P.-Amen. 


Q 

o 

s: 

H 


CHAPTER  II. 

He  was  born  here  in  Ballymacoda  on  the  23rd  of  May, 
1832,  in  a  homely  two-storied  thatched  house  just  above  the 
church,  on  the  brow  of  the  hill.  His  father  was  a  rebel  be- 
fore him,  and  took  up  arms  in  '98,  when  the  nation  could  no 
longer  bear  its  martyrdom.  He  lived  a  proscribed  rebel  for 
many  a  year,  with  a  price  upon  his  head.  And  the  old  priest, 
Crowley's  uncle,  after  whom  he  was  named,  he,  too,  serv^ed 
God  and  loved  his  land.  And  he  was  tied  to  a  triangle  and 
flogged  like  a  dog,  was  this  young  priest,  flayed  by  these 
Saxon  Gospelers,  scourged  until  the  bones  stood  bare  through 
his  torn  flesh,  until  his  blood  made  pools  on  the  barrack 
ground.  Ah,  it  came  kindly  to  this  man  who  sleeps  by  the 
old  priest's  side  in  Ballymacoda  to  hate  these  English  as 
only  goodly  men  can  hate  and  to  die  as  a  goodly  man  should 
die— with  his  face  to  the  foe  and  his  life-blood  welling  from 
his  side. 

A  silent  man,  a  man  gentle  and  kindly,  never  loud  voiced ; 
he  went  among  his  fellow  men  and  told  of  the  dawning  of  a 
bright  day  for  Ireland,  and  people  came  and  listened  to  him 
and  wondered  and  believed.  And  his  sister,  a  woman  of  deep 
resolution,  who  loved  him  dearly,  an  Irishwoman  who  felt 
as  he  felt,  but  held  her  peace,  had  the  burden  placed  upon 
her  of  managing  his  affairs,  for  he  went  about  from  place  to 
place  and  his  home  often  missed  him  for  weeks  together. 
He  was  keenly  alive  to  the  responsibilities  and  dangers  of  the 
movement  which  he  encouraged  the  people  to  join,  but  he 
felt  it  a  sacred  duty  to  free  his  land,  and  deemed  her  liberty 
the  heritage  of  her  sons. 

Often  when  returning  by  the  cliff  roads  to  his  home  on 
some  clear  night  when  the  mists  rolled  seaward,  he  could  see, 
afar  off,  shining  like  a  star  in  the  east,  the  gleam  of  the  Hook 
Light  on  the  Wexford  coast.  To  him  it  seemed  a  beacon, 
warning  and  beckoning.  Afar  off  truly,  but  it  marked  the 
ground  where  brave  men  had  once  fought  and  died  for  Ire- 
land, and  he  would  raise  aloft  his  clenched  and  trembling 
hands  and  swear  to  strike  a  blow  as  did  the  Shilmalier  in  '98 
—and  well  he  kept  his  vow. 

559 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Fenian  movement  grew  and  developed,  and  nowhere 
did  it  take  a  firmer  hold  than  in  East  Cork.  Midleton  had  a 
muster  roll  of  five  hundred  men  and  every  parish  and  every 
village  had  its  sworn  contingent.  Early  in  '67  Irish  hearts 
beat  high  with  courage  and  hope  and  Young  Ireland  panted 
for  the  day  of  reckoning.  Its  sad,  sad  ending  and  the  ter- 
rible betrayals  are  matters  of  history.  We  deal  only  with 
one  tragic  incident  that  is  an  epitome  of  pity  and  of  heroism. 

Captain  McClure,  a  young  American  born  at  Dobb's  Ferry, 
about  fifty  miles  from  New  York  City,  and  who  served  with 
distinction  in  the  American  war,  retiring  at  the  termination  of 
that  terrible  struggle  with  the  rank  of  Brevet  Captain  of 
Cavalry,  offered  his  sword  to  the  service  of  the  Irish  Repub- 
lican Brotherhood.  He  was  born  of  Irish  parents,  and  had 
heard  from  his  father  stories  of  the  Old  Land  that  had  set 
his  young  blood  coursing  wildly  through  his  veins,  and  made 
him  pray  for  the  time  when,  amid  the  glitter  of  steel  and  the 
smoke  of  battle,  the  freedom  of  Ireland  might  be  won.  He 
hoped  and  dreamed  as  did  O'Neill  Crowley,  and  they  stood 
together  in  the  fatal  wood.  He  sailed  from  America  early 
in  '67  and  landed  in  Glasgow ;  journeyed  from  thence  to  Liv- 
erpool, and  proceeded  to  Cork,  where  he  was  charged  with 
the  control  and  organization  of  the  Midleton  district.  Then 
he  met  Crowley,  recognized  in  him  the  stuff  of  which  heroes 
are  made,  and  trusted  him.  Crowley,  on  the  other  hand, 
perceived  in  this  dark-featured,  square-built  man,  short  of 
stature,  but  active  and  daring,  one  to  be  relied  upon  in  dan- 
ger, quick  to  act  and  strike. 

How  McClure 's  soul  must  have  sickened;  how  his  heart 
must  have  grown  leaden  with  despair  when  he  found  his 
hopes  shattered.  No  arms,  no  stores,  no  ammunition;  noth- 
ing but  men,  ready  and  willing,  Irishmen  who  patiently  wait- 
ed and  blindly  trusted.  Nothing— when  he  was  led  to  be- 
lieve he  would  be  met  with  a  disciplined  force,  rifles  in  their 
hands  and  cartridges  in  their  pouches. 


560 


,\^ ;-;  -  ii^MJv 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Tuesday,  the  5th  day  of  March,  1867.  The  dawn  of  a  bit- 
ter day  for  Ireland.  True  to  his  oath,  O'Neill  Crowley  took 
his  place  at  the  head  of  his  contingent  and  captured  and 
sacked  the  coast-guard  station  at  Knockadoon,  a  f,ew  short 
miles  from  Balh^nacoda.  The  Midleton  contingent,  num- 
bering many  hundreds,  was  to  form  a  junction  with  Crow- 
ley's force.  They  marched  out  of  the  town  and,  under  the 
command  of  Timothy  Daly,  attacked  the  police  patrol,  de- 
manding their  arms.  A  skirmish  ensued,  in  which  a  sergeant 
lost  his  life,  and  the  Constabulary  hastily  retired.  Thence 
on  to  the  Youghal  crossroads,  where  they  were  to  meet  Crow- 
ley and  place  themselves  under  the  direction  of  Corydon,  who 
was  to  have  come  from  Cork  that  day  to  take  up  the  chief 
command  of  the  forces  in  this  part  of  County  Cork.  But 
no  Corydon  came ;  Corydon,  informer  and  spy,  dealer  in  men's 
lives,  betrayer  of  his  country  and  her  cause,  had  already 
played  the  Judas.  McClure  saw  all  too  clearly  the  criminal 
folly  of  keeping  his  body  of  men  together.  He  felt  they  were 
betrayed,  and  they  had  no  adequate  arms  or  ammunition.  He 
acted  promptly.  He  gave  the  order  to  disperse  to  their 
homes. 

But  there  were  some  there  who,  in  their  wild  despair,  in 
the  agony  of  betrayal,  would  not  go  tamely  back.  Daly  pushed 
on  to  Castlemartyr,  a  long  and  weary  march,  and  attacked 
the  police  barracks  there.  His  companions  dragged  a  cart 
of  hay  across  the  road  close  by  the  barracks,  and,  using  it 
as  a  cover,  opened  fire.  They  were  answered  by  volley  after 
volley,  and  Daly,  receiving  his  death  wound,  staggered  a  few 
paces  and  fell  dead  with  a  bullet  in  his  breast.  His  body 
was  borne  to  his  home  in  Chapel  road,  in  Midleton,  and  there 
they  kneeled  over  him  and  prayed  and  lit  the  death  candles. 
And  armed  men,  representing  the  might  of  Britain,  stood 
beside  the  corpse,  men  with  set  faces  and  grounded  rifles, 
guarding  the  dead. 

And  to-day  there  stands  in  Killeagh  Churchyard  a  great 
Celtic  cross  raised  to  his  memory,  a  tribute  to  a  man  of  the 
people  who  stood  forth  from  the  ranks  and  died. 

561 


CHAPTER  V. 

O'Neill  Crowley  knew  there  would  be  a  price  set  upon 
the  head  of  the  young  American  who  had  crossed  the  seas 
to  help  them.  So  he  determined  to  stand  by  him ;  he  believed 
it  to  be  his  duty.  Accompanied  by  a  few  daring  and  reso- 
lute men,  they  set  out  to  march  across  the  county  of  Cork, 
hoping  all  along  that  the  Fenian  rising  had  not  been  a  failure 
in  Mitchelstown  district  and  South  Tipperary ;  hoping  against 
hope  that  they  would  in  those  places  find  others  to  join 
with  them  and  make  a  last  stand  in  the  passes  of  the  Galtee 
Mountains  or  the  hillsides  that  look  down  on  the  valley  of 
Aherlow. 

Stealthily  they  marched  by  night— here  receiving  word  of 
the  flying  columns  that  scoured  the  country;  there  avoiding 
places  where  troops  were  hastily  gathered  together,  having 
many  a  hair-breadth  escape  and  many  a  tragic  adventure. 
But  Crowley  came  from  a  countryside  that  bred  never  an  in- 
former, and  his  courage  was  unflagging.  And  all  hope  was 
not  crushed.  The  Corydon  betrayal  could  only  be  a  single 
instance  of  infamy.  Irishmen  rould  not  be  such  traitors. 
Alas  and  alas! 

And  the  peasants  opened  their  doors  to  them  and  bade 
them  welcome  and  gave  them  food  and  shelter,  and  prayed 
God  be  with  them  when  they  left  in  the  darkness  of  the  cold 
March  night.  On  and  on  to  the  Galtees  that  now  stood  out 
dark  and  lonely  before  them.  And  many  a  Munster  peasant 
who  gave  them  succor  was  arrested  and  threatened  and  ca- 
joled and  wheedled  and  offered  golden  bribes,  but  they  spake 
not  a  word,  these  Munster  peasants.  And  Crowley  and  Mc- 
Clure  and  their  handful  of  followers  arrived  weary  and  trav- 
el-worn at  the  grove  of  Ballymacourty,  a  few  miles  north  of 
Kilclooney  Wood.  Here,  too,  the  same  story.  Strong  men, 
fearless  men,  ready  to  take  the  field,  but  no  arms,  no  organ- 
ization. The  day  of  rising  found  them  utterly  undisciplined 
—an  enrolled  and  unarmed  army.  If  it  had  been  otherwise 
Ireland  could  boast  her  Bannockburn. 


.562 


{I 


LORD  EinVAl!])  FITZGERALD. 


THEOBALD  WOLFE  TONE. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  authorities  were  mightily  scared.  They  were  face 
to  face  with  a  terrible  danger.  Informer  after  informer— 
Irishmen  all  of  them— God  forgive  them!— trooped  into  Dub- 
lin Castle  and  into  every  police  barrack  throughout  the  coun- 
try. The  Executive  began  to  realize  the  extent  of  the  con- 
spiracy and  rebellion  that  had  only  missed  tire.  Mounted 
Constabulary  had  been  sent  to  the  disaffected  districts  early 
in  the  month,  with  instructions  to  learn  the  lie  of  the  land 
in  order  to  act  as  guides  to  the  flying  columns  when  necessary. 
Troops  were  hastily  transported  to  those  centers  where  the 
authorities  knew  the  ashes  were  smouldering,  and  where  the 
flames  might  break  out  afresh  with  the  lightest  breath.  Ah ! 
well  the  Government  knew  where  to  mass  the  redcoats,  for 
the  informer  had  done  his  work  silently  and  well.  In  the 
great  barracks  at  Mitchelstown  were  several  companies  of 
the  Cork  Regiment  of  the  line,  together  with  a  vast  force  of 
police,  and  Neil  Brown,  the  Resident  Magistrate,  was  there, 
and  he  was  exceedingly  busy.  For  every  night  came  men, 
close  wrapped  and  muffled  up ;  and  they  were  hastily  shown 
into  his  private  office,  and  they  stayed  with  him  for  hours. 
In  the  darkness  they  came  and  in  the  darkness  they  stole 
away,  glancing  uneasily  about,  fearful  of  being  recognized. 
For  they  came  with  a  story  that  ever  commanded  a  price ;  they 
earned  blood  money.  Men— it  seems  such  a  woeful  pity  to 
call  them  men— things  mean  of  soul,  creeping  things,  these 
spies  and  traitors  who  hunted  down  their  own  flesh  and  blood 
for  a  handful  of  money. 

And  in  the  early  dawn  mounted  men,  armed  and  ready, 
would  ride  forth  from  the  barrack  gates  and  off  to  some  farm- 
stead or  wooded  knoll,  only  to  find  their  quarry  flown.  For 
if  the  informers  were  watchful  so  were  the  poor  peasants, 
whose  eyes  were  sharp  and  keen,  and  who  loved  these  hunted 
outlaws.  Once  the  troopers,  acting  on  sure  information,  sur- 
rounded Balhnnaeourty  Wood  in  the  early  morning  and 
searched  every  nook  and  dell.  They  discovered  swords  and 
three  rifles,  abandoned  by  McClure's  party  in  their  hurried 
retreat.     They  were  late,  were  the^e  trained  troopers;  the 

663 


564  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

poor  people  saw  them  coming  and  baffled  tliem.  Again  they 
entered  the  house  of  a  man  named  Lee.  A  few  moments  ere 
they  came  he  was  entertaining  eight  of  the  rebels.  Neil 
Brown  found  the  plates  upon  the  table  and  counted  them;  but 
not  a  word  would  pass  Lee's  lips,  although  the  magistrate 
stormed  and  raved  and  threatened.  For  all  peasants  were 
not  cowards,  Neil  Brown !  Again  were  Crowley  and  McClure 
in  Kirk's  house  and  in  other  neighbors'  places,  and  the  au- 
thorities could  not  seize  them— they  always  came  too  late. 
From  house  to  house,  from  wood  to  wood  were  the  rebels 
driven,  spied  upon,  informed  upon,  tracked  and  hunted,  but 
never  captured. 

They  might  have  dispersed  now,  this  small  band  of  daring 
men,  and  have  gone  back  to  their  homes ;  but  the  hope  grew 
that  all  this  struggle  would  surely  come  to  something,  and 
the  hope  became  a  belief  and  then  a  conviction.  And  the 
fame  of  the  stand  they  were  making  spread  throughout  the 
country  and  the  people  began  to  hope  again.  And  promises 
of  aid  and  reinforcements  were  secretly  brought  to  them. 
Then  did  McClure  and  Crowley  appoint  Sunday,  the  31st  of 
March,  as  the  day  on  which  these  soldiers  of  Ireland  would 
meet  if  a  blow  was  to  be  struck  in  real  earnestne-ss.  The  time 
was  to  be  at  the  dawning  of  the  day.  The  place  was  to  be 
Kilclooney  Wood.  And  they  waited  patiently  for  that  morn- 
ing—and so  did  the  English  garrison  in  Mitchelstown. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Kilclooney  Wood  covers  a  rising  ground,  a  steep  slope. 
'Around  the  base  winds  the  Ahaphooka,  a  mountain  stream,  a 
tributary  of  the  Funchion.     It  rises  about  six  miles  higher 
up  in  Gleuoisiu,  or  Glcuishecn;  that  is,  the  Vale  of  Oisin, 
for  in  Munster  they  pronounce  it  ''Lsheen."     It  sings  its 
way  through  Glen  Rue,  the  Red  Glen,  named  from  the  color  of 
its  bright  furze,  or,  as  some  say,  because  of  the  blood  that 
was  shed  in  the  many  battles  fought  there  in  the  far-off  days 
of  Finn  and  his  companions.     The  brow  of  the  wood  is  circled 
by  the  Kildorrery  road,  and  facing  it  on  the  other  side  of 
the  stream  is  a  high  plateau.    A  regular  trap— a  trap  when 
once  in  it,  it  was  hard  to  escape.     The  trees  were  planted 
about  30  years  previous  to  the  date  we  write  of,  and  the  un- 
derwood was  sparse  and  thin.     Even  now  the  place  would 
afford  meagre  protection  to  any  body  of  men— the  trees  are 
too  thinly  planted  and  its  position  and  general  character  ren- 
der it  a  wretched  spot  for  either  shelter  or  concealment.    It 
was,  however,  selected  by  McClure  for  neither  purpose ;  it  was, 
an  appointed  meeting  place,  nothing  more.    A  quantity  of 
the  timber  had  lately  been  felled,  but  thirty  years  ago  the 
wood  covered  about  seven  acres  and  was  some  six  hundred 
yards  in  length,  the  depth  from  the  roadway  to  the  stream 
at  the  bottom  varying  from  70  to  100  yards.     The  surface  of 
the  ground  is  extremely  regular,  no  mound  or  hollow  to  af- 
ford means  of  concealment  or  protection  against  British  bul- 
lets.   By  the  roadside,  above  the  wood,  stand  a  few  farm 
houses.    In  one  there  lives  to-day,  as  there  did  on  the  31st 
of  March,  1867,  a  man  named  John  Hennessy.     In  another 
was  a  family  named  Hanley.    For  nearly  thirty  years  has 
that  old  man,  John  Hennessy,  lived  under  the  fearful  stigma 
of  being  the  wretch  who  sold  Crowley  to  the  English  Gov- 
ernment.    And  to-day  we  lift  the  shadow  from  his  life.    Mary 
Hanley,  who  was  but  a  girl  then,  will  tell  her  story  bye  and 
bye. 


565 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  plantation  is  on  the  Kingston  estate,  a  family  that 
is  practically  extinct.  A  curious  family,  these  Kingstons. 
Anna,  the  last  Countess  of  Kingston,  remarried  to  a  com- 
moner, lives  to-day  bereft  of  the  family  estates.  The  broad 
acres  have  long  since  been  mawed  by  the  money-lender  and 
the  mortgagee.  She  lives  in  the  great  castle  that  cost  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  pounds  to  erect,  fenced  in  by  the  de- 
tnesne  wall,  a  great  seven-mile  circle  of  stone  and  mortar. 
In  the  days  of  the  Volunteers  a  Viscount  Kingston  raised 
a  troop  of  Yeomen.  But  as  times  changed  we  find  Captain 
Viscount  Kingsborough  in  '98  commanding  the  Mitcheistown 
Yeomanry  Cavalry,  "who  were  admirably  expert  in  cutting 
down  the  unarmed  peasantry."  In  '98  a  Colonel  Kingston 
was  captured  by  the  Wexford  rebels,  and  his  life  was  spared 
on  the  intercession  of  a  priest  who  knew  him  well.  "Who 
will  give  me  safe  conduct  through  your  lines  and  lead  me  to 
the  Royalist  camp?"  asked  this  Kingston.  "I  will,"  spoke 
up  the  rebel  priest,  "if  you  guarantee  my  return."  And 
Kingston  swore  a  mighty  oath  that  no  harm  would  come  to 
him.  They  passed  the  lines  and  entered  the  King's  camjj. 
And  the  English  soldiers  seized  the  rebel  priest  and  bound 
him.  "What  mean  you!"  he  cried  out;  "has  not  Kingston 
given  me  his  plighted  word?"  "Have  you  it  in  writing!" 
sneered  the  gentleman  who  wore  King  George 's  scarlet.  And 
he,  this  Kingston  threw  the  rope  around  the  rebel's  throat 
and  went  forth  from  him.  And  they  hanged  that  priest  gal- 
lows-high. And  bye  and  bye  came  that  Kingston,  and  he 
glanced  up  and  saw  the  dead  face  and  the  staring,  open  eyes 
of  him  he  had  betrayed,  and  he  laughed  and  passed  on,  say- 
ing "God  save  the  King!" 

These  yeomen  colonels  and  perjured  King's  men  have  long 
since  passed  away,  and  Anna,  the  last  Countess,  lives  her 
dreary  life  in  the  great  castle.  Strange,  is  it  not,  that  the 
Roches  and  the  Condons  and  all  the  others  who  were  despoiled 
of  their  lands  still  live  on  in  the  town  of  the  Mitchels,  whilst 
their  house  has  fallen  and  their  sun  has  set. 


566 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Sometimes  outlawf?  lay  in  the  woods  and  changed  from 
place  to  place,  baffling  the  authorities  by  the  rapidity  of  their 
movements.     It  was  on  the  Tuesday  before  the  31st  of  March 
that  Crowley  determined  to  venture  on  a  journey  to  Cork 
city.     The  risk  was  great,  but  the  stake  he  played  for  was 
greater.    It  was  absolutely  necessary  for  the  success  of  Mc- 
Clure's  plans  that  he  should  open  up  comnmnication  with 
some  of  the  faithful  men  in  the  Rebel  City,  and,  above  all, 
to  procure  the  means  to  purchase  stores  and  requisites— in- 
dispensable necessaries  should  their  schemes  develop.    Crow- 
ley, disguised  as  a  laborer  or  carrier,  made  his  way  to  the 
city  and  was  seen  there  and     recognized  on  the  Thursday. 
As  suddenly  and  mysteriously  as  he  appeared,  as  suddenly 
and  mysteriously  did  he  disappear.     There  is  ample  evidence 
to  prove  that  the  agent  whom  Crowley  believed  would  have 
a  substantial  sum  of  money  to  place  at  his  disposal  was  not 
found  by  him,  or  that  the  expected  assistance  was  not  avail- 
able or  had  miscarried.     He  set  out  on  his  return  journey 
to  keep  his  tryst  in  Kilclooney  Wood  on  the  following  Sun- 
day.    On  neariug  Mitchelstown  he  learned  that  the  troops 
had  made  a  descent  on  the  Ballymacourty  plantation,  dis- 
persing McClure's  party,  who  were  so  anxiously  awaiting  his 
return.     Grasping  the  situation,  he  acted  with  promptitude. 
He  had  word  conveyed  to  McClure  that  he  would  rest  that 
night  in  Hanley's  house,  the  dwelling  already  referred  to,  and 
there  he  would  expect  to  be  joined  by  him  ere  daybreak.     It 
was  a  long  and  weary  foot-march  he  made  that  Saturday. 
A  few  of  the  men  who  had  warned  him  of  the  military  raid 
on  Ballmacourty  refused  to  leave  him  until  they  saw  him 
safe  in  Hanley's  house.     The  utmost  caution  was  necessary, 
as  mounted  patrols  were  scouring  the  roads.     In  the  twilight 
silently  the  outlaws  moved  along,  noiselessly,  like  shadows. 
Now  taking  to  the  fields,  now  crossing  a  borheen.     Suddenly 
the  regular  beat  of  hoofs,  the  jangle  of  scabbards,  and  the 
o-litter  of  sabres.     Hurriedly  the  few  rebels  crouch  beneath 
the  shadow  of  a  thick  hedge  and  wait.     They  can  hear  their 
own  breathing  as  the  troop  halts.    A  whispered  word  of  com- 

567 


568 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


mand  and  some  of  the  cavalry  dismount  and  enter  the  very 
field  where  their  prey  lie  crouched  and  waiting.  In  the  si- 
lence, the  click  of  a  rifle  hammer.  As  the  horses  form  in  line 
on  the  road  beyond  the  steam  rises  from  their  flanks,  for  they 
have  ridden  hard  and  fast  that  day.  The  dismounted  men 
beat  about,  their  carbines  in  their  hands,  ready  and  expectant. 
They  come  within  a  few  yards  of  the  deep  shadow.  A  few 
steps  more  and  there  is  death  in  store  for  many  a  man.  One 
cries  out  that  the  field  is  tenantless  as  a  church, and  they  retire, 
mount  their  horses  and  ride  away.  And  as  their  figures  van- 
ish in  the  gathering  gloom  Crowley  breathes  a  deep  breath 
and  returns  his  revolver  to  his  belt.  He  is  glad,  for  he  has 
work  to  do  to-morrow. 

On  once  more,  until  their  figures  merge  into  the  darkness 
that  now  hangs  like  a  pall  over  the  wood  of  Kilclooney.  A 
single  light  burns  in  the  window  of  Hanley's  dwelling.  A 
few  hurried  words,  a  grasp  or  two  of  the  hand,  and  Crowley 
is  alone.  He  knocks  at  the  door,  it  opens  and  Mary  Hanley 
bids  him  enter.  ' '  God  be  with  you ! ' '  she  says,  and  Crowley 
says  * '  Amen. ' '  The  door  closes,  the  window  is  darkened,  and 
the  silence  is  unbroken  save  by  the  night  winds  that  moan  a 
dirge  among  the  solemn  aisles  of  bare  trees  in  the  wood  out- 
side. 


Composed  from  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  X. 

A  few  hundred  yards  from  this  spot,  in  a  small,  one- 
storied,  thatched  public  house,  lived  Edward  Coffc}'.  Beside 
the  gates  of  the  chai^el  of  Shraherla  he  lived,  and  there,  too, 
he  died.  A  man  that  found  it  hard  to  make  ends  meet,  al- 
though he  had  had  neither  wife  nor  child  to  burden  him.  It 
was  a  general  shop,  this  house  of  Coffey 's,  and  two  girls  were 
there  who  managed  the  business  and  attended  to  household 
affairs.  As  people  dropped  in  to  buy  some  trifle  and  gossip 
about  the  stirring  times,  or  w^onder  at  the  incessant  coming 
and  going  of  the  troops,  or  talk  in  whispers  of  the  courage 
and  daring  of  the  men  who  seemed  to  bear  a  charmed  life, 
Coffey  would  listen,  but  speak  nothing.  Bye  and  bye  there 
were  strange  stories  of  money  offered  by  the  authorities  in 
Mitchelstown  for  reliable  information  of  Crowley  and  Mc- 
Clure's  movements,  and  dark  hints  were  thrown  out  that 
many  a  one  who  kept  a  high  head  in  the  parish  was  no  bet- 
ter than  Corydon  himself.  When  the  money  was  mentioned 
Coffey's  eyes  would  glisten  with  avarice— and  he  kept  on  lis- 
tening and  pondering.  Then  he  began  to  think  that  he  might 
as  well  share  the  blood-money  as  another.  And  what  he  did 
not  hear  the  girls  picked  up;  and  when  no  one  was  by  he 
worried  out  of  them  what  they  had  heard.  At  first  they  never 
suspected  him,  but  later  on  they  knew. 

With  bated  breath  it  was  told  how  the  Fenians  were  to 
meet  in  the  Wood  on  the  next  Sunday ;  how  four  or  five  hun- 
dred at  the  very  least  were  expected  to  muster ;  how  Crowley; 
was  in  Cork,  and  how  he  would  return— none  knew  with  what. 
That  the  likely  place  for  him  to  stay  was  in  one  of  the  houses 
over  the  hill  beyond. 

Then  Coffey  made  up  his  mind,  stole  out  of  the  house  in 
the  darkness,  and  sped  away  to  Mitchelstown.  To  the  bar- 
racks he  went ;  he  never  faltered.  The  night  had  fallen,  not 
a  soul  in  the  streets  of  the  sleeping  town.  Not  a  thought  of 
the  damning  treason  of  his  crime  stayed  him  as  he  sped.  He 
would  bargain  for  a  good  price;  already  he  heard  the  clink 
and  saw  the  glitter  of  the  blood-money. 

That  night  he  stayed  long  with  Neil  Brown,  closeted  in 

569 


570  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

his  private  office.  Low  were  the  voices— so  low  that  the  or- 
derly outside  could  scarce  hear  the  murmur  of  the  bargain 
and  the  betrayal.  Yes,  next  Sunday  was  the  day,  and  the 
dawn  was  the  hour.  Neil  Brown  got  what  he  wanted  and  Ed- 
ward Coffey  slunk  away.  Back  to  his  home  by  the  gates  of 
the  Chapel  of  Shraherla,  back  to  live  for  aye  with  a  guilty 
secret,  and  he  never  once  suspected  through  the  after  years 
that  John  Hennessy  bore  the  stigma  of  his  treason  and  his 
crime. 

Let  us  be  done  with  this  man.  Shortly  after  Coffey  was 
paid  one  hundred  pounds  in  the  National  Bank  at  Mitchels- 
town.  The  money  was  paid  to  him  by  Edward  O'Brien,  J. 
P.,  the  then  manager  of  the  branch.  It  was  his  price.  He 
also  received  a  small  sum  for  the  two  girls.  It  was  his  bar- 
gain. After  this  they  went  to  America  and  have  been  lost 
sight  of.  One  is  still  remembered  as  the  **  red-haired  girl 
named  McGrath  that  used  to  be  in  Coffey 's  years  ago. ' '  Their 
exact  share  in  this  terrible  transaction  will  probably  never  be 
known. 

But  Coffey— the  money  was  ill-gotten;  he  did  not  thrive. 
When  the  girls  went  away  things  went  from  bad  to  worse 
with  him.  He  sold  the  public  house,  retaining  for  his  own 
use  only  a  wretched  out-office.  He  began  to  drink  heavily  and 
shrank  from  mixing  with  the  people.  One  night,  just  five  or 
six  years  ago,  he  lay  down  on  his  wretched  pallet  of  straw 
and  covered  himself  with  a  few  rags,  his  only  warmth.  Hours 
afterwards  the  moon  shone  out,  and  the  light  stole  in  and  lit 
upon  a  clenched  hand  that  lay  outside  the  covering.  And  the 
beam  crept  up  and  up,  until  it  shone  white  and  cold  upon  a 
rigid  face  with  dropped  jaws  and  sunken  eyes  and  hollow 
cheeks.  And  a  day  passed.  And  then  they  broke  in  the  door 
and  found  him  as  he  had  been  for  many  an  hour,  dead— dead 
in  a  hovel— the  man  that  sold  O'Neill  Crowley  twenty  long 
years  before. 

It  is  but  fair  to  state  that  Coffey's  relatives  cannot  in  the 
slightest  degree  be  held  culpable  for  his  miserable  misdoings. 
At  the  very  time  when  he  turned  traitor  he  was  on  bad  terms 
with  his  relations,  and  remained  so  until  his  tragic  end.  He 
was  estranged  even  from  his  own  people,  whom  he  tried  to 
wrong,  and  whose  children  live  to-day,  not  alone  absolutely 
free  from  any  discredit,  but  highly  and  justly  respected  in 
the  locality  where  they  live. 


CHAPTER  XL 

When  Mary  Hauley  closed  the  door  behind  O'Neill  Crow- 
ley she  darkened  the  window  and  again  bade  him  welcome. 
We  have  met  her ;  she  is  married  now  and  is  Mary  Donovan. 
The  events  of  that  night  and  following  morning  are  graven 
upon  her  memory.  She  herself  told  us  the  story  as  she  sat 
beside  her  own  fireside,  her  husband  and  daughter  listening  to 
the  tale.  Let  us  give  it  as  she  spoke  it,  with  all  the  gentle 
pity  of  a  woman  who  had  sorrowed  for  a  brave  man's  death. 

''  'The  police  would  never  know  ye,'  says  I,  as  I  looked  at 
him  sharp;  'but  I'd  know  ye  anywhere,  no  matter  how  ye'd 

be  dressed.* 

"For  he  had  changed  his  clothes  from  the  time  I  saw 
him  last  and  was  got  up  like  a  laborin'  man.  When  he  slept 
in  the  barn  last— for  they  were  about  the  neighborhood  for 
two  or  three  weeks— he  was  dressed  in  a  pilot  cloth  jacket 
and  in  his  own  good  clothes. 

''He  sat  down  a'  wan  side  of  the  fire,  and  they  brought 
him  a  basin  of  water  to  bathe  his  feet.  He  told  me  he  was 
after  comin'  all  the  way  from  Cork  and  that  he  was  tired  and 

weary. 

"I  asked  him  how  was  the  risin',  and  he  says,  'After  to- 
day I  think  God  is  wid  us,  for  we  were  in  the  same  field  wid 
the  soldiers  and  they  never  found  us.'  Then  he  says  how 
he  expected  hundreds  to  meet  them  in  the  wood  next  day. 
He  was  jaded  and  worn,  and  as  he  drew  the  bench  alongside 
the  fire  I  noticed  how  his  cheeks  were  sunk  and  his  eyes  were 
hollow  since  he  was  wid  us  last.  For  he  often  slept  in  our 
barn  before,  and  often  as  many  as  twelve  were  there  for  the 
night.  Sure  they  were  always  welcome,  an'  me  poor  brother 
himself  had  a  great  heart  in  the  risin',  and  used  to  be  goin' 
about  wid  'em  all  from  place  to  place. 

"Crowley  had  a  gim  and  a  pistol  wid  him  that  night,  but 
sure  they  always  had  their  arms.  He  said  McClure  and  Kelly 
would  call  for  him  early  in  the  mornin',  and  that  he  would 
sleep  in  the  ould  place  as  afore.  We  were  talkin'  quiet  and 
aisy  when  he  pulls  out  a  flag  from  his  breast.    It  was  green 

571 


i»/_' 


IhKI.AND's   CuOWN    of   ThOKNH   AM)    lIutiES 


t.ilU,  iind  ii  lijirp  and  some  writin'  on  it;  but  sorra'  a  bit  of 
iiic  rcMiK'nibors  what  it  said,  lor  'tis  a  long  time  ago  uow. 

"Tiiat  night  he  said  the  Ivosary  wid  us,  and  no  better 
nuin  ever  gave  it  out  than  poor  Crowley,  lie  was  always 
eivil  spoken,  an'  I  never  heard  a  quare  word  pass  his  lips. 
He  w.is  a  good  Christina,  an'  a  fine  man.  1)111  when  they'd 
be  drillin'  in  the  barn  ol'  an  evenin',  an'  when  MeClure  would 
be  givin'  out  the  orders,  you'd  sec  his  heart  grow  up  within 
him,  ;nid  he'd  look  as  big  again.  MeCIure  was  a  wee  bit  of 
a  craytiire  aUmgside  him,  but  he  had  great  fire  in  him,  and 
eould  be  terribly  eross  when  he  was  roused,  lie  often  sat 
at  the  lire  of  a  night  talkin'  to  Crowley,  an'  I  used  to  wateh 
his  dark,  hard  face  and  bright  eyes,  and  used  to  notice  what 
purty  little  feet  he  had. 

"I  didn't  like  to  be  too  near,  fearin'  they'd  think  I'd  bo 
curious  like,  an',  anyhow,  I  was  in  terror  always  that  they'd 
be  tried  for  their  lives  some  day  or  another,  an'  that  they'd 
put  me  on  the  green  cloth.  I  couldn't  swear  the  hard  word 
agin  wun  of  them,  an'  'twould  come  bitter  to  take  a  Avrong 
oath,  so  'twas  best,  says  I  to  myself,  not  to  know  anything  at 
all.     But  like  to  that,  sure  I  got  to  know  everything. 

"Well,  after  prayers  he  went  to  the  barn  with  a  kind 
*  Good-night'  an'  'God  save  ye.'  " 

Even  as  he  s})oke  it  the  flying  column  from  Waterford, 
under  the  coumuind  of  ]\Ir.  Ivednumd,  Iv.  IM.,  had  arrived  in 
Mitchelstown,  but  six  miles  away,  and  were  quartered  in 
the  barracks.  IMiere  were  now  nearly  500  troops  of  all  arms 
ready  to  make  the  fell  swoop. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Crowley  had  himself  lain  down  and  slept  soundly.  Twelve, 
one,  two  o'clock,  and  he  hardly  changed  his  position.    Will 
nothing  wake  him?    Wake  up,  man!     Can  you  not  hear  the 
bugle  calls  in  the  barrack  square,  the  hoarse  cry  of  commands, 
the  clank  of  300  rifles  as  they  are  brought  to  ground,  the 
champing  of  bits,  and  the  clank  of  the  swords  in  scabbards? 
They  number  off,  these  companies  of  Her  Majesty's  Sixth 
Regiment  of  foot— the  troops  of  cavalry,  the  engineer  corps, 
and  the  police  force,  forbidding  shadows  ranging  in  long  lines 
across  the  barrack  yard  in  the  dark  morning,  and  the  lanterns 
glimmer  and  pass  along  the  ranks  as  the  officers  inspect  the 
arms.     Then  a  few  hurried  orders,  the  lines  take  a  different 
formation,  the  shadows  move  and  swerve  and  file  out  through 
the  gates.     The  lights  are  extinguished,  the  gates  are  closed, 
and  the  double  sentinels  on  the  walls  watch  the  moving,  sway- 
ing mass  melt  into  the  darkness.    First  rode  the    advance 
guard,  with  mounted  Constable  Johnson  as  guide.     Then  fol- 
lowed the  main  body  of  cavalry,  with  Mounted  Constable  Mer- 
ryman  as  their  guide.     Then  came  the  infantry,  under  the 
command  of  Major  Moss,  whilst  the  police  brought  up  the 
rear.     In  all,  over  300  men,  well  armed  and  resolute.     The 
police  had  their  great  coats  on  and  had  tucked  white  handker- 
chiefs under  their  left  shoulder  straps  to  serve  as  a  means 
of  identification  should  the  columns   be    attacked  en  route. 
For  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  authorities  expected  they 
would  have  to  face  many  hundreds  of  men  in  fierce  revolt 
against  the  Crown.     The  men  in  the  Sixth  had  their  military 
overcoats  strapped  across  their  shoulders,  and  had  the  full 
supply  of  cartridges  served  out  for  their  Snider  rifles. 

Strict  silence  was  ordained;  naught  was  heard  but  the 
steady  tramp,  the  occasional  neigh  of  a  horse  or  the  ring  of 
steel  bridled  chains.  On  by  the  Kildorrery  road,  skirting  the 
Kingston  demesne,  turning  to  the  right  at  Garen's  Cross,  then 
on  to  Corrogurm  road,  which  breaks  out  opposite  Kilclooney 
Wood.  On  and  on,  the  steady,  heavy  tread  of  300  men  march- 
ing through  the  black  night. 

Crowley  sleeps  on,  never  knowing  his  danger.    His  head 

573 


574 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


is  thrown  back  upon  his  arm,  jnst  as  a  child  rests,  dreaming, 
perhaps,  of  that  grave  far  away  in  Ballymacoda  where  sleeps 
his  rebel  father  and  his  outlawed  uncle,  the  priest  who  was 
flayed  in  '98.  Or,  mayhap,  gentler  visions— of  a  pair  of  ten- 
der eyes  that  looked  down  into  his  in  the  years  gone  by,  of 
a  voice  that  sung  his  lullaby  when  he  was  a  wee,  helpless  thing ; 
of  the  vanished  hand  that  lightly  stroked  his  bright  brown 
hair. 

What  is  that?  The  signal!  In  a  moment  he  springs  to 
his  feet,  wide  awake,  listening.  'Tis  repeated.  He  seizes  his 
Enfield  rifle  that  lay  by  his  side  and  looks  out.  McClure  and 
Kelly  are  there.  A  hurried  word  or  two,  and  he  passes  out 
—out  into  the  night  and  darkness— out  to  his  death. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Shortly  after  four  o'clock  Crowley,  M'Cliire,  and  Kelly 
entered  the  wood  and  a  few  moments  later  the  troops  deployed 
on  to  the  main  road  on  the  other  side  of  the  stream.  The 
cavalry  swept  across  the  wooden  bridge  which  then  spanned 
the  Ahaphooka,  rode  at  a  gallop  up  the  rising  ground,  lined 
the  road  which  winds  along  the  head  of  the  wood,  and  formed 
a  junction  with  the  numerous  police  force  which,  coming  on 
cars  from  Kildorrery,  had  arrived  almost  simultaneously. 
Oh,  their  arrangements  were  perfectly  planned.  Then,  fol- 
lowing fast,  came  half  a  company  of  the  6th,  who  surrounded 
the  farm  houses.  The  main  body  of  the  infantry  swarmed 
into  the  fields  from  the  main  road,  and  took  up  their  position 
on  the  plateau  which  commanded  the  wood  from  the  opposite 
side  of  the  river.  The  police  force  which  had  marched  from 
Mitchelstown  supported  their  left.  The  wood  was  thus,  in  the 
space  of  ten  minutes,  completely  invested.  No  one  man,  or 
small  body  of  men,  can  leave  it  now.  It  was  just  one  hour 
and  three-quarters  since  the  troops  had  left  the  barracks 
behind  them.  In  the  darkness  lay  the  grove,  silent  and  for- 
bidding. They  knew  not  how  many  men  were  within  it,  so 
they  waited  for  the  dawn.  The  little  river  ran  between  them, 
its  waters  swollen  and  flecked  with  foam.  There  was  not  a 
whisper  spoken  as  the  soldiers  lay  down  amid  the  fern  and 
furze  and  looked  to  their  rifles.  No  sound  save  the  babble  of 
the  river  as  it  sings  its  way  to  the  sea. 

The  rebels  had  barely  entered  the  wood  when  they  heard 
the  uphill  rush  of  the  mounted  men.  They  never  dreamed  that 
an  expedition  had  set  out  against  them,  or  that  their  plans 
for  the  next  morning  had  been  betrayed.  They  believed  it  was 
only  another  raid  upon  the  farm  houses  suspected  of  shelter- 
ing them.  So  they  moved  deeper  into  the  wood,  down  toward 
the  river  at  the  bottom,  and  waited.  They  heard  the  mounted 
troops  halt,  and  then  a  challenge  and  an  answer.  This  was 
the  joining  of  the  Kildorrery  force  with  the  cavalry.  Cau- 
tiously the  rebels  moved  further  down,  but  slanting  their  steps 
in  an  easterly  direction.  Then  once  more  they  paused,  and 
eagerly  they  listened.     Something  in  front,  the  snap  of  a 

575 


576 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Ro^es 


breech  blook  or  the  ellnk  of  a  bayonet  made  M^Clure  clutch 
Crowley;  the  soldier's  instinct  had  told  him  they  were  sur- 
rounded, their  retreat  cut  off.  Then  welled  up  the  bitterness 
against  their  unknown  betrayer,  then  came  the  stern  resolu- 
tion to  render  a  good  account  of  themselves.  They  rammed 
home  the  bullets,  for  it  was  the  old  muzzle-loading  Enfield 
rifle  they  carried ;  and  stood  motionless  as  the  tall  trees  them- 
selves.    Three  hundred  against  three!    It  was  brave  odds! 


Comoosed  from  the  Book  of  Kells, 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  minutes  passed  and,  as  the  dawn  came,  cold  and  grey, 
eyes  were  strained  towards  every  opening  in  the  wood.  The 
soldiers  peered  into  the  deep  shadows,  and  their  fears  gave 
movement  and  shape  to  the  slender  trunks  and  skeleton 
branches.  Slowly  lifted  the  morning  mists,  and  the  gloom 
in  the  wood  lightened  and  lightened.  Then  the  pipe  of  half- 
awakened  birds  and  the  clear  note  of  a  lark  singing  over- 
head. Bye  and  bye  the  steel-grey  light  is  shot  with  the 
crimson  dawn,  and  the  trees  before  them  stand  out  sharp  and 
clear.    But  where— where  are  the  rebels? 

The  three  watched  and  waited,  and,  with  the  morning 
light,  saw  here  and  there  amid  the  furze  the  gleam  of  a  red 
coat  or  the  outline  of  a  shako.  On  the  ridge  were  the  prone 
forms  of  two  companies  of  the  6th;  to  the  right  the  solid 
ranks  of  the  police  in  their  great  coats,  lined  down  to  the 
river.    A  steel  girt  circle  this. 

Then  a  flash,  a  puff  of  smoke,  and  the  ping  of  a  rifle  bul- 
let. Crowley  had  fired  the  first  shot.  In  rapid  succession 
came  flashes  from  the  rifles  of  the  other  two,  and  the  bullets 
sang  amid  the  British  soldiers.  Then  the  rapid  answering 
discharge  of  the  Sniders  of  the  military.  The  balls  whistled 
over  the  insurgents'  heads,  stripping  the  bark  from  the  pine 
trees  and  sundering  the  withered  branches;  then  the  dull 
thud  as  they  buried  themselves  in  the  tree  trunks.  The  rifle 
smoke  rolled  heavily  along  the  ridge  of  the  plateau  and  hung 
over  the  slopes  where  many  of  the  soldiers  lay  amid  the 
bushes.  The  tongues  of  fire  flashed  amid  the  smoke  and  the 
valley  awoke  with  the  clamor. 

And  many  a  peasant  looked  out  from  his  cabin  in  wonder, 
and  many  a  woman  arose  and  crossed  herself  on  that  Sabbath 
morning,  and  prayed  for  the  mother's  sons  who  were  fight- 
ing that  day  for  Ireland.  And  Edward  Coffey,  in  his  house 
by  the  gates  of  the  Chapel  of  Shraherla,  pressed  his  white 
face  against  the  window-pane  and  heard  the  echo  of  his 
morning^'s  work. 

The  soldiers  who  were  stationed  around  the  farm  houses 
above  the  wood  now  entered  the  plantation   and   advanced 

577 


t^78  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

cautiously,  seeking  cover  behind  tlie  trees  as  they  moved 
forward,  for  the  well-sustained  fire  of  the  outlaws  completely 
deceived  them  as  to  the  force  they  were  coping  with.  Steadily 
they  advanced,  Mr.  Redmond  at  their  head,  revolver  in  hand. 

By  this  time  the  three  had  moved  still  further  to  the  right, 
loading  and  firing  as  they  went.  This  added  to  the  perplexity 
of  the  military,  who  could  only  direct  their  fire  at  the  parts 
of  the  wood  from  which  the  rebel  shots  proceeded.  The  smoke 
from  their  guns  lifted  but  slowly,  and  they  could  not  aim  with 
any  accuracy.  Crowley  was  in  advance  of  the  other  two  and 
was  in  the  act  of  sighting  his  rifle  when  a  bullet  mangled 
three  fingers  of  the  left  hand  and  broke  the  stock  of  his  piece. 
He  staggered  from  behind  his  cover,  the  gun  fell  from  his 
grasp,  but  he  drew  his  revolver,  in  the  act  half  turning  on 
the  soldiery  who  were  now  close  upon  him  in  the  wood,  raised 
his  weapon— when,  with  a  hoarse  cry,  he  threw  up  his  hands, 
staggered  forward  a  couple  of  paces,  and  fell  to  the  ground 
shot  through  the  body.  The  bullet  entered  beneath  his  left 
arm  and  passed  out  through  his  right  side.  M'Clure,  though 
bleeding  from  a  severe  wound  in  the  thigh,  sprang  forward 
to  raise  him,  but  seeing  that  it  was  all  over  with  his  brave 
companion,  was  about  to  dash  into  the  river,  wade  to  the 
other  side  and  risk  a  bold  rush  between  the  ranks  of  infantry 
and  police,  when  Mr.  Redmond  seized  him  from  behind,  and, 
placing  the  barrel  of  his  revolver  to  his  head,  cried  out: 
''Surrender  in  the  Queen's  name,  I  am  a  magistrate!" 

"And  I  am  a  soldier,"  panted  M'Clure,  as  he  leveled  his 
own  weapon  back  over  his  shoulder;  but  ere  he  could  fire  a 
policeman  s'truck  down  his  arm  with  a  clubbed  rifle  and  the 
weapon  was  dashed  from  his  grasp.  Kelly,  who  had  seen  the 
fall  of  one  of  his  friends  and  the  capture  of  the  other,  essayed 
to  escape  by  creeping  along  the  bank  of  the  river,  but  soon 
he  found  himself  confronted  by  a  dozen  of  the  6th  who  cov- 
ered him  with  their  rifles.  Resistance  would  be  madness,  so 
he  surrendered  himself  a  prisoner  of  war  to  Captain  Mere- 
dith. 

M'Clure  and  Kelly  were  handcuffed  and  led  away.  Poor 
Crowley  lay  where  he  had  fallen.  The  woods  were  searched, 
but  no  trace  of  another.  Then  the  wonder  grew  how  these 
three  men  could  have  fought  as  they  had  fought,  keeping  so 
many  trained  soldiers  at  bay.  Then  wonder  grew  to  pity  for 
the  man  who  had  fallen,  and  the  soldiers  made  a  rough  bier 


The  Men  Who  Died  for  Ireland  579 

of  tlieir  rifles  and  carried  him  along  the  river  banks  and  out 
of  the  wood,  and  laid  him  upon  the  sloping  ground  beneath 
Hennessy's  house.  They  placed  a  great  coat  under  his  head, 
and  a  soldier  covered  him  with  another.  Then  Dr.  Segrave, 
the  military  surgeon,  examined  him,  and  saw  he  had  but  a 
few  short  hours  to  live.  The  wound  was  a  cruel  wound,  and 
it  brought  sure  death  to  O'Neill  Crowley  that  Sunday  morn- 
ing. 

''Can  I  do  anything  for  you?"  asked  Segrave.  Crowley 
raised  his  dying  eyes  and  whispered:  ''I  would  like  to  see 
a  priest  before  I  die." 

To  Ballygibbon  they  hastily  despatched  Mounted-con- 
stable Merryman,  the  same  as  had  guided  the  column  from 
Mitchelstown  that  morning.  He  was  fortunate  enough  to 
meet  Father  O'Connell,  the  curate  of  Kildorrery,  as  he  was 
proceeding  to  his  church  to  say  early  Mass  at  Shraherla. 

Meanwhile,  Dr.  Segrave,  fearing  the  clergyman  might  be 
late  in  coming,  read  aloud  the  prayers  for  the  dying.  And 
Crowley  never  moved,  no  moan  of  pain,  no  muttered  curse 
on  the  dire  treachery  that  had  brought  his  death  suddenly 
and  swiftly;  lying  there  with  his  blue  eyes  half  closed,  the 
blood  that  welled  from  his  side  froze  as  it  flowed. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Then  came  Father  O'Connell.  He  knelt  on  the  ground 
beside  Crowley  and  spoke  to  him. 

"1  had  two  loves,"  said  Crowley,  feebly,  *'my  faith  and 
my  country,  and  to-day  I  die  for  Ireland." 

Tears  were  in  the  priest's  eyes  as  he  prayed  for  the  dying 
man  and  administered  the  last  Sacraments  of  the  Church. 

Then  the  chapel  bell  was  heard  tolling  for  Mass.  How 
often  had  this  man  lying  there  dying  heard  it  in  his  own 
little  village  off  there  behind  the  hills,  away  by  the  wild  South- 
ern coast !  He  will  hear  it  never  again— never  again  see  the 
blue  sky  above  his  own  fair  countryside;  never  again  hear 
the  sigh  of  the  distant  ocean,  or  the  moan  of  the  winds  in  the 
ruined  watchtowers  that  stand  on  his  own  hillsides. 

Then  Father  O'Connell  left  him  to  read  the  Mass  in  fal- 
tering tones  and  ask  his  people  to  pray  for  the  outlaw  that 
lay  upon  the  frozen  ground  a-dying. 

Then  came  two  little  girls,  and  they  stood  at  Crowley's 
feet.  And  the  soldiers,  as  they  leaned  on  their  rifle  barrels, 
wondered  at  their  frightened  faces  and  tear-dimmed  eyes. 
Crowley  saw  them  and  recognized  one,  the  young  girl  by 
whose  side  he  had  prayed  only  the  night  before— Mary  Han- 
ley,  the  girl  who  had  so  often  bade  him  welcome  to  her 
father's  house,  and  who  now  came  to  say  good-bye— an  eter- 
nal farewell.  Then  Crowley  spoke.  ''Kiss  me  and  pray  for 
me,"  he  said  to  her  companion.  "Kiss  me,  child,  and  pray 
for  me,"  he  then  said  to  her  he  knew.  For  he  asked  the 
stranger  first,  fearing  to  cast  suspicion  on  the  little  one  in 
whose  house  he  had  often  been.  And  they  bent  over  him  and 
kissed  the  forehead  now  wet  with  the  damp  of  death. 

"I  got  up  in  the  mornin'  when  I  heard  the  firin'  in  the 
wood,"  said  Mary  Hanley  to  us  twenty-seven  years  after  that 
day,  "and  when  they  told  me  one  of  the  Fenians  was  shot, 
sure  I  said, '  'tis  Crowley,  'tis  Crowley  for  certain,  for  he  was 
the  best  prepared  to  go,  and  God  was  always  good  to  the 
poor  Fenians.  I  promised  to  pray  for  him  then,  an'  God 
knows  I  did  many  a  day  since;  but  'tis  hard  to  think  how  T 
was  so  frightened  wid  the  sogers  an'  forgot  to  ask  him  to 

580 


The  Men  Who  Died  for  Ireland  581 

pray  for  me;  for,  God  be  praised,  I  know  he  lias  long  ago 
passed  the  gates." 

Neill  Brown  requested  John  Hennessy,  who  was  arrested 
the  moment  he  came  forth  to  ascertain  the  cause  of  the  firing, 
to  prepare  a  room  in  his  house  for  the  dying  man.  Hen- 
nessy asserts  to  the  present  day  that  he  was  getting  a  bed- 
room ready  when  four  policemen  placed  O'Neill  Crowley 
upon  a  door  and  bore  him  through  the  yard  past  his  house. 
The  magistrate  said  he  had  altered  his  intention  and  had 
decided  to  bring  the  dying  man— to  Coffey's!  Slowly  down 
the  road  on  to  the  crossroads,  where  it  was  found  Dr.  Rogers, 
the  medical  officer  to  the  Kildorrery  Dispensary,  had  arrived 
in  his  gig.  Then  it  was  finally  arranged  to  convey  Crowley 
straight  to  Mitchelstown,  and  the  same  constable,  Merryman, 
was  sent  forward  to  prepare  a  bed  in  the  bridewell.  As 
Crowley  was  lifted  into  the  doctor's  trap  a  young  officer 
standing  by  offered  him  his  flask  and  begged  him  to  drink. 
A  smile  for  the  moment  hovered  over  the  drawn  face  of  the 
dying  outlaw,  and  he  faltered— ''I  thank  you,  but  you  have 
given  me  all  I  want  to-day."  His  head  fell  back  with  a  moan 
as  the  car  started,  and  when  on  the  road  to  Mitchelstown  Dr. 
Rogers  found  he  was  returning  with  the  dead. 

When  they  bared  the  dead  man  in  the  Bridewell  they 
found  suspended  from  his  neck  a  silver  medal  of  the  Immacu- 
late Conception.  It  was  strangely  bent,  and  when  they  threw 
his  clothes  across  a  rail  a  flattened  bullet  fell  to  the  floor. 
It  had  struck  him  full  in  the  breast,  but  the  tiny  medallion 
worn  in  honor  of  the  Mother  of  Sorrows  had  stayed  a  mes- 
senger of  death. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  officers  commanding  the  troops  drew  up  an  official 
account  of  the  affair  on  that  same  evening,  and  Major  Phillip 
Moss  deposed  that  the  stand  made  by  those  three  betrayed 
rebels  was  a  gallant  and  a  stubborn  one.  During  the  combat 
he  believed  that  forty  men,  at  least,  were  in  the  wood,  the 
fire  was  so  well  sustained.  **If,"  said  he,  ''every  man  who 
took  up  arms  against  the  Crown  was  as  bold  as  O'Neill  Crow- 
ley there  would  be  gaps  in  the  muster  roll  of  many  a  British 
regiment  to-day. ' '  So  said  these  soldiers  who,  whatever  they 
were  or  whatever  they  be,  can  recognize  the  daring  and  the 
worth  of  a  brave  foeman. 

Kelly  was  a  native  of  Kinsale,  and  in  appearance  was 
short  in  stature,  light  and  active,  a  man  of  exceedingly  gen- 
tle nature  and  good  manners.  He  was  a  printer  by  trade,  and 
had  been  to  Canada,  where  he  worked  at  his  business,  re- 
turning to  the  Old  Land  when  duty  called  him.  Together  with 
McClure  he  stood  his  trial  for  high  treason;  both  were  sen- 
tenced to  be  hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered.  The  American 
Government  was  firm  in  its  demand  for  McClure 's  release. 
He  was  a  citizen  of  their  nation,  and  they  would  not  submit 
to  his  execution.  He  was  given  up  and  lives  to-day  in  this 
glorious  American  country,  ''The  land  of  the  free  and  the 
home  of  the  brave."  Kelly's  sentence  was  commuted,  and 
he  was  released  after. some  years  of  harsh  imprisonment. 

The  body  of  O'Neill  Crowley  was  removed  to  the  Work- 
house, there  to  await  an  inquest.  His  sister  came  from 
Ballymacoda,  and  not  recognizing  the  clothes  they  showed  her 
as  her  dead  brother's,  the  police  endeavored  to  retain  them. 
Seeing  that  they  might  prove  the  means  of  implicating  some 
people  who  had  assisted  her  brother,  she  firmly  insisted,  and 
they  were  finally  handed  over  to  her.  So  was  the  silver 
medal  that  had  stopped  the  bullet.  At  the  inquest  it  was 
claimed  by  a  gipsy,  who  was  a  private  in  the  6th  that  it  was 
he  who  had  "brought  down  the  rebel,"  but  the  "honor"  was 
disputed  by  Sergeant  Tillbrook  of  the  same  regiment,  who 
declared  that  it  was  he  who  had  fired  the  fatal  shot. 

The  immense  crowds  that  waited  outside  the  Workhouse 

582 


The  Men  Who  Died  for  Ireland  583 

after  the  inquest  bad  concluded  grew  impatient,  and  tliey 
broke  down  the  gates  and  brought  the  cofl&n  forth  and  placed 
it  in  the  hearse. 

And  from  Mitchelstown  to  Fermoy,  and  from  Fermoy  to 
Ballymacoon,  nigh  thirty  miles,  the  funeral  procession 
wended  its  way.  Crowds  of  silent  men  and  weeping  women 
joined  it  at  every  crossroad;  and  they  brought  white  flowers 
and  laid  them  upon  the  coffin.  Such  a  strange,  weird  sight, 
this  body  of  Irishmen  and  Irishwomen,  marching  on  and  on, 
gathering  as  they  went,  until,  as  the  shades  of  night  were 
falling,  they  laid  him  down  to  rest  beside  the  man  after  whom 
he  was  named— the  priest  who  was  scourged  in  '98. 

And  then  the  earth  rattled  on  his  coffin,  and  many  a  sob 
was  heard,  and  many  a  strong  man  wept. 

Earth  to  earth.    Ashes  to  ashes.    The  old,  old  story. 

A  last  prayer,  and  the  vast  crowd  melts  away,  leaving 
there,  sleeping  his  last  sleep  in  the  cold  earth,  one  who  had 
loved  so  fondly  and  given  his  life-FOR  IRELAND. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


(7  Ai</^^   (/iKyL-t^^iAyf 


Ireland's  Uncrowned   Kinij. 


SECTION  VI. 


IRELAND'S 

GREAT  CONSTITUTIONAL 

BATTLE  FOR  LEGISLATIVE 

INDEPENDENCE 


T.  P.  O'CONNOR,  M.  P. 

COXTAINING 

HISTORY  OF  THE  PARXELL  MOVEMENT— INTRODUCTION 

OF  THE  FIRST  HOME  RI^LE  BILL— CHARACTER 

SKETCHES  OF  PARNELL,  DAVITT,  DILLON, 

O'BRIEN,  SEXTON,  AND  OTHERS— 

THE  UNITED  IRISH  LEAGUE 


5S5 


IRELAND'S 

GREAT  CONSTITUTIONAL 

BATTLE  FOR  LEGISLATIVE 

INDEPENDENCE. 

BY  T.  P.  O'CONNOR,  M.  P. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  STRUGGLE   FOR   HOME   RULE. 

On  November  23,  1867,  Allen,  Larkin  and  O'Brien  were 
executed  in  front  of  Salford  gaol.  A  short  time  afterwards 
their  bodies  were  buried  in  quicklime,  in  unconsecrated 
ground,  within  the  precincts  of  the  prison. 

It  is  impossible,  even  after  the  considerable  interval  that 
has  elapsed,  to  forget  the  impression  which  this  event  pro- 
duced upon  the  Irish  people.  In  most  of  the  towns  in  Ireland 
vast  multitudes  walked  in  funeral  processions  through  the 
streets  to  testify  the  terrible  depths  of  their  grief.  A  few 
days  after  the  execution,  Mr.  T.  D.  Sullivan  wrote  the  poem 
with  the  refrain  uttered  from  the  dock,  ''God  Save  Ireland!" 
and  wherever  in  any  part  of  the  globe  there  is^  now  an 
assembly  of  Irishmen,  social  or  political— a  concert  in  Dublin, 
a  convention  at  Chicago,  or  a  Parliamentary  dinner  in  Lon- 
don—the proceedings  regularly  close  with  the  singing  of 
*'God  Save  Ireland." 

To  one  Irishman,  then  a  youth,  living  in  the  country- 
house  of  his  fathers,  and  deeply  immersed  in  the  small  con- 
cerns of  a  squire's  daily  life,  the  execution  of  the  Manchester 
martyrs  was  a  new  birth  of  political  convictions.  To  him, 
brooding  from  his  early  days  over  the  history  of  his  coun- 
try, this  catastrophe  came  to  crystallize  impressions  into  con- 
victions, and  to  pave  the  way  from  dreams  to  action.  It  was 
the  execution  of  Allen,  Larkin  and  O'Brien  that  gave  Mr. 
Parnell  to  the  service  of  Ireland. 

An  indirect  effect  of  all  these  startling  occurrences  was 
to  force  the  attention  of  the  English  people  and  their  Parlia- 

587 


588  Ikeland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ment  upon  the  Irish  Question.  In  other  words,  the  evils  that 
had  been  allowed  to  eat  out  the  vitals  of  Ireland  for  so  long 
a  period  amid  apathy  tempered  by  scoffs,  began  to  attract 
attention  when  Irishmen  abandoned  the  paths  of  constitu- 
tional and  tranquil  agitation,  and  sought  remedy  in  con- 
spiracy and  force.  By  several  circumstances  the  Irish  Church 
was  pushed  to  the  front,  the  Irish  Members  began  to  actively 
discuss  it  in  Parliament,  and  finally,  as  everybody  knows,  af- 
ter a  fierce  struggle  and  a  General  Election,  the  Church  was 
disendowed  and  disestablished. 

This,  great  refonn  turned  attention  once  more  to  Par- 
liamentary methods;  the  spirit  of  apathy,  which  had  given 
the  fruits  of  electoral  contests  without  care  or  regret  to  the 
first  adventurer,  was  broken,  and  people  began  to  think  again 
that  it  was  of  some  importance  whether  an  honest  man  or  a 
rogue  should  be  sent  to  Westminster  to  represent  Ireland. 
The  awakening  of  Ireland  from  the  long  slumber  since  1845 
had  begun,  and  the  awakening  of  Ireland  means  the  revival  of 
an  agitation  for  self-government.  Another  movement  was 
destined  to  add  a  new  and  even  more  potent  force  to  the  grow- 
ing cause  of  Home  Rule.  Though  the  Church  Question  had 
been  pushed  to  the  front,  the  Land  Question  still  retained  its 
place  as  the  supreme  issue  to  the  majority  of  the  population. 
Throughout  the  countiy  mass  meetings  were  held,  and  the  de- 
mand of  the  farmers  was  put  forward  with  thunderous  em- 
phasis. The  demand  was  for  the  *' Three  F's"— fixity  of 
tenure,  free  sale  and  fair  rent ;  and  the  farmers  had  heard  this 
demand  advocated  so  often,  had  shouted  themselves  hoarse  by 
so  many  hillsides  in  uttering  it,  had  been  so  stimulated  and 
encouraged  by  the  sight  of  their  battalions  in  regular  array, 
Sunday  after  Sunday,  and  in  county  after  county,  that  by  the 
time  Parliament  met  they  regarded  the  ' '  Three  F  's "  as  hav- 
ing already  passed  from  the  region  of  popular  platforms  to 
that  of  Parliamentary  debates  and  of  statute  law. 

The  introduction  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Bill  was  the  mourn- 
ful awakeningi  that  came  to  all  these  Splendid  dreams,  for 
the  measure  of  the  Prime  Minister  stopped  far  short  indeed 
of  the  Throe  F's.  The  sentimental  forces  which  had  been 
gathering  in  such  might  in  favor  of  self-government  were 
now  materially  increased  by  the  accession  of  the  mighty  bat- 
talions of  the  disillusioned  and  disappointed  farmers  of  the 
country. 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  589 

But  the  foundation  of  tlio  Home  Rule  movement,  curiously 
enough,  was  laid,  not  in  obedience  to  the  impulse  of  the  masses 
of  the  people,  but  in  the  rancour  of  a  small  and  a  defeated 
minority  of  the  population.  The  Disestablishment  of  the 
Church  had  brought  back  a  certain  proportion  of  the  Prot- 
estant poi^ulation  to  that  spirit  of  nationality  which  had 
found  its  most  eloquent  advocates  in  the  exclusively  Protes- 
tant Parliament  of  the  ante-Union  days.  A  certain  number 
of  very  moderate  gentlemen  of  the  Catholic  faith  saw  in  a 
movement  which  Protestant  Conservatives  were  able  to  sup- 
port, elements  which  need  not  alarm  the  most  milk-and-water 
adherents  to  the  Doctrine  of  Nationality.  There  were  more 
stable  elements  in  constitutional  agitators  who  had  fought 
doggedly  on  for  a  Native  Parliament  through  the  long  eclipse 
of  national  faith  between  1855  and  that  hour,  like  Mr.  A.  M. 
Sullivan;  and  in  some  men— such  as  Mr.  0 'Kelly,  M.  P.  for 
Roscoim^non— who,  appearing  under  disguised  names,  sought 
after  the  breakdown  of  their  efforts  to  free  Ireland  by  force, 
whether  there  was  any  chance  of  success  through  Parlia- 
mentary action.  The  latter  element  took  up  this  attitude  at 
that  period  with  a  certain  amount  of  trepidation  and  at  some 
personal  risk ;  for  the  distrust  of  constitutional  agitation  and 
the  hatred  of  constitutional  agitators  still  survived  among 
the  relics  of  Fenianism,  and  the  new  movement  was  looked 
upon  by  them  with  the  same  latent  and  perilous  distrust  as 
all  its  predecessors.  The  meeting  was  held  on  May  19,  1870, 
in  the  Bilton  Hotel,  Sackville  Street,  Dublin. 

At  this  meeting  were  present  Conservatives  as  well  known 
as  Mr.  Purdon,  then  Conservative  Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin ;  Mr. 
Kinahan,  who  had  been  High  Sheriff,  and  Major  Knox,  pro- 
prietor of  the  Irish  Times,  a  Conservative  organ ;  nor  should 
the  name  be  omitted  of  a  gentleman  who  was  for  a  consider- 
able time  to  play  a  prominent  part  in  the  new  movement— 
Colonel,  then  Captain,  Edward  R.  King-Harman.  Mr.  Butt 
was  the  chief  speaker,  and  on  his  proposition,  and  without 
a  dissentient  voice  the  resolution  was  passed. 

' '  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  meeting  that  the  true  remedy 
for  the  evils  of  Ireland  is  the  establishment  of  an  Irish  Par- 
liament with  full  control  over  our  domestic  affairs." 

A  new  organization  was  founded  under  the  name  of  the 
''Home  Government  Association  of  Ireland."  Before  long 
the  movement  spread  with  the  rapidity  which  always  comes 


590  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

to  movements  founded  on  indestructible  aspirations.  Now, 
just  as  in  1843,  the  people  had  only  to  see  a  movement  in 
favor  of  self-government  to  flock  enthusiastically  to  its 
ranks.  Then  the  Prime  Minister  had  passed  another  meas- 
ure which  transcended  in  importance  any  other  of  the  Great 
Acts  which  made  his  first  Premiership  so  momentous  an 
epoch  in  the  resurrection  of  Ireland.  This  was  the  Ballot 
Act.  For  the  first  time  in  his  history  the  Irish  tenant  could 
vote  without  the  fear  of  eviction,  with  the  attendant  risks  of 
hunger,  exile  or  death.  The  Ballot  Act  was  an  act  of  emanci- 
pation to  the  Irish  tenant  in  a  sense  far  more  real  than  the 
Emancipation  Act  of  1829.  From  the  passage  of  that  his- 
story,  the  real  voice  of  Ireland  had  some  opportunity  of  mak- 
ing itself  heard.  The  new  force  advanced  against  all  oppo- 
nents, and  every  constituency  that  had  its  choice  declared 
with  unfaltering  fidelity  in  favor  of  the  National  candidate. 

In  four  bye-elections  the  Home  Rule  candidates  triumphed 
over  every  obstacle.  The  struggle  between  Whiggery  and 
Home  Rule  was  now  over.  Ireland  had  definitely  declared 
for  the  new  movement.  This  will  be  the  place  to  tell  the  end 
of  Judge  Keogh.  In  the  year  1878  the  sensational  rumor 
reached  Dublin  that  he  had  developed  symptoms  of  insanity 
in  Belgium,  whither  he  had  been  removed  for  the  benefit  of 
his  health,  and  that  he  had  attempted  to  kill  his  attendant 
and  himself.  The  rumor  proved  correct.  From  this  period 
forth  he  seems  never  to  have  recovered  full  possession  of  his 
senses,  and  gradually  sank.  He  was  removed  to  Bingen,  and 
there  died  on  September  30, 1878.  An  Englishman  with  char- 
acteristic appreciation  of  Irish  character,  is  said  to  have 
placed  a  stone  over  his  remains  with  the  inscription,  *' Justum 
et  tenacem  propositi  virum."  The  country  which  he  had  be- 
trayed and  ruined,  on  the  other  hand,  congratulated  itself 
in  not  having  received  his  remains.  Indeed,  some  desperate 
spirits  had  resolved  that  the  remains  should  never  rest  in 
hallowed  Irish  ground;  a  plot  was  complete  for  seizing  the 
body  during  the  funeral  and  throwing  it  into  the  Liffey. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ISAAC   BUTT,   FIRST   LEADER   OF    THE    HOME    RULE    MOVEMENT. 

Isaac  Butt,  the  leader  of  the  new  movement,  was  the  son 
of  a  Protestant  clergyman  of  the  North  of  Ireland.  The 
place  of  his  birth  was  near  the  Gap  of  Barnesmore,  a  line 
of  hills  which  is  rarely  if  ever  without  shadow— not  unlike 
Butt's  own  life.  It  was  one  of  his  theories  that  people  born 
amid  mountain  scenery  are  more  imaginative  than  the  chil- 
dren of  the  plains.  His  own  nature  was  certainly  imaginative 
in  the  highest  degree,  with  the  breadth  and  height  of  imag- 
inative men,  and  also  with  the  doubtings,  despondency  and 
the  dread  of  the  Unseen. 

For  many  years  he  stood  firmly  by  the  principles  of 
Orange  Toryism,  and  he  had  the  career  which  then  belonged 
to  every  young  Irish  Protestant  of  ability.  He  went  to  Trin- 
ity College,  which  at  the  time  presented  large  prizes,  and 
presented  them  to  those  only  who  had  the  good  luck  to  belong 
to  the  favored  faith.  Butt's  advancement  was  rapid.  He  was 
not  many  years  a  student  when  he  was  raised  to  a  Professor- 
ship of  Political  Economy.  When  he  went  to  the  Bar  his  suc- 
cess came  with  the  same  ease  and  rapidity.  He  was  but 
thirty-one  years  of  age  and  had  been  only  six  years  at  the 
Bar  when  he  was  made  a  Queen's  Counsel.  In  politics,  how- 
ever, he  had  made  his  chief  distinction.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  when  O'Connell  sought  to  obtain  a  declaration  in 
favor  of  Repeal  of  the  Union  from  the  newly  emancipated 
Corporation  of  Dublin,  Butt  was  selected  by  his  co-religion- 
ists, young  as  he  was,  to  meet  the  Great  Liberator,  and  his 
speech  was  as  good  as  could  be  made  on  the  side  of  the  main- 
tenance of  the  Union;  and  many  a  year  after,  when  he  had  be- 
come the  leader  of  a  Home  Rule  Party,  was  quoted  against 
him  by  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach,  the  Irish  Chief  Secretary  of 

the  period. 

Of  great  though  irregular  industry,  deeply  devoted  to 
study,  with  a  mind  of  large  grasp  and  a  singular  retentive 
memory,  he  was  intimately  acquainted  with  all  the  secrets  of 
his  profession;  and  throughout  his  life  was  acknowledged  to 
be  a  fine  lawyer.  He  represented  in  Parliament  both  You- 
ghal  in  his  native  county  and  Harwich  in  England.    His  en- 

591 


592  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

trance  into  Parliament  aggravated  many  of  his  weaknesses. 
It  separated  him  from  his  profession  in  Dublin,  and  thereby 
increased  his  already  great  pecuniary  difficulties.  His  char- 
acter in  many  respects  was  singularly  feeble.  Some  of  his 
weaknesses  leaned  to  virtue's  side,  and  many  of  the  stories 
told  of  him  suggest  a  resemblance  to  the  character  of  Alexan- 
der Dumas  pere.  He  borrowed  largely  and  lent  largely,  and 
often  in  the  midst  of  his  sorest  straits  lavished  on  others  the 
money  which  he  required  himself  and  which  often  did  not 
belong  to  him.  Throughout  his  life  he  was,  as  a  consequence, 
pursued  by  the  bloodhound  of  vast  and  insurmountable  debt. 
At  least  once  he  was  for  several  months  in  a  debtors'  prison, 
and  there  used  to  be  terrible  stories— even  in  the  days  when 
he  was  an  English  member  of  Parliament— of  unpaid  cabmen 
and  appearances  at  the  police  courts. 

But  he  was  a  man  of  supreme  political  genius ;  one  of  those 
whose  right  to  intellectual  eminence  is  never  questioned,  but 
willingly  conceded  without  effort  on  his  side,  without  opposi- 
tion on  the  part  of  others.  The  irregularities  of  his  life  shut 
him  out  from  official  employment,  and  he  saw  a  long  series 
of  inferiors  reach  to  position  and  wealth  while  he  remained 
poor  and  neglected.  There  is  a  considerable  period  of  his  life 
which  is  almost  total  eclipse.  There  came  an  Indian  Summer 
when  he  returned  to  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Ireland, 
and  once  more  joined  in  the  political  struggles  of  his  country- 
men. Mr.  Gladstone's  Dissolution  of  1874  came  upon  Butt 
with  the  same  bewildering  surprise  as  upon  so  many  other 
people.  That  election  found  him  in  a  cruel  difficulty.  On  the 
one  hand,  the  country  was  beyond  all  question  with  him ;  he 
knew  that  he  could  count  on  the  masses  to  vote  in  favor  of 
self-government  as  securely  as  every  other  popular  leader 
who  has  ever  been  able  to  make  the  appeal.  The  majority  of 
the  constituencies  were  ready,  he  knew,  to  return  Home  Rule 
candidates;  and  thus  the  general  election  afforded  him  the 
opportunity  of  creating  a  greater  Home  Rule  party,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  elections  cannot  be  fought  without  money; 
elections  were  dearer  then  even  than  they  are  now,  and  Butt 
wanted  to  fight,  not  a  seat  here  and  there,  but  a  whole  na- 
tional campaign ;  for  three-fourths  of  the  constituencies  could 
be  won  by  a  Home  Rule  candidate  if  a  Home  Rule  candidate 
could  be  brought  forward.  For  so  immense  a  work  he  had 
nothing  to  fall  back  on  but  a  few  hundred  pounds  in  the  funds 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  593 

of  the  Home  Rule  Association,  and  he  himself  was  a-t  one  of 
his  recurrent  periods  of  desperate  need.  He  was  arrested 
for  debt  on  the  very  morning  of  the  day,  when,  learning  of 
the  dissolution,  he  was  making  his  plan  of  campaign,  though 
the  matter  was  arranged  in  some  way  or  other,  he  had  to  fly 
to  England,  and  this  prevented  him  from  exercising  that  per- 
sonal supervision  over  the  General  Election  which  is  abso- 
lutely required  from  the  leader  of  a  movement.  Butt  could 
only  adopt,  under  the  circumstances,  a  policy  of  compromise, 
and  make  the  best  out  of  bad,  but  inevitable  material.  Where 
there  was  a  real  and  genuine  Home  Rule  candidate  ready  to 
come  forward,  and  able  to  bear  the  expenses  of  an  election 
contest,  Butt  fought  the  seat.  In  this  way  he  was  able  to 
bring  into  public  life  many  earnest  men  who  had  for  years 
found  it  impossible  to  take  any  Parliamentary  part  in  rescu- 
ing the  country.  His  party  contained  A.  M.  Sullivan,  Mr. 
Bigger,  Mr.  Richard  Power,  Mr.  Sheil  and  several  others, 
who  were  really  devoted  to  the  National  cause.  On  the  other 
hand  he  had  to  accept,  in  constituencies,  where  he  had  not 
the  men  or  the  money  to  fight,  the  ''Deathbed  repentance," 
as  it  was  called,  of  men  who  had  grown  gray  in  the  service  of 
one  or  other  of  the  English  parties.  These  time-worn  Whigs 
or  Tories— such  as  Sir  Patrick  O'Brien  and  Sir  George  Bow- 
yer— of  course  swallowed  the  Home  Rule  pledge.  Some  of 
the  new  men  were  little  better.  The  race  of  Rabagas  had 
been  scotched  but  not  killed,  and  among  Butt's  recruits  was 
a  certain  proportion  of  lawyers,  who  were  as  ready  as  any  of 
their  predecessors  to  sell  themselves  and  their  principles  to 
the  highest  bidder.  Many  of  them  have  since  received  office ; 
all  of  the  tribe  have  expected  and  asked  it.  It  was,  then,  a 
very  mixed  party  Butt  had  gathered  around  him— a  party  of 
patriots  and  of  place  hunters,  of  men  young,  earnest  and 
fresh  for  struggle,  and  of  men  physically  exhausted  and  mor- 
ally dead— a  party  of  life-long  Nationalists  and  of  veteran 
lacqueys.  There  was  a  tragic  contrast  between  such  a  party 
and  the  renewed  and  sublime  and  noble  hopes  of  the  nation. 
Of  the  103  Irish  members,  sixty  were  returned  pledged  to  vote 
for  the  entire  rearrangement  of  the  legislative  relations  be- 
tween the  two  countries. 


CHAPTER  III. 

TJNStriTABILITY  OF  BUTT  AS   LEADER. 

Such  was  the  party;  and  now  how  was  it  with  the  leader? 
His  weakness  with  regard  to  pecuniary  matters  has  been  al- 
ready touched  upon;  he  had,  besides,  all  the  other  foibles,  as 
well  as  the  charms,  of  an  easy-going,  good-natured,  pliant 
temperament.  Though  his  faults  were  grossly  exaggerated— 
for  instance,  many  intimates  declare  that  they  never  saw 
him,  even  during  the  acquaintance  of  years,  once  under  the 
influence  of  drink— he  had,  unquestionably,  made  many  sac- 
rifices on  the  altars  of  the  gods  of  indulgence.  It  may  be  that, 
with  him,  as  with  so  many  others,  the  pursuit  of  pleasure  was 
but  the  misnomer  for  the  flight  from  despair.  He  was  all  his 
life  troubled  by  an  unusually  slow  circulation,  and  it  may  be 
that  the  central  note  of  his  character  was  melancholy.  In  his 
early  days  he  was  a  constant  contributor  to  the  Dublin  Uni- 
versity Magazine  and  his  tales  have  a  vein  of  the  morbid 
melancholy  that  runs  through  the  youthful  letters  of  Alfred  de 
Musset.  Allusion  has  been  already  made  to  his  imaginative- 
ness; this  imaginativeness  did  much  to  weaken  his  resolve. 
Curious  stories  are  told  of  the  superstitions  that  ran  through 
his  nature.  Though  a  Protestant,  he  used  to  carry  some  of  the 
religious  symbols— medals,  for  instance— which  Catholics  use, 
and  he  would  not  go  into  a  law  court  without  his  medals.  There 
are  still  more  ludicrous  stories  of  his  standing  appalled  or  de- 
lighted before  such  accidents  as  putting  on  his  clothes  the 
wrong  way,  and  other  trivialities.  Then,  the  demon  of  debt, 
which  had  haunted  him  all  his  life,  now  stood  menacing  him 
behind.  He  had  just  re-established  himself  in  a  considerable 
practice  when  he  again  entered  Parliament,  and  membership 
of  Parliament  is  entirely  incompatible  with  the  retention  of 
his  entire  practice  by  an  Irish  barrister.  He  was,  through- 
out his  leadership,  divided  between  a  dread  dilemma;  either 
he  had  to  neglect  Parliament,  and  then  his  party  was  endan- 
gered, or  neglect  his  practice,  and  then  bring  ruin  on  himself 
or  a  family  unprovided  for,  deeply  loving  and  deeply  loved. 
There  is  no  Nemesis  so  relentless  as  that  which  dogs  pecuni- 
ary recklessness ;  the  spendthrift  is  also  the  drudge ;  and  in  his 

59 1 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  595 

days  of  old  ago,  woakncss  and  terrible  political  responsibili- 
ties, Butt  bad  to  fly  between  London  and  Dublin,  to  stop  up 
o 'nights,  alternately  reading  briefs  and  drafting  Acts  of  Par- 
liament; to  make  his  worn  and  unwieldy  frame  do  the  double 
work,  which  would  try  the  nerves  and  strength  of  a  giant  with 
the  limber  joints  and  freshness  of  early  youth.  At  this  period 
Butt's  frame  was  worn,  though  to  outward  appearances  he 
was  still  vigorous.  The  hand  of  incurable  disease  already 
held  him  tight  and  the  dark  death,  of  which  he  had  so  great  a 
horror,  was  not  many  years  off;  finally,  in  1874,  he  was  sixty- 
one  years  of  age.  On  the  other  hand,  he  had  great  qualities 
of  leadership.  He  was  unquestionably  a  head  and  shoulders 
above  all  his  followers,  able  though  so  many  of  them  were, 
and  was,  next  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  the  greatest  Parliamentarian 
of  his  day.  Then  he  had  the  large  toleration  and  the  easy 
temper  that  make  leadership  a  light  burden  to  followers ;  and 
the  burden  of  leadership  must  be  light  when— as  in  an  Irish 
party— the  leader  has  no  offices  or  salaries  to  bestow.  And, 
above  all,  he  had  the  modesty  and  the  simplicity  of  real  great- 
ness. Every  man  had  his  ear,  every  man  his  kindly  word  and 
smile,  and  some  his  strong  affection.  Thus  it  was  that  Butt 
was  to  many  the  most  lovable  of  men;  and  more  than  one  po- 
litical opponent,  impelled  by  principle  to  regard  him  as  the 
most  serious  danger  to  the  Irish  cause,  struck  him  hard,  but 
wept  as  he  dealt  the  blow. 

This  sketch  of  the  character  of  Butt  will  show  the  points 
in  which  he  was  unsuitable  for  the  work  before  him.  He  was 
the  leader  of  a  small  party  in  an  assembly  to  which  it  was 
hateful  in  opinion  and  feeling  and  temperament.  A  party  in 
such  circumstances  can  only  make  its  way  by  audacious  ag- 
gressiveness, dogged  resistance,  relentless  purpose;  and  for 
such  Parliamentary  forlorn  hopes  the  least  suited  of  leaders 
was  a  man  whom  a  single  groan  of  impatience  could  hurt,  and 
one  word  of  compliment  delight. 

The  history  of  Butt's  attempts  to  obtain  land  or  any  other 
reform  in  Ireland  from  the  Imperial  Parliament  was  the  same 
as  that  of  so  many  of  his  predecessors.  Year  after  year,  ses- 
sion after  session,  there  was  the  same  tale  of  Irish  demand 
mocked  at,  denounced  with  equal  vigor  by  the  leaders  of  both 
the  English  parties  alike,  and  then  rejected  in  the  division 
lobbies  by  overwhelming  English  majorities. 

Butt  was  very  much  pained  and  disappointed  by  this  uni- 


596  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

versal  rejection  of  all  his  proposals,  and  began  to  have 
gloomy  forebodings  as  to  the  success  of  his  policy.  Inti- 
mately acquainted  as  Butt  was  with  the  working  of  the  Land 
Act  of  1870,  he  probably  knew  very  well  that  a  crisis  was  in- 
evitable—such as  came  upon  Ireland  in  1879.  And  possibly, 
in  one  of  those  moments  of  gloom  and  depression  with  which 
he  was  too  familiar,  he  may  have  anticipated  an  hour  when 
there  would  come  the  same  tragic  and  terrible  close  to  his 
agitation  which  had  wound  up  the  career  of  O'Connell— a 
country  not  free  and  prosperous,  but  once  more  tight  in  the 
grip  of  hunger,  and  more  helpless  than  ever  against  oppres- 
sion. To  preach  patience  to  a  people  under  such  conditions 
was  to  mock  a  starving  man  with  honeyed  words. 

There  was,  however,  another  and  a  graver  danger  to  the 
success  of  Butt's  movement.  Butt  knew  well  that  as  time  went 
on  he  was  bound  to  lose  a  certain  proportion  of  such  a 
party.  When  there  is  on  the  one  side  a  certain  number  of 
men  willing  to  sell  themselves,  and  on  the  other  a  Government 
with  vast  resources  and  occasional  need  for  the  services  of 
a  corrupt  Irishman,  the  moment  when  the  two  will  come  to 
a  bargain  is  a  matter  of  mutual  arrangement.  The  Home 
Eule  Party  had  not  been  many  years  in  existence  when  two 
or  three  of  its  members  had  accepted  place,  and  there  was 
not  the  least  doubt  that  others  were  willing.  Then,  apart 
from  the  want  of  pence,  which  was  driving  several  of  Butt's 
followers  into  office-seeking,  the  party  was  suffering  from 
that  hope  deferred  which  dejoresses  and  then  disintegrates 
political  bodies.  Session  passed  after  session,  motion  after 
motion,  bill  after  bill,  and  still  no  advance  was  made.  Then 
the  party,  drawn  from  elements  so  heterogeneous  as  Colonel 
King-Harman  and  Mr.  Gray,  Sir  Patrick  O'Brien  and  Mr. 
Eichard  Power,  could  not  be  held  in  any  strict  bonds  of  dis- 
cipline. Butt  was  exceedingly  anxious  to  get  the  party  to  act 
together  as  a  party  on  the  great  questions  which  divided  the 
two  English  parties;  all  his  efforts  in  this  direction  failed. 
In  the  Parliament  of  1874,  it  gave  Sir  Stafford  Northcote  very 
little  concern  if  Colonel  King-Harman  voted  in  favor  of 
Home  Eule,  after  the  annual  and  academic  discussion,  when 
the  Irish  were  put  down  by  a  combination  of  all  the  English 
parties  in  the  House,  for  in  all  English  party  divisions  he  was 
secure  of  Colonel  King-Harman 's  vote,  as  though  he  had  not 
corrupted  the  general  purity  of  his  Conservatism  by  the 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  597 

heresy  of  Home  Rule.  And,  similarly,  even  Lord  Ilartington 
might  excuse  the  occasional  error  of  an  expectant  Whig  like 
Mr.  Meldon,  when  Mr.  Meldon's  vote  against  the  Tories  was 
as  certain  as  his  desire  for  a  place. 

Butt  fully  grasped  this  truth  of  Parliamentary  tactics,  hut, 
of  course,  was  unable  to  get  men  to  act  as  an  Irish  party  who 
were  bound  by  corrupt  hopes  or  party  predilections  to  give 
their  first  allegiance  to  an  English  party  and  an  English 
leader.  Thus  his  whole  policy  was  founded  on  sand.  All 
these  various  causes,  working  together,  had  produced  in  the 
Irish  party  of  1874  disorganization,  depression,  the  break- 
down of  the  barriers  of  shame  among  the  corrupt,  the  sealing 
up  of  the  fountains  of  hope  among  the  pure.  The  period  of 
dry-rot  had  set  in. 

In  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  it  is  now  easy  to  see  the 
dread  abyss  to  which  the  Home  Rule  Party  was  once  more 
bringing  Ireland.    The  accession  of  a  Liberal  Ministry  would 
have  immediately  completed  the  disaster  which  the  defeat  of 
Butt's  proposals  had  begun.    At  least  half  the  party  would  at 
once  have  become  applicants  for  office,  and  probably  a  consid- 
erable number  would  have  realized  their  wishes.     The  re- 
mainder would  gradually  have  sunk  deeper  and  deeper  into 
a  position  of  obedience  to  the  English  whips,  and  Irish  na- 
tional interests  would  once  more  have  been  made  absolutely 
subservient  to  the  interests  of  a  single  English  party,  to  the 
convenience  of  Ministers,  and  to  the  opportunities  of  an  over- 
worked, listless  and  generally  hostile  House  of  Commons.  The 
first  result  of  this  state  of  things  would  have  been  to  break 
down  once  more  all  faith  in  Parliamentary  agitation.    A  por- 
tion of  the  people  would  have  found  some  hope  for  the  redress 
of  intolerable  grievances  in  another  resort  to  revolutionary 
methods.    The  majority,  following  the  precedent  of  the  period 
immediately  subsequent  to  Keogh's  betrayal,  would  in  the 
cynicism  begotten  of  blighted  hope,  once  more  have  chosen  bad 
or  good  men,  honest  patriots  or  self-seeking  knaves,  in  the 
spirit  of  chance  and  of  caprice.    This  downfall  of  constitu- 
tional agitation  would  have  been  made  the  more  disastrous 
by  events  which  at  this  moment  were  hurrying  upon  Ireland. 
The  year  1879,  as  will  presently  be  seen,  brought  one  of  those 
crises  which  were  bound  to  recur  in  Ireland  as  long  as  its  land 
system  remained  unreformed.    Famine  would  have  followed 
the  distress  of  1879,  as  it  followed  the  blight  of  1846.    The 


598  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

country,  without  an  honest  and  energetic  Parliamentary  rep- 
resentation, would  have  been  left  at  the  mercy  of  the  igno- 
rance, and  the  flippant  levity  of  English  Ministers,  and  Ire- 
land, once  more  on  the  threshold  of  a  successful  movement, 
would  have  been  dragged  back  for  another  generation  into  the 
slough  of  hunger,  eviction,  dishonest  representatives,  and 
futile  insurrection. 

The  men  and  the  methods  that  warded  off  this  catastrophe 
were  chosen  with  the  ironical  capriciousness  of  destiny.  The 
one  was  a  man  already  advanced  in  years,  without  the  small- 
est trace  of  oratorical  ability,  without  culture,  with  no  politi- 
cal experience  wider  than  that  to  be  acquired  on  a  water  board 
or  a  town  council.  The  other,  at  this  time  at  least,  was  a 
young  and  obscure  country  gentleman,  who  had  given  no 
pledges  to  the  political  future  save  those  of  a  very  unsuccess- 
ful election  contest,  and  two  or  three  stumbling  and  very 
ineffective  attempts  at  public  speech. 

On  the  night  of  April  22, 1875,  the  House  of  Commons  was 
engaged  in  the  not  unaccustomed  task  of  passing  a  Coercion 
Bill  for  Ireland.  Mr.  Butt,  for  some  reason  or  other,  thought 
it  desirable  that  the  progress  of  the  measure  on  this  evening 
should  be  slow,  and  he  asked  a  member  of  his  party,  who  was 
still  young  to  the  House,  to  speak  against  time.  ''How  long?'* 
asked  the  member  of  his  leader,  ''would  you  wish  me  to 
speak?"  "A  pretty  good  while,"  was  Mr.  Butt's  reply.  Mr. 
Biggar,  who  was  the  member  appealed  to,  gave  an  interpreta- 
tion of  this  mot  d'ordre  far  larger  than  probably  Mr.  Butt 
had  ever  imagined  or  intended.  It  was  five  o  'clock  when  Mr. 
Biggar  rose,  it  was  five  minutes  to  nine  when  he  sat  down. 

Let  us  quote  Hansard  for  a  description  of  the  scene;  its 
unconscious  humor  and  significance  will  be  interesting: 

The  honorable  member  proceed  to  read  extracts  from  the 
evidence  before  the  Westmeath  Committee— as  was  under- 
stood—but in  a  manner  which  rendered  him  totally  unintel- 
ligible.   At  length— 

' '  The  Speaker,  interrupting,  reminded  the  honorable  gen- 
tleman that  the  rules  required  that  an  honorable  member, 
when  speaking,  should  address  himself  to  the  Chair.  This 
rule  the  honorable  gentleman  was  at  present  neglecting. 

"Mr.  Biggar  said  that  his  non-observance  of  the  rule  was 
partly  because  he  found  it  difficult  to  make  his  voice  heard 
after  speaking  for  so  long  a  time,  and  partly  because  his  posi- 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle 


599 


tion  in  the  House  made  it  very  inconvenient  for  him  to  read 
his  extracts  directly  towards  the  Chair;  he  would,  however, 
with  permission,  take  a  more  favorable  position. 

''The  honorable  member  accordingly,  who  had  been  speak- 
ing from  below  the  gangway,  removed  to  a  bench  nearer  to 
the  Speaker's  chair,  taking  with  him  a  large  mass  of  papers, 
from  which  he  continued  to  read  long  extracts,  with  comments. 

''At  length  the  honorable  member  said  he  was  unwilling 
to  detain  the  House  at  further  length,  and  would  conclude  by 
stating  his  conviction  that  he  had  proved  to  every  impartial 
mind  that  the  Government  had  made  out  no  case  for  the  main- 
tenance of  this  monstrous  system  of  coercion,  and  that  their 
proposal  was  perfectly  unreasonable.  The  honorable  gentle- 
man, who  had  been  speaking  nearly  four  hours,  then  moved 
his  amendment!" 


Sculpture  o„  ^^-^''^■S:;^^^;^X%o^^°T^iS°^'''''-  ^"-'"'  ""• 


CHAPTER  IV. 

JOE  BIGGAR  AND  HIS  '' ACTIVE"  POLICY. 

Neither  Mr.  Butt,  nor  the  House  of  Commons,  nor  Mr. 
Biggar  himself  could  possibly  have  foreseen  the  momentous 
place  which  this  night's  work  was  destined  to  hold  in  all  the 
subsequent  history  of  the  relation  between  England  and  Ire- 
land. It  was  on  this  night  that  the  policy  was  born  which 
has  since  become  known  to  all  the  world— the  policy  known  as 
** obstruction"  by  its  enemies  and  as  the  '* active  policy"  by 
its  friends. 

There  were  few  men  of  whom  friends  and  enemies  formed 
so  different  an  estimate  as  Mr.  Biggar.  The  feelings  of  his 
friends  and  intimates  was  affectionate  almost  to  fanaticism. 
"When  there  were  private  and  convivial  meetings  of  the  Irish 
Party,  the  effort  was  always  made  to  limit  the  toasts  to  the 
irreducible  minimum,  for  talking  has  naturally  ceased  to  be 
much  of  an  amusement  to  men  who  have  to  do  so  much  of  it 
in  the  performance  of  public  duties.  There  was  one  toast, 
however,  which  was  never  set  down  and  was  always  proposed ; 
this  toast  was  the  ''Health  of  Mr.  Biggar."  Then  there  oc- 
curred a  scene  which  was  pleasant  to  look  upon.  There  arose 
from  all  the  party  one  long,  spontaneous,  universal  cheer— a 
cheer  straight  from  every  man's  heart;  the  usually  frigid 
speech  of  Mr.  Parnell  grew  warm  and  even  more  tender; 
everything  showed  that,  whoever  stood  highest  in  the  respect, 
Mr.  Biggar  held  first  place  in  the  affections  of  his  comrades. 
To  the  outside  world  there  was  no  man  who  presented  a 
sterner,  a  more  prosaic  and  harder  front  than  Mr.  Biggar.  On 
such  occasions  the  other  side  of  his  character  stood  revealed. 
His  breast  heaved,  his  face  flushed,  he  dashed  his  hand  with' 
nervous  haste  to  his  eyes ;  but  the  tears  had  already  risen  and 
were  rushing  down  his  face. 

To  his  intimates,  then,  Mr.  Biggar  was  known  as  a  man 
overflowing  with  kindness ;  of  an  almost  absolute  unselfishness. 
A  man  once  bitterly  hated  Mr.  Biggar  until  he  had  a  conver- 
sation with  one  of  Mr.  Biggar 's  sisters,  and  found  that  she 
was  unable  to  speak  of  all  her  brother's  kindness  with  an 
unbroken  voice.  In  the  House  of  Commons,  with  all  his  fifty- 
seven  years,  he  was  at  the  beck  and  call  of  men  who  could  be 

600 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  601 

almost  bis  grandchildren.  Mr.  Healy  is  preparing  an  on- 
slaught on  the  Treasury  Bench;  "Joe,"  he  cries  to  Mr.  Big- 
gar,  ''get  me  return  so-and-so."  Mr.  Biggar  is  off  to  the 
library.  He  has  scarcely  got  back  when  the  relentless  mem- 
ber for  Monaghan  requires  to  add  to  his  armory  the  division 
list  in  which  the  perfidious  Minister  has  recorded  his  infamy, 
and  away  goes  Mr.  Biggar  to  the  library  again.  Then  Mr. 
Sexton,  busily  engaged  in  the  study  of  an  official  report,  ap- 
proaches the  member  for  Cavan  with  a  card  and  an  insinuat- 
ing smile,  and  Mr.  Biggar  sets  forth  on  an  expedition  to  see 
some  of  the  importunate  visitants  by  whom  members  of  Par- 
liament are  dogged.  As  a  quarter  to  six  is  approaching  on  a 
Wednesday  evening,  and  Mr.  Parnell  thinks  it  just  as  well 
that  the  work  of  the  Government  should  not  go  too  fast,  he 
calls  on  Mr.  Biggar  and  Mr.  Biggar  is  on  his  legs,  filling  in  the 
horrid  interval— Hoaven  knows  how.  The  desolate  stranger, 
who  knows  no  member  of  Parliament,  and  yearns  to  see  the 
House  of  Commons  at  work,  thinks  fondly  of  Mr.  Biggar,  and 
obtains  a  ticket  of  admission.  He  is  seen  almost  every  night 
surrounded  by  successive  bevies  of  ladies— young  and  old, 
native  and  foreign— whom  he  is  escorting  to  the  Ladies'  Gal- 
lery. Nobody  asks  any  favor  of  Mr.  Bigger  without  getting 
it.  The  man  who  to  the  outside  public  appears  the  most 
odious  tyi^e  of  Irish  fractiousness  is  adored  by  the  police- 
men, worshipped  by  the  attendants  of  the  House ;  and  there  is 
good  ground  for  the  suspicion  that  there  was  a  secret  treaty 
between  him  and  the  late  Sergeant-at-Arms,  the  genial  and 
universally  popular  Captain  Gossett,  founded  on  their  com- 
mon desire  to  bring  sittings  to  the  abrupt  and  inglorious  end 
of  a  "count  out." 

But  this  is  only  one  side  of  his  character.  His  hate  was  as 
fierce  and  unquestioning  as  his  love,  and  he  hated  all  his 
political  opponents.  He  had  the  true  Ulster  nature;  uncom- 
promising, downright,  self-controlled,  narrow.  The  subtleties 
by  which  men  of  wider  minds,  more  complex  natures,  less 
stable  purpose  and  conviction,  were  apt  to  palliate  their 
changes  were  entirely  incomprehensible  to  Mr.  Biggar,  and  the 
self-justifications  of  moral  weakness  aroused  only  his  scorn. 
His  purpose,  too,  when  once  resolved  upon,  was  inflexible.  It 
was  this  inflexibility  of  purpose  that  made  him  so  great  a 
political  force.  Finally,  he  was  as  fearless  as  he  was  single- 
minded.    The  worst  tempest  in  the  House  of  Commons,  the 


602  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

sternest  decree  that  English  law  could  enforce  against  an  Irish 
patriot,  and  equally  the  disapproval  of  his  own  people,  were 
incapable  of  causing  him  a  moment  of  trepidation.  He  said 
many  terrible  things  in  the  House  of  Commons;  he  never 
retracted  one  syllable  of  anything  he  ever  said.  There  is  a 
scene  in  '^Pere  Goriot,"  in  which  the  pangs  of  the  dying  and 
deserted  father  are  depicted  with  terrible  force.  He  is  speak- 
ing of  his  daughters  and  of  their  husbands;  of  the  one  he 
speaks  with  the  tenderness  of  a  woman's  heart;  of  the  other, 
with  the  ferocity  of  an  enraged  tiger.  The  passage  suggests 
the  two  sides  of  Mr.  Biggar's  nature;  in  the  depth  of  his  love, 
in  the  fierceness  of  his  hate,  he  is  the  ''Pere  Goriot"  of  Irish 
politics. 

A  great  difficulty  meets  the  biographer  of  Mr.  Biggar  at 
the  outset.  He  was  not  uncommimicative  about  himself,  but 
he  did  not  understand  himself,  and  he  much  underrated  him- 
self. Asked  by  a  friend  to  write  his  autobiography,  his  an- 
swer was:  ''I  am  a  very  commonplace  character."  In  his 
early  days  when  he  used  to  be  asked  to  make  a  speech,  he 
cheerfully  started  out  on  the  attempt,  having  made  the  pre- 
liminary statement,  ''I  can't  speak  a  d— d  bit."  He  was  born 
in  Belfast  on  August  1,  1828,  and  was  educated  at  the  Bel- 
fast Academy,  where  he  remained  from  1832  to  1844.  The 
record  of  his  school  days  is  far  from  satisfactory.  He  was 
very  indolent— at  least  he  says  so  himself— he  showed  no 
great  love  for  reading— in  this  regard  the  boy,  indeed,  was 
father  to  the  man— he  was  poor  at  composition,  and  of  course 
abjectly  hopeless  at  elocution.  The  one  talent  he  did  exhibit 
was  a  talent  for  figures.  It  was  perhaps  this  want  of  any 
particular  success  in  learning,  as  well  as  delicacy  of  health, 
which  made  Mr.  Biggar 's  parents  conclude  that  he  had  better 
be  removed  from  school  and  placed  in  business.  He  was  taken 
into  his  father's  office,  who— as  is  known— was  engaged  in 
the  provision  trade,  and  he  continued  as  assistant  until  1861, 
when  he  became  head  of  the  firm.  This  part  of  his  career 
may  be  here  dismissed  with  the  remark  that  he  retired  from 
trade  in  1880,  and  remained  out  of  business  during  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life,  giving  his  attention  exclusively  to  the 
Irish  movement. 

Mr.  Biggar  always  took  an  interest  in  politics,  and  it  will 
not  surprise  those  acquainted  with  his  subsequent  career  to 
know  that  he  was  always  on  the  side  which  was  in  a  hopeless 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  603 

minority,  and  which  opposed  the  reigning  clique  and  the  es- 
tablished regime.  For  instance,  when  the  late  Mr.  McMechan 
sought  on  one  occasion  the  representation  of  Belfast  he  had 
only  fourteen  supporters  in  all,  and  Mr.  Biggar  was  one  of  the 
fourteen.  In  1868,  Mr.  Biggar  had  a  share  in  creating  the 
curious  combination  by  which  Mr.  William  Johnston,  of  Bal- 
lykilbeg,  was  elected  by  Orange  Democrats  and  Catholic  Na- 
tionalists. 

In  1870  Mr.  Biggar  made  an  attemijt  to  get  into  the  Town 
Council,  standing  for  his  native  ward,  which  had  always  been 
regarded  as  a  Tory  stronghold.  He  was  well  beaten.  Mr. 
Biggar  received  his  defeat  with  the  declaration  that  he  would 
fight  the  ward  on  every  occasion  until  he  became  its  member. 
In  the  following  year  he  again  stood,  with  the  result  that  he 
was  returned  at  the  head  of  the  poll.  He  had  previous  to 
this  obtained  a  seat  on  the  Water  Board,  and  he  was  chairman 
of  that  body  from  August,  1869,  to  March,  1872.  Some  stormy 
scenes  occurred  during  Mr.  Biggar 's  tenure  of  office;  for  the 
future  member  for  Cavan  gave  his  colleagues  some  specimens 
of  that  absolutely  irreverent  freedom  of  speech  which  has 
since  alternately  shocked  and  amused  a  higher  assembly. 
There  was  a  meeting  in  county  Antrim  for  the  purpose  of 
expressing  sympathy  with  the  Queen  on  the  recovery  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales ;  and  whether  it  was  because  of  his  disbelief  in 
princes  generally,  or  because  he  was  disgusted  with  the 
fulsomeness  of  some  of  the  language  employed,  Mr.  Biggar 
wrote  to  the  newspapers  to  say  that  the  attendance  at  the 
meeting  did  not  exceed  fifty.  When  his  year  of  office  closed  he 
was  superseded,  and  was  even  refused  the  customary  vote  of 
thanks. 

Mr.  Biggar 's  first  attempt  to  enter  Parliament  was  made 
at  Londonderry  in  1872.  He  had  not  the  least  idea  of  being 
successful;  but  he  had  at  this  time  mentally  formulated  the 
policy  which  he  afterwards  carried  out  with  inflexible  purpose 
—he  preferred  the  triumph  of  an  open  enemy  to  that  of  a  half- 
hearted friend.  The  candidates  were  Mr.  (now  Sir  Charles) 
Lewis,  Mr.  (now  Chief  Baron)  Palles,  and  Mr.  Biggar.  At 
that  moment  Mr.  Palles,  as  Attorney  General,  was  prosecuting 
Mr.  Duggan  and  other  Catholic  bishops  for  the  part  they  had 
taken  in  a  famous  Galway  election,  and  Mr.  Biggar  made  it 
a  first  and  indispensable  condition  of  his  withdrawing  from 
the  contest  that  these  prosecutions  should  be  dropped.    Mr. 


604 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


Palles  refused;  Mr.  Biggar  received  only  89  votes,  but  tlie 
Castle  official  was  defeated,  and  be  was  satisfied.  Tbe  bold 
fight  be  bad  made  marked  out  Mr.  Biggar  as  tbe  man  to  lead 
one  of  tbe  assaults  wbicb  at  tbis  time  tbe  rising  Home  Rule 
Party  was  beginning  to  make  on  tbe  seats  of  Wbig  and  Tory. 
Wben  tbe  General  Election  of  1874  came,  it  was  represented 
to  Mr.  Biggar  that  be  would  better  serve  tbe  cause  by  stand- 
ing for  Cavan.  He  was  nominated,  and  returned,  and  mem- 
ber for  Cavan  be  remained  for  years. 


Sculpture  on  a  Capital:   Priest's  House,  Glendalough:  Beranger,  i779. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers." 


CHAPTER  V. 

CHARLES   STEWART   PARN ELL— HISTORY   OF   THE   PARNELL   FAMILY. 

It  was  not  long  after  tlie  night  of  Mr.  Biggar's  four  hours' 
speech  that  a  young  Irish  member  took  his  seat  for  the  first 
time.  This  was  Mr.  Parnell,  elected  for  the  county  of  Meath 
in  succession  to  John  Martin— a  veteran  and  incorruptible 
patriot  who  had  died  a  few  days  before  the  opening  of  this 
new  chapter  in  the  Irish  struggle. 

When  the  dissolution  of  February,  1874,  came,  Mr.  Parnell 
wished  to  stand  for  Wicklow,  but  he  was  then  high  sheriff 
of  the  county,  and  the  Government  would  not  allow  him  to 
qualify  himself  by  resigning.  Shortly  after.  Colonel  Taylor's 
acceptance  of  office  as  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  in  the  new 
Disraeli  Administration  made  a  vacancy  for  the  county  of 
Dublin,  and  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  fight  the  seat.  The 
contest  was  regarded  as  a  forlorn  hope,  and  was  known  at  the 
same  time  to  be  necessarily  an  expensive  one.  The  offer  of 
Mr.  Parnell  to  fight  the  seat  at  his  own  expense  came  at  a 
time  when  there  was  scarcely  a  penny  in  the  exchequer  of 
the  National  Party,  and  the  mere  fact  alone  of  his  willingness 
to  bear  the  burden  in  such  a  contest  was  enough  to  secure  him 
a  hearing ;  but  there  were  many  doubts  and  fear»,  and  the  first 
impression  was  that  if  a  young  landlord,  hitherto  entirely 
unknown  in  the  national  struggle— for  the  outer,  and  still 
more,  the  inner  history  of  this  shy,  reserved  young  man,  bur- 
ied in  his  Wicklow  estate,  was  a  closed  book  to  everybody  in 
the  world— if  such  a  man  wished  to  represent  a  constituency 
it  was  from  no  higher  motive  than  social  ambition ;  and  men 
who  had  become  members  of  Parliament  for  such  reasons 
have  left  a  long  record  of  half-hearted  adherence,  ending  in 
violent  hostility  to  the  national  cause.  At  last  it  was  agreed 
that  the  young  aspirant  should  at  least  get  the  privilege  of  a 
hearing,  and  he  had  a  personal  intei'\T.ew  with  the  Council  of 
the  Home  Rule  League.  John  Martin  and  Mr.  A.  M.  Sullivan 
were  favorably  impressed ;  the  latter  undertook  to  propose  his 
adoption  at  a  meeting  in  the  Rotunda  and  here  is  his  account 
of  what  followed  and  of  Mr.  Pamell's  debut  in  public  life. 

"The  resolution  which  I  had  moved  in  his  favor  having 

605 


606  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

been  adopted  with  acclamation,  he  came  forward  to  address 
the  assemblage.  To  our  dismay  he  broke  utterly.  He  falt- 
ered, he  paused,  went  on,  got  confused,  and  pale  with  intense 
but  subdued  nervous  anxiety,  caused  everyone  to  feel  deep 
sympathy  for  him.  The  audience  saw  it  all  and  cheered  hun 
kindly  and  heartily;  but  many  on  the  platform  shook  their 
heads,  sagely  prophesying  that  if  ever  he  got  to  Westminster, 
no  matter  how  long  he  stayed  there,  he  would  either  be  a 
'Silent  Member'  or  be  known  as  'Single-speech  Parnell.'  " 

Nobody  was  surprised  when,  as  the  result  of  the  election, 
Colonel  Taylor  was  returned  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 
If  anything  were  needed  to  account  for  the  expected  result, 
and  to  encourage  hope  for  a  better  chance  next  time,  it  was 
found  in  the  universal  sentiment  that  the  Nationalists  had 
been  represented  by  an  extremely  poor  candidate.  Then,  as 
later,  Mr.  Parnell  had  none  of  the  qualities  which  had  hitlierto 
been  associated  with  the  idea  of  a  successful  Irish  leader.  He 
became  one  of  the  most  potent  of  Parliamentary  debaters  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  through  his  power  of  saying  exactly 
what  he  meant  and  his  thorough  grasp  of  his  ideas  and  wants. 
But  Mr.  Parnell  had  become  this  in  spite  of  himself.  He 
retained  to  the  very  last  day  an  almost  invincible  repugnance 
to  speaking;  if  he  could  through  any  excuse  be  silent,  he 
remained  silent;  and  the  want  of  all  training  before  his  en- 
trance into  political  life  made  him  a  speaker  more  than  usually 
stumbling.  Then,  his  manner  was  cold  and  reserved;  he 
seemed  entirely  devoid  of  enthusiasm,  and  he  spoke  with  that 
strong  English  accent  which  in  Ireland  has  come  to  be  in- 
evitably associated  with  the  adherents  of  the  English  garrison 
and  the  enemies  of  the  national  cause. 

But  if  the  truth  were  known,  Mr.  Parnell,  upon  entering 
upon  political  life,  was  reaching  the  natural  sequel  of  his  own 
descent,  of  his  early  training,  of  the  strongest  tendencies  of 
his  own  nature.  It  was  one  of  the  strongest  and  most  curious 
peculiarities  of  Mr.  Parnell,  not  merely  that  he  rarely,  if  ever, 
spoke  of  himself,  but  that  he  rarely,  if  ever,  gave  any  indica- 
tion of  having  studied  himself.  His  mind,  if  one  may  use 
the  jargon  of  the  Germans,  was  purely  objective.  There  are 
few  men  who,  after  a  certain  length  of  acquaintance,  do  not 
familiarize  you  with  the  state  of  their  hearts  or  their  stom- 
achs, or  their  finances;  with  their  fears,  their  hopes,  their 
aims.    But  no  man  was  ever  a  confidant  of  Mr.  Parnell.    Any 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  607 

allusion  to  himself  by  another,  either  in  the  exuberance  of 
friendship,  or  the  design  of  flattery,  was  passed  by  unheeded ; 
and  it  was  a  joke  among  his  intimates  that  to  Mr.  Parnell 
the  being  Parnell  did  not  exist.  But  from  various  casual  and 
unintentional  hints  the  following  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  sum- 
mary of  his  life  and  its  influences. 

The  history  of  his  own  family  was  well  calculated  to  make 
him  a  strong  Nationalist.  The  familj^  came  from  Congleton, 
in  Cheshire,  and  it  is  from  this  town  that  one  branch,  raised 
to  the  peerage,  has  taken  its  title.  Thomas  Parnell,  the  poet, 
was  one  of  the  race. 

The  Parliamentary  distinction  dates,  in  the  Parnell  fam- 
ily, from  the  early  part  of  the  last  century.  John  Parnell  was 
member  for  Maryborough,  in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  He  was  the  son  of  a  judge 
of  the  Queen's  Bench.  He  died  in  1782,  and  he  was  immedi- 
ately succeeded  by  his  son  John,  afterwards  Sir  John.  In 
1787,  Sir  John  was  made  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  In 
the  Red  List,  in  which  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  sums  up  his  im- 
pressions of  the  Irish  politicians  of  his  time,  he  writes  oppo- 
site the  name  of  Sir  John  Parnell  the  one  word  '*  Incorrupti- 
ble." He  proved  his  claim  to  the  title  by  giving  up  the  office 
he  had  held  for  seventeen  years,  and  voting  steadily  against 
the  Union. 

Henry  Parnell,  the  son  of  Sir  John,  was  a  member  of  the 
Irish  House  of  Commons  at  the  same  time,  and,  like  his  father, 
stood  steadily  by  Grattan  and  the  other  advocates  of  Irish  na- 
tionality to  the  last.  Sir  John  was  elected  to  the  United  Par- 
liament, but  died  in  the  first  year  of  his  new  position,  and 
was  immediately  succeeded  by  Henry.  Sir  Henry  Parnell 
was  for  many  years  a  strong  advocate  of  the  rights  of  his 
fellow  countrj^nen,  and  was  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  the 
Corn  Laws,  Short  Parliaments,  extension  of  the  franchise, 
vote  by  ballot,  and,  curiously  enough,  the  abolition  of  flogging 
in  the  army  and  navy,  at  a  period  when  such  doctrines  were 
associated  with  advanced  Radicalism.  He  was  Secretary  for 
War  in  Lord  Grey's  ministry  for  1832,  and  Paymaster  of  the 
Forces  in  the  Administration  of  Lord  Melbourne  and  in  1841 
he  was  created  first  Baron  Congleton. 

John  Henry  Parnell  of  Avondale  was  grandson  of  Sir 
John  Parnell,  and  nephew  of  the  first  Lord  Congleton.  Mak- 
ing a  tour  through  America  while  still  a  young  man,  he  met, 


608  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

at  Washington,  Miss  Stewart.  Miss  Stewart  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  Commodore  Stewart,  who  played  an  important  part  in 
the  history  of  the  United  States.  It  was  he  who,  in  his  ship, 
the  ' '  Constitution, ' '  in  the  war  between  England  and  America 
in  1815,  met,  fought,  beat  and  captured  the  two  English  ves- 
sels, the  ^^Cyane"  and  the  '^Levant,"  with  the  loss  of  seventy- 
seven  killed  and  wounded  among  the  British,  and  only  three 
killed  and  ten  wounded  in  his  own  vessel.  It  is,  perhaps, 
characteristic  of  the  love  of  legality  in  his  race  that  he  did  not 
enter  upon  this  engagement  until  the  British  vessels  first  at- 
tacked, for  he  had  received  from  a  British  vessel  three  days 
before  the  engagement  a  copy  of  the  London  Times,  contain- 
ing the  heads  of  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  as  signed  by  the  Min- 
isters of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  and  said  to  have 
been  ratified  by  the  Prince  Eegent.  After  a  series  of  striking 
adventures,  Stewart  reached  home  with  his  vessel.  His  vic- 
tory excited  extreme  enthusiasm  among  the  Americans,  and 
every  form  of  public  honor  was  bestowed  upon  him.  In  Bos- 
ton there  was  a  triumphal  procession;  in  New  York  the  City 
Council  presented  him  with  the  freedom  of  the  city  and  a  gold 
snuff-box,  and  he  and  his  officers  were  entertained  at  a  din- 
ner ;  at  Philadelphia  he  was  voted  the  thanks  of  the  Common- 
wealth, and  presented  with  a  gold-hilted  sword.  Congress 
passed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  him  and  his  officers,  and  struck  a 
gold  medal  and  presented  it  to  him  in  honor  of  the  event. 

Afterwards  Commodore  Stewart  was  sent  to  the  Medit- 
erranean, where  there  was  something  approaching  a  mutiny 
amongst  the  officers  under  a  different  commodore.  He  soon 
came  to  a  definite  issue  with  his  subordinates.  He  ordered  a 
court-martial  on  a  marine  to  be  held  on  board  one  of  his  ves- 
sels. The  officers  preferred  to  discuss  the  case  at  their  leisure 
in  a  hotel  in  Naples,  and  there  tried  and  convicted  the  marine. 
The  commodore  promptly  quashed  the  conviction  and,  when 
the  Court  passed  a  series  of  resolutions,  put  all  the  command- 
ing officers  of  the  squadron  under  arrest.  The  result  was  the 
complete  restoration  of  order,  and  the  approval  of  Commo- 
dore Stewart's  conduct  by  the  President  and  the  cabinet. 

Admiral  Stewart,  as  he  became,  lived  to  a  great  age,  and 
in  time  had  taken  a  place  in  the  affections  of  his  countrymen 
somewhat  similar  to  that  of  old  Field  Marshal  Wrangel  among 
the  Germans  a  few  decades  later.  He  used  to  be  known  as 
"Old  Ironsides,"  and  the  residence  which  he  purchased  in 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  609 

Bordentown  was  baptized  ''Ironsides  Park."  He  was  once 
l>rominently  spoken  of  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  and 
in  less  than  four  months  sixty-seven  pai)ers  pronounced  in  his 
favor.  He  was  eighty-three  years  of  age  when  Fort  Sumter 
was  fired  upon.  At  once  he  wrote  asking  to  be  put  into  active 
service.  ''I  am  as  young  as  ever,"  he  declared,  *'to  fight  for 
my  country."  But,  of  course,  the  offer  had  to  be  refused.  He 
survived  nine  years. 

Thomas  Sherlock,  in  his  book,  ''The  Life  of  Charles 
Stewart  Parnell,"  describes  the  appearance  and  character  of 
Commodore  Stewart  as  follows: 

"Commodore  Stewart  was  about  five  feet  nine  inches  high, 
and  of  a  dignified  and  engaging  presence.  His  complexion 
was  fair,  his  hair  chestnut,  eyes  blue,  large,  penetrating,  and 
intelligent.  The  cast  of  his  countenance  was  Roman,  bold, 
strong  and  commanding,  and  his  head  finely  formed.  His 
control  over  his  passions  was  truly  surprising,  and  under  the 
most  irritating  circumstance  his  oldest  seaman  never  saw  a 
ray  of  anger  flash  from  his  eye.  His  kindness,  benevolence, 
and  humanity  were  proverbial,  but  his  sense  of  justice  and  the 
requisitions  of  duty  were  as  unbending  as  fate.  In  the  mo- 
ment of  greatest  stress  and  danger  he  was  as  cool  and  quick 
in  judgment  as  he  was  utterly  ignorant  of  fear.  His  mind  was 
acute  and  powerful,  grasping  the  greatest  or  smallest  subjects 
with  the  intuitive  mystery  of  genius." 

It  is  said  that,  in  many  respects,  Mr.  Parnell  bore  a  strong 
resemblance  to  the  characteristics  of  his  grandfather,  whose 
name  he  bore.  In  physique  he  was  much  less  English  or  Irish 
than  American.  The  delicacy  of  his  features,  the  pallor  of 
his  complexion,  the  strong  nervous  and  muscular  system,  con- 
cealed under  an  exterior  of  fragility,  are  characteristics  of 
the  American  type  of  man.  Mentally,  also,  his  evenness  of 
temper  and  coolness  of  judgment  suggested  an  American  tem- 
perament. 

Mr.  Parnell  was  born  in  Avondale,  county  Wicklow,  in 
June,  1846.  Curiously  enough,  nearly  the  whole  of  his  early 
life  was  passed  in  England,  and  in  entirely  English  surround- 
ings. When  he  was  six  years  of  age  he  was  placed  at  school 
in  Yeovil,  Somersetshire.  Next,  he  was  under  the  charge  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Barton  at  Kirk-Langley,  Derbyshire;  next,  un- 
der the  Rev.  Mr.  Wishaw,  in  Oxfordshire ;  and  finally,  he  went 
to  Cambridge  University— the  Alma  Mater  of  his  father.  He 


GIO  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

did  not  graduate  and  probably  did  not  pay  any  great  atten- 
tion to  the  study  of  the  curriculum  of  the  university. 

He  was  not  a  man  of  large  literary  reading,  but  he  was  a 
severe  and  constant  student  of  scientific  subjects,  and  was 
especially  devoted  to  mechanics.  It  is  said  that  he  used  to 
enjoy  isolating  himself  from  the  enthusiastic  crowds  that  met 
him  everywhere  in  Ireland,  and,  in  a  room  by  himself,  delight 
in  studying  mathematical  books.  He  was  a  constant  reader 
of  ** Engineering"  and  other  mechanical  papers,  and  he  took 
the  keenest  interest  in  all  machinery. 

The  surroundings  of  the  house  in  which  he  was  born  were 
well  calculated  to  arouse  in  young  Parnell  the  hereditary 
disposition  to  strong  national  opinions.  Wicklow,  on  the 
whole,  is  the  most  beautiful  and  the  most  historic  county  in 
Ireland,  and  Avondale  is  in  the  center  of  its  greatest  beauties 
and  its  most  historic  spots. 

Many  of  the  lessons  which  these  historic  spots  were  calcu- 
lated to  teach  were  reinforced  by  the  servants  around  the 
family  mansion.  I  have  made  the  remark  that  it  is  particu- 
larly difficult  to  follow  the  mental  history  of  a  man  who  is 
neither  introspective  nor  expansive ;  and  it  is  not  from  the  lips 
of  Mr.  Parnell  himself  that  one  could  learn  much  of  his  in- 
ternal history.  But  one  day,  sitting  in  his  house  in  Avondale, 
he  happened  to  mention  the  name  of  Hugh  Gaffney,  a  gate- 
keeper in  Avondale,  and  retold  a  story  which  the  gate-keeper 
used  to  tell  him  when  he  was  a  youth.  Gaff ney  was  old  enough 
to  have  seen  some  of  the  scenes  of  the  Rebellion;  and  one  of 
his  stories  was  of  a  man  who  was  taken  by  the  English  troops 
in  the  neighborhood.  The  sentence  upon  him  was  that  he 
was  to  be  flogged  to  death  at  the  end  of  a  cart.  The  interpre- 
tation of  the  sentence  by  Colonel  Yeo— such  was  the  name  of 
the  commander— was  that  the  flogging  was  to  be  inflicted  on 
the  man's  stomach  instead  of  on  his  back.  Gaff  ney  saw  the 
rebel  flogged  from  the  mill  to  the  old  sentry  box  in  Rathdrum 
—the  town  near  which  Avondale  is  situated— and  heard  the 
man  call  out  in  his  agony,  ' '  Colonel  Yeo !  Colonel  Yeo ! ! "  and 
appeal  for  respite  from  this  torture;  and  also  heard  Colonel 
Yeo  reject  the  prayer  with  savage  words;  and  finally  saw 
the  man,  as  he  fell  at  last  from  sheer  exhaustion.  When  Mr. 
Parnell  told  the  story,  in  his  usual  tranquil  manner,  the 
thought  suggested  itself  to  my  mind  that,  at  last,  I  had  reached 
one  of  the  great  influences  that  made  Mr.  Parnell  the  man 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  611 

he  was,  and  that  in  this  poor  gate-keeper  was  to  be  found  the 
early  instructor  whose  lessons  on  British  rule  and  its  meaning 
imbued  the  young  and  impressionable  heir  of  the  Parnell  name 
and  traditions  with  that  love  and  admiration  for  British  dom- 
ination in  Ireland  which  have  characterized  his  public  career. 

Such  stories  appealed  to  what  was,  beyond  doubt,  the 
strongest  feeling,  the  most  positive  instinct  of  Mr.  Parnell 's 
nature— his  hatred  of  injustice.  He  had  the  loathing  of  mas- 
culine natures  for  cruelty  in  all  foims.  This  feeling,  though 
never  expressed  in  words,  finds  strong  manifestation  often 
in  acts.  One  of  his  acts  while  still  the  unknown  squire,  was  to 
prosecute  a  man  for  cruelty  to  a  donkey.  Once,  while  a  very 
important  and  vital  resolution  was  under  discussion  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Irish  party  called  to  arrange  the  plan  of  the  elec- 
toral campaign,  the  meeting  was  amused,  and  a  little  discon- 
certed to  see  Mr.  Parnell  rise  with  naif  unconsciousness,  leave 
the  chair,  and  disappear  from  the  room.  He  was  followed  by 
a  handsome  dog,  which  had  been  presented  to  him  by  his 
friend  and  colleague,  Mr.  Corbet;  and  the  meeting  had  to 
tranquilly  suspend  its  discussions  until  the  lead  of  the  Irish 
people  had  seen  after  the  dinner  of  a  retriever.  It  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  modesty  and,  at  the  same  time,  scornfulness 
of  his  nature,  that  all  through  the  many  attacks  made  upon 
him  by  Mr.  Forster,  and  other  gentlemen  who  wear  their 
hearts  upon  their  sleeves,  he  never  once  made  allusion  to  his 
own  strong  love  of  animals ;  .but  to  his  friends  he  often  ex- 
pressed his  disgust  for  the  outrages  that,  during  a  portion 
of  the  agitation,  were  occasionally  committed  upon  them. 

In  1867  the  ideas  that  had  been  sown  in  his  mind  in  child- 
hood first  began  to  mature.  His  mother  was  then,  as  through- 
out her  life,  a  strong  Nationalist,  and  so  was  at  least  one  of 
his  sisters.  There  is  a  tradition  among  the  survivors  of  the 
Literary  staff  of  ''The  Irish  People"  newspaper  of  a  young- 
lady,  closely  veiled,  coming  with  a  contribution  to  the  office  of 
the  journal  during  its  troubled  career.  This  was  Miss  Fanny 
Parnell.  Many  of  the  Fenian  refugees  found  shelter  and  pro- 
tection in  the  house  of  Mrs.  Parnell,  and  were  in  this  way  en- 
abled to  escape  from  the  pursuing  bloodhounds  of  the  law. 
It  was  at  this  epoch  that  the  execution  of  Allen,  Larkin  and 
O'Brien  took  place  in  Manchester;  and  this,  as  has  already 
been  mentioned,  was  the  turning  point  in  the  mental  history 
of  Mr.  Parnell  and  set  him  irrevocably  in  favor  of  Nationalist 
principles. 


612  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

However,  it  was  a  considerable  time  before  be  even 
thought  of  entering  political  life.  Like  his  father,  he  spent 
some  time  in  travel  in  America,  While  there  he  met  with  a 
railway  accident  in  company  with  his  brother,  John.  ''The 
best  nurse  I  ever  had,"  said  Mr.  John  Parnell  to  T.  P.  O'Con- 
nor in  America,  ' '  was  my  brother  Charlie. ' '  And  he  then  re- 
marked that  for  weeks  his  brother  had  remained  night  and  day 
by  his  side. 

In  1871  Mr.  Parnell  returned  to  Avondale  and  began  the 
life  of  a  country  squire.  His  American  blood  showed  itself  in 
a  keener  sense  of  the  possibilities  of  his  property  and  of  his 
own  duties  than  are  usually  associated  with  the  Irish  land- 
lord. Then,  although  one  could  not  say  he  was  a  joyous  man, 
he  took  a  keen  interest  in  life  and  everything  going  on  around 
him,  and  could  not,  under  any  circumstances,  keep  from  being 
actively  occupied  in  some  pursuit.  He  hunted  and  he  shot  like 
those  around  him ;  but,  besides  this,  he  set  up  a  saw  mill  and 
brush  factory,  and  sunk  shafts  in  search  of  the  mineral  ore 
in  which  Wicklow  was  said  to  abound.  He  was  a  kind  and 
generous  landlord,  and  enjoyed  the  affection  of  all  around 
him.  His  subsequent  history  has  been  told ;  and  now  the  nar- 
rative returns  to  an  account  of  his  parliamentary  career. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PARNELL  AND   BIGGAR  JOIN    HANDS -PROGRESS   OF   THE   '^ACTIVE*' 

POLICY. 

Mr.  Biggar  and  Mr.  Parnell  brooded  for  some  time  over 
the  strange  spectacle  of  the  impotence  that  had  fallen  upon 
the  Irish  Party.  Both  men  were  eager  for  practical  results; 
and  debates,  however  ornate  and  eloquent,  which  resulted  in 
no  benefit,  appeared  to  them  the  sheerest  waste  of  time  and  a 
mockery  of  their  country's  hopes  and  demands.  Probably 
they  drifted  into  the  policy  of  '' obstruction, '»  so  called,  rather 
than  pursued  it  in  accordance  with  a  definite  plan  originally 
thought  out.  When  one  now  looks  back  upon  the  task  at 
which  these  two  men  set  themselves,  it  will  appear  one  of  the 
boldest,  most  difficult  and  most  hopeless  that  two  individuals 
ever  proposed  to  set  themselves  to  work  out. 

They  set  out,  two  of  them,  to  do  battle  against  656;  they 
had  before  them  enemies,  who,  in  the  ferocity  of  a  common 
hate  and  a  common  terror,  forgot  old  quarrels  and  obliterated 
old  party  lines ;  while  among  their  own  party  there  were  false 
men  who  hated  their  honesty  and  many  true  men  who  doubted 
their  sagacity.     In  this  work  of  theirs  they  had  to  meet  a 
perfect  hurricane  of  hate  and  abuse;  they  had  to  stand  face 
to  face  with  the  practical  omnipotence  of  the  mightiest  of 
modern  empires;  they  were  accused  of  seeking  to  trample  on 
the  power  of  the  English  House  of  Commons,  and  six  cen- 
turies of  Parliamentary  government  looked  down  upon  them 
in  menace  and  reproach.    In  carrying  out  their  mighty  enter- 
prise, Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Biggar  had  to  undergo  labors  and 
sacrifices  that  only  those  acquainted  with  the  inside  life  of 
Parliament  can  fully  appreciate.     Those  who  undertook  to 
conquer  the  House  of  Commons  had  first  to  conquer  much 
of  the  natural  man  in  themselves.    The  House  of  Commons  is 
the  arena  which  gives  the  choicest  food  to  the  intellectual  van- 
ity of  the  British  subject,  and  the  House  of  Commons  loves 
and  respects  only  those  who  love  and  respect  it.    But  the  first 
principle  of  the  active  policy  was  that  there  should  be  absolute 
indifference  to  the  opinions  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  so 
vanity  had  first  to  be  crushed  out.    Then  the  active  policy  de- 

613 


611  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

manded  incessant  attendance  in  the  House,  and  incessant  at- 
tendance in  the  House  amounts  almost  to  a  punishment.  And 
the  active  policy  required,  in  addition  to  incessant  attend- 
ance, considerable  preparation;  and  so  idleness,  which  is 
the  most  potent  of  all  human  passions,  had  to  be  gripped 
and  strangled  with  a  merciless  hand.  And  finally  there  was  to 
be  no  shrinking  from  speech  or  act  because  it  disobliged  one 
man  or  offended  another ;  and  therefore,  kindliness  of  feeling 
was  to  be  watched  and  guarded  by  remorseless  purpose.  The 
years  of  fierce  conflict,  of  labor  day  and  night,  and  of  iron 
resistance  to  menace,  or  entreaty,  or  blandishment,  must  have 
left  many  a  deep  mark  in  mind  and  bodj^  **Parnell,"  re- 
marked one  of  his  followers  in  the  House  of  Commons  one 
day,  as  the  Irish  leader  entered  with  pallid  and  worn  face, 
"Parnell  has  done  mighty  things,  but  he  had  to  go  through 
fire  and  water  to  do  them." 

Mr.  Biggar  was  heard  before  Mr.  Parnell  had  made  him- 
self known ;  and  to  estimate  the  character  of  the  member  for 
Cavan— and  it  was  a  character  worth  study— one  must  read 
carefully,  and  by  the  light  of  the  present  day,  the  events  of 
the  period  at  which  he  first  started  on  his  enterprise.  In  the 
session  of  1875  he  was  constantly  heard  of;  on  April  27  in 
that  session  he  ''espied  strangers";  and,  in  accordance  with 
the  then  existing  rules  of  the  House  of  Commons,  all  the  oc- 
cupants of  the  five  different  galleries,  excepting  those  of  the 
Ladies'  Gallery,  had  to  retire.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was 
among  the  distinguished  visitors  to  the  assembly  on  this  par- 
ticular evening,  a  fact  which  added  considerable  effect  to  the 
proceeding  of  the  member  for  Cavan.  At  once  a  storm  burst 
upon  him,  beneath  which  even  a  very  strong  man  might  have 
bent.  Mr.  Disraeli,  the  Prime  Minister,  got  up  amid  cheers 
from  all  parts  of  the  House,  to  denounce  this  outrage  upon  its 
dignity;  and  to  mark  the  complete  union  of  the  two  parties 
against  the  daring  offender.  Lord  Hartington  rose  immedi- 
ately afterwards.  Nor  were  these  the  only  quarters  from 
which  attack  came.  Members  of  his  own  party  joined  in  the 
general  assault  upon  the  audacious  violator  of  the  tone  of  the 
House.  Mr.  Biggar  was,  above  all  things,  held  to  be  wanting 
in  the  instincts  of  a  gentleman.  ''I  think,"  said  the  late  Mr. 
George  Bryan,  another  member  of  Mr.  Butt's  party,  'Hhat 
a  man  should  be  a  gentleman  first  and  a  patriot  afterwards," 
a  statement  which  was  of  course  received  with  wild  cheers. 


InELAM>"y  Constitutional  Battle 


615 


Finally,  the  case  ^vas  summed  up  by  Mr.  Chaplin.  ''The  hon- 
orable member  for  Cavan,"  said  he,  '' appears  to  forget  that 
he  is  now  admitted  to  the  society  of  gentlemen."  This  was 
one  of  the  many  allusions,  fashionable  at  the  time-among 
genteel  journalists,  especially- to  Mr.  Biggar's  occupation. 
It  was  his  heinous  offense  to  have  made  his  money  m  the 
wholesale  pork  trade. 

''Heaven  knows,"  says  a  writer  in  the  ''World,"  "that  I 
do  not  scorn  a  man  because  his  path  in  life  has,  led  him 
amongst  provisions.    But  though  I  may  unaffectedly  honor  a 
provision  dealer  who  is  a  Member  of  Parliament,  it  is  with 
quite  another  feeling  that  I  behold  a  Member  of  Parliament 
who  is  a  provision  dealer.  Mr.  Biggar  brings  the  manner  of  his 
store  into  this  illustrious  assembly,  and  his  manner,  even  for  a 
Belfast  store,  is  very  bad.  When  he  rises  to  address  the  House, 
which  he  did  at  least  ten  times  to-night,  a  whiff  of  salt  pork 
seems  to  float  upon  the  gale,  and  the  air  is  heavy  with  the  odor 
of  the  kippered  herring.    One  unacquainted  with  the  actual 
condition  of  affairs  might  be  forgiven  if  he  thought  there  had 
been  a  large  failure  in  the  bacon  trade,  and  that  the  House 
of  Commons  was  a  meeting  of  creditors  and  the  right  honor- 
able gentlemen  sitting  on  the  Treasury  Bench  were  members 
of  the  defaulting  firm  who,  having  confessed  their  inability  to 
pay  ninepence  in  the  pound,  were  suitable  and  safe  subjects 
for  the  abuse  of  an  ungenerous  creditor." 

These  things  are  mentioned  by  way  of  illustrating  the 
marks  and  symptoms  of  the  time  through  which  Mr.  Biggar 
had  to  live,  rather  than  because  of  any  influence  they  had 
upon  him.     On  this  self-reliant,  firm,  and  masculine  nature 
a  world  of  enemies  could  make  no  impress.    He  did  not  even 
take  the  trouble  to  read  most  of  the  attacks  upon  him.    Those 
that  were  made  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  his  own  hearing 
neither  touched  him  nor  angered  him.    The  only  rancour  he 
ever  felt  against  individuals  was  for  the  evil  they  attempted 
to  do  to  the  cause  of  his  country.    This  little  man,  calmly  and 
placidly  accepting  every  humiliation  and  insult  that  hun- 
dreds of  foes  could  heap  upon  him,  in  the  relentless  and  un- 
tiring pursuit  of  a  great  purpose,  may  by-and-by  appear, 
even  to  Englishmen,  to  merit  all  the  affectionate  respect  with 
which  he  is  regarded  by  men  of  his  own  country  and  prin- 
ciples.    The  Irish  people  have  long  since  decided  between 
Mr.  Biggar  and  the  members  of  his  own  party,  with  whom  he 


616  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

was  at  war.  If  any  one  desired  to  see  how  far  that  party  is 
removed  from  the  party  of  to-day,  he  has  but  to  read  the 
descriptions  of  some  of  the  encounters  between  the  member 
for  Cavan  and  some  of  his  colleagues  upon  the  coercion  strug- 
gle of  those  days.  Thus,  on  one  occasion,  Mr.  McCarthy 
Downing,  a  so-called  Nationalist,  went  out  of  his  way  to  com- 
pliment Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  on  the  courtesy  with  which 
he  treated  the  Irish  members  when  carrying  through  the 
House  a  bill  destructive  of  the  liberties  of  their  country. 
This  was  the  speech  which  drew  from  Mr.  Ronayne  the  grim 
remark  that  such  compliments  to  the  Minister  in  charge  of  the 
Coercion  Bill  reminded  him  of  the  shake  hands  of  a  murderer 
with  his  executioner.  On  another  occasion,  when  Dr.  O'Leary 
proposed  an  adjournment  of  a  stage  of  a  debate  on  a  Coer- 
cion Bill  to  another  day,  his  own  colleagues  rose  in  revolt 
against  the  unreasonable  proposal,  and  Dr.  O'Leary,  scared 
and  overwhelmed,  had  to  consult  the  convenience  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  accelerate  the  destruction  of  his  country's  liber- 
ties and  to  withdraw  his  motion  for  adjourmnent.  More 
interesting  than  these  collisions  with  small  and  now  forgotten 
men,  was  Mr.  Biggar's  conflict  with  the  leader  of  his  party. 
The  contest  between  these  two  men  is  one  of  the  most  pic- 
turesque in  Parliamentary  history.  Rarely  has  a  struggle 
appeared  more  unequal.  The  House  of  Commons  never  had 
an  opportunity  of  seeing  Butt  at  his  best,  but  with  an 
audience  before  him  sympathetic  with  his  views,  he  was  a 
speaker  of  a  persuasiveness  as  great  as  that  of  Mr.  Gladstone 
himself.  There  was  not  a  resource  of  the  orator,  a  trick  of 
the  lawyer,  a  device  of  the  Parliamentary  tactician's  art 
unknown  to  him.  He  was,  indeed,  marked  out  as  a  leader  of 
men  in  Parliamentary  struggles.  Mr.  Biggar,  on  the  other 
hand,  had  not  one  of  the  gifts  that  make  a  great  parliamen- 
tarian. He  spoke  haltingly  and  with  difficulty;  his  sparse 
education  was  not  improved  by  reading;  he  was  absolutely 
new  to  parliamentary,  and,  practically,  to  political  life.  But  the 
moral  chasm  between  Biggar  and  Butt  was  as  wide  as  the 
intellectual  chasm  between  Butt  and  Biggar.  The  relent- 
less self-control  in  Biggar,  the  subordination  of  all  his  wants 
to  his  needs,  his  inflexible  courage,  and  his  unshaken  per- 
sistence, made  him  a  dangerous  competitor  for  a  man  of  the 
loose  habits,  of  the  easy  self-indulgent  nature,  of  the  weak 
will  and  capricious  purjiose  of  Butt.    Biggar  was  ultimately 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  617 

conqueror  in  this  struggle.  Sheer  strength  of  character  broke 
down  sheer  intellectual  superiority.  The  new  policy,  which 
"had  been  inaugurated  by  Mr.  Biggar  in  the  session  of  1875, 
was  developed  rather  than  formulated.  It  began  simply  in  the 
practice  of  blocking  a  number  of  bills  in  order  to  bring  them 
under  the  half-jjast  twelve  rule,  which  forbids  opposed  meas- 
ures to  be  taken  after  that  hour.  It  also  became  tlie  custom 
of  either,  the  member  for  Cavan  or  the  member  for  Meade, 
to  propose  motions  for  adjournment  in  various  forms  when 
half-past  twelve  was  reached,  on  the  ground  that  proper  dis- 
cussion could  not  take  place  at  so  late  an  hour.  Then,  inter- 
stices of  time  which  the  government  would  gladly  employ  for 
advancing  some  stage  of  their  measures  were  filled  in  by  the 
Irish  members.  Thus,  for  instance,  a  bill  standing  for  second 
reading  would  be  approaching  that  stage  at  twenty  minutes 
past  twelve  at  an  ordinary  sitting,  or  half-past  five  on  a 
"Wednesday.  To  the  horror  and  disgust  of  everybody  else, 
Mr.  Biggar  or  Mr.  Parnell  would  rise  and  occupy  the  time 
between  that  hour  and  half-past  twelve  or  a  quarter  to  six, 
when  contentious  business  could  no  longer  be  discussed,  and 
further  consideration  of  the  measure  had  to  be  postponed  to 
another  day.  In  this  manner  the  two  members  gradually  felt 
their  way,  became  more  practiced  in  speaking,  and  obtained 
an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  rules  of  the  House. 
Throughout  all  this  time,  of  course,  they  were  harassed  by 
interruptions,  shouts  of  '' divide,"  groans  and  calls  to  order; 
and  for  a  time,  at  least,  Mr.  Parnell  used  occasionally  to  lay 
himself  open  to  effective  interruption  by  his  yet  immature 
acquaintance  with  the  laws  of  the  Assembly.  *'How,"  said 
a  young  follower  of  his  to  the  Irish  leader,  ''are  you  to  learn 
the  rules  of  the  House?"  ''By  breaking  them,"  was  Mr. 
Parnell's  reply;  and  this  was  the  method  by  which  he  himself 
gained  his  information.  It  was  not  till  the  session  of  1877 
that  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Biggar  became  engaged  in  the  pas- 
sionate and  exciting  scenes  which  made  their  names  known  all 
over  the  world,  and  brought  the  House  of  Commons  definitely 
face  to  face  with  the  new  and  portentous  force  which  had 
unmasked  itself  within  the  i^arliamentary  citadel.  Any  one 
who  has  been  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  will  know 
how  tremendous  is  its  reserve  power.  There  had  been  "ob- 
structives," of  course,  before  the  time  of  Parnell  and  Biggar. 
During  the  great  ministry  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  between  1868 


618  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

and  1874,  obstruction  had  been  developed  to  a  fine  art  by- 
several  of  the  gentlemen  who  at  this  moment  held  official 
positions  under  Lord  Beaconsfield.  Everybody  remembers 
how  the  Church  Bill  and  the  Land  Bill,  the  Ballot  Bill,  and 
the  Bill  for  the  abolition  of  purchase  in  the  army  had  been 
dogged  at  every  step  of  their  progress  by  endless  and  silly 
amendments,  by  speeches  against  time,  and  by  countless 
motions  for  adjournment.  It  was  part  of  the  skillful  tactics 
of  Parnell  and  Biggar  that  their  intervention  in  the  debates 
of  the  House  was  always  rational.  They  did  not  indulge  in 
any  wild  declamation,  nor  make  any  speeches  full  of  empty 
and  purposeless  talk.  Their  plan  was  to  propose  amendments 
to  the  different  measures  before  the  House ;  and  their  amend- 
ments were  rarely,  if  ever,  open  to  the  charge  of  irrelevance 
or  frivolity.  On  March  26,  1877,  there  was  a  lengthy  discus- 
sion on  some  new  clauses  of  the  Prison  Bill  for  the  better 
treatment  of  prisoners.  At  a  little  after  one  o'clock  Mr. 
Biggar  proposed  to  report  progress.  Some  eight  members, 
who  had  acted  with  the  ''obstructives"  up  to  this  time,  now 
deserted;  and,  when  the  division  was  called,  there  were  in 
favor  of  the  adjournment  but  10,  while  138  voted  against  it. 
Motions  for  adjournment  followed  each  other  in  rapid  suc- 
cession, and,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  Government 
gave  way.  Mr.  Butt  had  watched  these  proceedings  with  no 
friendly  eye.  There  was  no  doubt  about  his  genuineness  as 
a  Home  Ruler,  but  he  had  been  a  conservative  for  many  years 
and  a  friend  and  associate  of  the  party  in  power,  and  he  was 
certainly  considerably  under  the  influence  of  its  leaders. 
Curiously  enough,  one  of  the  men  who  was  supposed  to  have 
the  most  influence  over  him  was  the  then  Chief  Secretary, 
Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach,  though  there  had  never  been  a  Chief 
Secretary  who  met  all  demands  for  Irish  reform  with  rejec- 
tion more  uncompromising  and  more  insolent.  It  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  nature  of  the  two  men  that  it  was  the  atti- 
tude of  Hicks-Beach  towards  Mr.  Butt  which  drove  Mr. 
Biggar,  as  much  as  anything  else,  forward  into  the  policy  he 
had  now  adopted.  He  was  asked  by  Sir  Michael  to  chide  his 
supporters,  and  he  consented.  It  showed  a  strange  want  of 
any  appreciation  of  the  real  facts  of  the  case  that  the  Irish 
leader  should  have  thus  interpreted  the  request  addressed  to 
him.  The  recognition  of  his  power  came  only  when  it  was 
employed  in  meeting  the  views  of  the  Ministry,  and  in  yield- 


Ireland's  Constiti jtioxal  Battle 


619 


ing  to  the  temper  of  Parliament;  it  had  received  no  recogni- 
tion so  long  as  it  was  used  in  pressing  forward  against  the 
Ministry,  and  against  the  House— demands  for  the  redress 
of  the  intolerable  wrongs  of  his  country.  Where  was  his 
memorj'  gone  of  the  contemptuous  rejection  for  the  past  three 
years  of  every  one  of  the  proposals  that  he  made  with  the 
assent  of  the  overwhelming  majority  of  his  countrymen?  A 
leader  who,  with  such  recollections,  and  such  incontestable 
proof  of  the  futility  of  soft  methods,  of  appeals  to  the  sense 
of  justice  in  English  Ministries,  and  to  the  reason  of  Parlia- 
ment, could  think  of  the  ''dignity  of  Parliament,'*  and  not 
the  wrongs  of  Ireland,  "lacked  gall  to  make  oppression  bit- 
ter." Mr.  Butt,  however,  threw  in  his  lot  with  the  enemies 
of  his  country,  and  attacked  his  two  subordinates  with  fierce 
anger  and  reproach. 


Oniamt-nt  on  leather  case  of  Book  of  Aiiiiagh. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FIERCE  CONTEMPT  OF  PARNELL  FOR  ENGLISH  PARTIES— TURBULENT 
SESSIONS  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF   COMMONS. 

Condemned  by  their  own  leader,  and  by  the  majority  of 
their  own  party,  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Biggar  were  naturally 
the  more  hated  by  the  House  of  Commons,  and  their  conduct 
was  more  bitterly  resented ;  and  the  resolve  to  put  them  down 
grew  more  vehement  and  more  passionate.  It  was  on  the 
South  African  Bill  that  the  long-pent-up  storm  burst  forth 
with  tempestuous  violence.  On  July  25,  1877,  the  House  was 
in  Committee  on  the  Bill.  Mr.  Jenkins  had  rendered  himself 
obnoxious  to  some  of  the  members  of  his  own  party  by  his 
opposition  to  the  measure,  and  Mr.  Monk  accused  him  of 
abusing  the  forms  of  the  House.  Mr.  Jenkins  rose  to  order, 
vehemently  denied  the  charge,  and  then  moved  that  those 
words  be  taken  down.  Mr.  Parnell  at  once  rose.  ^'I  second 
that  motion, ' '  he  said ; '  *  I  think  the  limits  of  forbearance  have 
been  passed.  I  say  I  think  that  the  limits  of  forbearance 
have  been  passed  in  regard  to  the  language  which  honorable 
members  opposite  have  thought  proper  to  address  to  me  and 
to  those  who  act  with  me."  At  once  Sir  Stafford  Northcote, 
who  was  then  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  leader  of  the 
House,  rose  and  moved  that  the  latter  words  of  Mr.  Parnell 
be  taken  down.  The  motion  of  Mr.  Jenkins  was  irregularly 
got  rid  of  by  the  intervention  of  the  Chairman  of  Committees 
—Mr.  Raikes— who  declared  that  the  words  of  Mr.  Monk  were 
not  a  breach  of  order.  The  chairman,  however,  proceeded  to 
raise  another  subject  of  dispute  by  calling  upon  Mr.  Parnell 
to  withdraw  his  statement,  ''accusing  honorable  members  of 
this  House  of  intimidation."  The  honorable  member  must 
withdraw  that  expression,  said  Mr.  Raikes,  amidst  the  cheers 
and  intense  excitement  of  the  House.  Mr.  Parnell  rose  to 
explain;  he  was  constantly  interrupted  by  ''conversation, 
coughs,  exclamations,  cries,  and  groans."  He  denounced  the 
Bill  as  mischievous  both  to  the  colonists  and  to  the  native 
races,  and  instituted  a  comparison  between  Ireland  and  the 
South  African  colonies;  "therefore,"  he  went  on,  "as  an 
Irishman,  coming  from  a  country  which  had  experienced  to 

620 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  621 

its  fullest  extent  the  result  of  English  interference  in  its 
affairs,  and  the  consequence  of  English  cruelty  and  tyranny 
he  felt  a  special  satisfaction  in  preventing  and  thwarting  the 
intentions  of  the  Government  in  respect  to  this  Bill." 

The  moment  these  words  had  been  uttered,  the  House 
thought  that  it  had  at  last  caught  the  cool,  wary,  and  dexterous 
Irish  member  in  a  moment  of  forgetfulness  and  passion,  and 
that  he  had  given  the  long-sought  opportunity  for  bringing 
him  to  account.  Amid  loud  shouts.  Sir  Stafford  Northcote 
rose  and  moved  that  the  words  of  Mr.  Parnell  be  taken  down; 
and  this  having  been  done,  he  proposed  that  all  further  busi- 
ness should  be  stopped,  and  that  the  Speaker  should  be  sent 
for.  The  Speaker  was  brought  in,  the  House  filled  with  an 
excited  crowd,  and  Sir  Stafford  Northcote  moved  that  Mr. 
Parnell  be  ''suspended  till  Friday  next."  Mr.  Parnell  was 
called  upon  to  explain.  While  the  House  was  storming  around 
him,  and  he  was  brought  face  to  face  with  the  prospect  of 
undergoing  Parliamentary  censure  after  a  manner  unprece- 
dented, and  thus  viewed  with  horror  by  all  the  men  around 
him,  he  began  by  a  technical  objection.  He  pointed  out  that 
another  motion  had  been  proposed  to  the  House  before  that 
of  Sir  Stafford  Northcote 's,  and  that,  therefore,  the  motion 
of  the  leader  of  the  House  was  out  of  order.  But  the  Speaker 
ruled  this  objection  as  untenable;  and  Mr.  Parnell  had  to 
proceed  with  his  own  defence.  He  addressed  to  the  House  a 
speech  full  of  the  boldest  defiance  and  of  stinging  suggestion. 
The  House  was  now  beside  itself  with  rage,  and  there  were 
loud  shouts  that  Mr.  Parnell  should  withdraw,  as  is  the  cus- 
tom when  the  conduct  of  a  member  is  under  consideration. 
Mr.  Parnell  left  his  seat  and  calmly  proceeded  to  a  place  in 
the  Speaker's  gallery,  and  from  this  point  of  vantage  looked 
down  on  the  proceedings  in  which  he  himself  was  the  subject 
of  debate. 

Sir  Stafford  Northcote  now  moved  that  "Mr.  Parnell  hav- 
ing wilfully  and  persistently  obstructed  the  public  business, 
is  guilty  of  contempt  of  the  House,  and  that  Mr.  Parnell  for 
his  said  offence  be  suspended  from  the  service  of  the  House 
till  Friday  next."  A  fatal  blow  was  discovered  in  the  pro- 
posal of  Sir  Stafford  Northcote.  Mr.  Parnell  had  certainly 
declared  his  interest  in  **  thwarting  and  preventing  the  de- 
signs," not  of  the  House,  which,  of  course,  would  be  obstruc- 
tion, but  of  the  Government,  which  is  the  object  and  the  legiti- 


fi22  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

mate  pursuit  of  every  opponent  of  a  Ministerial  measure.  Sir 
Stafford  Northcote  had  evidently  lost  liis  head  in  his  eager- 
ness to  throw  a  Christian  to  the  lions,  and  he  was  obliged  to 
postpone  further  debate  upon  the  question  until  the  following 
Friday.  Mr.  Parnell,  escorted  by  Mr.  Biggar,  re-entered  the 
House,  stood  up  again,  and  resumed  his  speech  exactly  at  the 
point  at  which  he  had  been  interrupted  two  hours  before  by 
the  impulsive  motion  of  Sir  Stafford  Northcote. 

On  the  Friday  following  Sir  Stafford  Northcote  proposed 
two  new  rules.  The  first  was,  that  any  member  called  to 
order  twice  by  the  Speaker  or  the  Chairman  of  Committees 
could  be  suspended  for  the  remainder  of  the  sitting ;  and  the 
second,  that  no  member  be  allowed  to  propose  more  than  once 
in  the  same  sitting  a  motion  for  reporting  progress  of  the 
adjournment  of  debate.  The  resolutions  met  with  some  criti- 
cism from  the  Liberal  benches,  but  the  Irish  members  offered 
no  opposition,  and  the  two  rules  were  adopted  for  the  session. 
On  Wednesday,  July  31,  occurred  the  first  of  those  prolonged 
sittings,  which  have  since  become  so  familiar.  The  Govern- 
ment, owing  to  the  dogged  and  persistent  opposition  of  Mr. 
Parnell  and  Mr.  Biggar,  and  to  some  extent  of  the  radicals 
below  the  gangway,  were  very  far  behind  with  their  legislative 
proposals,  and  especially  with  the  South  African  Bill.  At 
]ast  it  was  resolved  that  the  measure  should  be  pushed  through 
on  the  night  of  Tuesday;  and  on  that  night,  for  the  first 
time,  the  expedient  of  relays  which  has  since  become  so 
familiar  was  employed.  The  Irish  members,  aware  of  the 
arrangement  that  had  been  made  against  them,  accepted  the 
challenge,  and  determined  to  carry  on  the  contest  as  long  as 
their  strength  would  hold  out.  There  were  but  a  few  of  them 
to  make  the  fight— seven  in  all.  They  were  supported  for 
some  time  by  Mr.  Courtney,  who  was  as  hostile  as  they  to 
the  principle  of  the  South  African  Bill,  and  who  has  since 
been  justified,  as  well  as  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Biggar,  by  the 
disastrous  termination  to  the  measures  of  which  the  South 
African  Bill  was  the  starting  point.  But  Mr.  Courtney  gave 
up  the  struggle  in  the  small  hours  of  the  night.  The  fight  still 
went  on.  At  a  quarter-past  eight  in  the  morning,  after  he 
had  been  fifteen  hours  at  work,  Mr.  Parnell  retired  to  rest; 
he  came  back  at  a  quarter-past  twelve,  four  hours  later,  and 
resumed  his  share  in  the  debates.  At  two  o'clock  the  last 
amendment  on  the  South  African  Bill  was  disposed  of,  and 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  623 

the  Bill  was  through.  When  the  House  rose  it  had  been  sit- 
ting for  twenty-six  hours.  One  other  little  incident  is  worth 
recording.  Throughout  the  long  watches  of  the  night  the 
ladies'  gallery  was  occupied  by  one  solitary  and  patient 
figure;  this  was  Miss  Fanny  Parnel),  who  shared  and  in- 
spired the  convictions  of  her  brother,  and  who  afterwards 
gave  to  the  Irish  cause  some  of  its  most  stirring  lyrics  and 
its  ablest  argumentative  defences,  and  an  incessant  labor  amid 
daily  increasing  weakness  and  fast  approaching  death. 

This  unprecedented  sitting  in  the  House  of  Commons  pro- 
duced in  England  a  tempestuous  burst  of  anger  and  excite- 
ment, and  for  some  days  Mr.  Parnell,  Mr.  Biggar,  and  their 
associates  were  denounced  with  a  wealth  of  invective  that 
would  not  have  been  equal  to  the  merits  of  Guy  Fawkes  or 
Titus  Gates.  In  their  own  party,  too,  the  dissent  from  their 
tactics  was  reaching  a  climax;  Mr.  Butt  seemed  resolved  to 
throw  down  the  final  gage  of  battle,  and  call  upon  the  party 
to  make  their  own  choice  between  the  continuance  of  his  lead- 
ership and  the  suppression  of  the  two  mutineers.  But  all 
efforts  to  get  the  party  to  take  decisive  action  proved  abortive. 
Time-servers  and  office-seekers,  they  wanted  to  survive  till 
the  advent  of  the  blessed  hour  when  the  return  of  the  Liberals 
to  power  would  give  them  the  long-desired  chance  of  throw- 
ing off  the  temporary  mask  of  national  views,  to  assume  the 
permanent  livery  of  English  officials.  Before  that  period 
could  arrive,  they  well  knew  that  a  General  Election  had  to 
intervene,  and  who  knew  what  control  over  that  election  might 
be  exercised  by  such  extremists  as  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr. 
Biggar?  This  fact  adds  another  element  of  tragedy  to  the 
woeful  eclipse  in  which  the  last  days  of  Butt  ended.  His 
opponents  were  honest  and  resolute ;  his  friends,  self-seeking, 
treacherous  and  half-hearted,  ready  to  turn  without  a  blush  or 
a  pause  from  the  worship  of  the  setting  to  that  of  the  rising 
sun. 

There  was  another  portent  of  the  time  which  still  more 
disquieted  Butt,  and  brought  the  peril  of  the  situation  more 
clearly  and  unmistakably  before  his  eyes.  The  policy  of  Mr. 
Parnell  and  Mr.  Biggar  might  not  as  yet  have  won  the  intelli- 
gence of  Ireland,  but  it  had  beyond  all  question  gained  its 
heart.  The  session  of  1877  had  ended  on  August  13;  on  the 
21st  of  the  same  month  there  was  a  meeting  in  the  Eotunda 
in  Dublin  in  honor  of  Mr.  Parnell  and  ^Ir.  Biggar ;  the  meet- 


624  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ing  was  crowded ;  tlie  reception  was  enthusiastic ;  tHe  verdict 
of  Dublin  was  given,  and  it  was  in  favor  of  the  new  men  and 
the  new  policy. 

The  reader,  to  understand  the  success  of  the  active  policy, 
has  to  recall  the  fact  which  has  been  endeavored  all  through 
this  narrative  to  imprint  upon  his  mind  as  a  central  fact  of 
Irish  politics.  This  was  that,  since  the  betrayal  of  the  national 
cause  by  Keogh  and  Sadleir  in  1855,  the  heart  of  the  Irish 
people  had  never  been  won  for  Parliamentary  agitation; 
there  was  ever  the  tendency  to  the  cynic  doubtfulness  of  those 
who  have  once  been  greatly  deceived.  This  had  a  bad  effect 
in  several  ways.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  a  steady  obstacle 
to  that  infectious  enthusiasm  by  the  aid  of  which  alone  the 
scattered  interests  and  forces  and  tendencies  of  a  nation  can 
be  moulded  into  the  unity  of  a  great  national  movement.  It 
left  the  constituents  to  make  the  fight  on  local  or  capricious 
or  non-essential  issues  instead  of  a  common  national  plat- 
form; above  all  things,  it  left  the  Parliamentary  Party  with- 
out that  force  of  national  jDassion  behind  them  without  which, 
in  a  struggle  in  an  assembly  alien,  ignorant  and  generally 
hostile  like  the  House  of  Commons,  the  words  of  Irish  national 
representatives  were  but  as  sounding  brass  and  tinkling 
cymbal.  To  give  the  people  faith— that  was  the  first  neces- 
sity of  a  great  movement  in  Ireland ;  that  was  the  object,  and 
that  is  the  chief  justification  of  the  policy  of  the  active  party. 

Meantime  the  struggle  was  going  on  inside  the  bosom  of 
the  Home  Rule  Party  itself.  On  Monday  and  Tuesday,  Jan- 
uary 14  and  15, 1878,  a  conference  was  held  in  Dublin.  There 
had  been  reports  that  the  two  parties  would  come  into  serious 
collision  at  the  meeting.  A  notice  appeared  in  the  name  of 
Mr.  Butt,  recapitulating  resolutions  which  had  been  passed 
after  the  election  of  the  party  in  1874— resolutions  pledging 
the  party  to  act  independently  of  both  the  English  parties,  and 
at  the  same  time  in  unity  with  each  other,  and  containing  the 
suggestion  that  "no  Irish  member  ought  to  persevere  in  any 
course  of  action  which  shall  be  declared  by  a  resolution 
adopted  at  a  meeting  of  the  Home  Rule  members  to  be  cal- 
culated to  be  injurious  to  the  national  cause." 

On  the  one  hand,  Mr.  O'Connor  Power  had  given  notice  of 
a  resolution  which  declared  that,  in  consequence  of  the  hos- 
tility with  which  the  just  and  constitutional  demands  for  self- 
government  made  by  a  majority  of  the  Irish  representatives 


Ireland's  Coxstitutioxal  Battle  025 

had  been  met  ''by  both  English  parties  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, it  was  essential  to  the  success  of  the  Irish  cause  that 
more  determined  and  vigorous  action  should  be  taken  by  the 
Parliamenta  ry  Party. ' ' 

As  the  time  for  the  conference  approached,  however,  Butt 
had  again  found  that  he  was  fighting  without  his  army.  A 
private  meeting  of  the  Irish  members,  held  on  the  Saturday 
before  the  conference,  arrived  at  a  compromise.  The  rival 
resolutions  were  withdrawn,  and  a  set  of  resolutions  by  a 
Mr.  P.  McCabe  Fay  wore  accepted,  which,  if  anything,  were 
more  favorable  to  Mr.  Parnell  than  to  Mr.  Butt. 

So  the  conference  ended  in  a  drawn  battle ;  but  the  session 
of  1878  was  soon  to  show  how  impossible  it  was  to  do  any- 
thing with  the  existing  party,  or  with  Mr.  Butt  himself.  A 
more  regular  attendance  on  the  part  of  members  was  re- 
quested, and  the  only  result  was  that  often  when  an  important 
Irish  Bill  was  proposed  there  were  not  half  a  dozen  Irish 
members  in  their  places.  Joint  action  had  been  recommended 
on  the  Eastern  Question,  and  when  the  great  party  division 
came  the  members  took  different  sides.  There  was  even  a 
graver  scandal,  for  Mr.  Butt,  the  leader  of  the  party,  not  only 
voted  with  the  Ministry,  and  thereby  swelled  the  majority  of  a 
party  that  had  up  to  tliat  time  refused  every  single  demand 
of  the  Irish  people,  but  he  spoke  in  a  tone  far  more  worthy  of 
an  Imperialist  **  jingo"  than  of  an  Irish  Nationalist. 


CHAPTER  ^ail. 

RETIREMENT  AND  DEATH  OF  BUTT  — PARNELL  GAINING  GROUND. 

The  victory  of  Mr.  Parnell  at  the  conference  had  been 
immediately  preceded  by  another  important  gain.  There  are 
no  Irishmen  more  fierce  or  resolute  in  the  national  faith  than 
the  Irishmen  settled  in  England  and  Scotland.  They  are, 
though  this  is  not  generally  thought,  far  more  extreme  in  their 
views  than  the  majority  of  the  Irish  in  America,  and  they 
have  an  unbroken  unity  and  a  clear-sighted  appreciation  of 
the  essential  truth  in  great  national  controversies  that  might 
well  put  to  the  blush  the  half-heartedness,  the  wavering  pur- 
poses, and  the  divided  counsels  of  the  Irish  who  have  remained 
in  Ireland.  The  Irish  in  England  were  from  the  very  first  on 
the  side  with  Mr.  Parnell.  They  were  enrolled  in  an  organiza- 
tion known  as  the  Home  Rule  Confederation,  and  Mr.  Butt 
was  its  president.  At  the  annual  convention  of  the  Federation 
at  the  close  of  1877,  Mr.  Butt  was  deposed,  and  Mr.  Parnell 
was  put  in  his  place.  The  man  who  proposed  the  change  bore 
to  Mr.  Butt  that  extraordinary  affection  with  which  this  weak, 
kindly,  unassuming,  and  childishly  simple  old  man  was  accus- 
tomed to  inspire  nearly  in  every  man,  and  could  with  difficulty 
maintain  his  composure  as  he  gave  the  tottering  Cresar  the 
fatal  stab. 

Mr.  Butt  now  virtually  retired  from  the  leadership  of  the 
Home  Rule  Party.  His  resignation  of  his  position  was  not 
accepted,  and  he  was  induced  to  remain  on  the  condition  that 
his  attendance  should  not  be  regular;  this  condition  was  for 
the  purpose  of  allowing  him  to  devote  his  attention  to  his 
practice.  Like  O'Connell,  he  had  virtually  to  abandon  his 
profession  when  he  undertook  the  duties  of  Parliamentary 
leadership.  In  this  way  his  already  vast  load  of  debt  had  been 
increased,  and  his  hours  of  waking  and  sleeping  were  tortured 
by  duns,  by  threats  of  proceedings,  and  all  the  other  shifts 
and  worries  of  the  impecunious.  His  quarrel  with  the  '*  ob- 
structives" had  now  come  to  interfere  with  his  financial  as 
well  as  with  his  political  position.  A  national  subscription 
had  been  started.  In  Ireland  the  response  of  the  people  to 
the  needs  of  their  leaders  has  often  been  bountifully  gen- 

62fi 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  027 

erous,  more  often  than  perhaps  in  any  other  country;  hut 
those  who  depend  on  the  assistance  of  tlie  pubhc  are  subject 
to  the  chances  of  fortune  that  always  dog  the  dependents  m 
any  degree  on  the  popular  mood.  There  are  times  and  seasons 
when  even  the  most  popular  leader  will  not  receive  one-tenth 
the  support  which  will  be  given  in  more  favorable  circum- 
stances, and  the  popular  leader  dependent  for  his  livmg  on  the 
peace  of  the  people  has  the  life  of  a  gambler  or  the  theatrical 
speculator.  The  support  of  the  people  had  been  definitely 
transferred  from  Mr.  Butt  to  Mr.  Parnell,  and  the  financial 
support  followed  the  tide  of  popular  favor.  The  subscription 
was  a  miserable  failure,  and  Butt  was  now  without  any  sup- 
port but  his  profession.  ^ 

But  the  time  had  passed  when  he  could  do  anything  there. 
The  weakness  of  the  heart's  action,  which  had  pursued  him 
from  his  early  years,  was  rapidly  becoming  worse,  and  in  1878 
there  were  many  warnings  of  the  approaching  end.    In  that 
year  he  made  the  remark  to  a  friend,  speaking  of  troublesome 
sjTuptoms  from  his  heart,  ''Is  not  this  the  curfew  bell,  warn- 
ing us  tJiat  the  light  must  be  put  out  and  the  fire  extm- 
gnishedr'    Still  he  fought  on,  attending  the  law  courts  daily, 
and  now  and  then  joining  a  desperate  attempt  to  meet  his 
daily  triumphant  opponents.     His  last  appearance  was  the 
meeting  in  Molesworth  Hall,  on  February  4,  1879.    He  was  at 
this  time  engaged  in  the  cause  celebre  of  Baggot  vs.  Baggot. 
The  appearance  of  the  old  man  at  this  meeting  has  left  a 
deep  and  sad  impression  on  the  minds  of  all  those  who  were 
present.    When  he  came  in,  the  look  of  death  was  on  his  face ; 
the  death  of  his  hopes  and  his  spirits  had  already  come. 
There  were  many  faces  among  those  around  that  once  had 
lighted  at  his  look,  and  that  now  turned  away  in  estrange- 
ment.   ''AYon't  you  speak  to  me?"  he  said  in  trembling  tones 
to  one  man  who  had  been  his  associate  in  many  fights  and  amid 
many  stirring  scenes.    But  his  old  persuasive  eloquence  was 
still  as  fresh  as  ever,  and  he  defended  his  whole  policy  with 
a  vigor,  plausibility,  and  closeness  of  reasoning  that  were 
worthy  of  his  best  days.    This  was  the  last  meeting  he  ever 
attended.    The  next  day  he  fell  sick.    The  heart  had  at  last 
refused  to  do  its  work;  the  brain  could  no  longer  be  supplied; 
he  lingered  for  nearly  a  month  with  his  great  intellect  ob- 
scured, and  on  May  5,  1879,  he  died. 

The  people  retained  a  kindly  feeling  for  him  to  the  end. 


628  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

but  he  had  unquestionably  outlived  his  usefulness;  and  his 
triumph  over  Mr.  Parnell  at  this  period  of  Irish  history  would 
have  been  a  national  calamity  that  might  have  brought  hideous 
disasters.  Sufficient  time  has  elapsed  since  his  death  to  pro- 
nounce a  calm  estimate  of  his  career.  The  unwisdom  of  his 
policy  was  largely  due  undoubtedly  to  the  difficulties  of  his 
circumstances.  He  had  a  wretched  party;  with  one  honest 
and  unselfish  man  to  five  self-seekers ;  but  he  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  a  great  party  in  the  future,  and,  more  than  any  other 
man,  he  prepared  the  people  for  the  new  struggle  for  self- 
government.  It  was  his  misfortune  to  come  at  the  unhappy 
interval  of  transition  from  the  bad  and  old  and  hopeless  order 
of  things  to  a  new  and  a  better  and  brighter  epoch.  Between 
the  era  of  1865  and  the  era  of  1878  Ireland  was,  so  far  as 
constitutional  movements  were  concerned,  in  a  political 
morass.  It  was  Butt  that  carried  the  country  over  that  dan- 
gerous ground.  His  foot  was  light,  and  slippery,  and  timid; 
but  the  ground  over  which  he  had  to  pass  was  treacherous, 
perilous,  and  full  of  invisible  and  bottomless  pools. 

But  all  the  same,  it  was  well  for  Ireland  that  Butt  died  at 
this  moment.  The  country  was  again  approaching  one  of  those 
crises  the  outcome  of  which  was  to  mean  either  a  re-plunge 
into  the  slough  of  despond,  such  as  she  had  been  immersed  in 
from  1845  to  1865,  or  the  start  of  a  new  era  of  hope,  effort, 
and  prosperity.  If  Butt  had  survived,  and  had  retained  the 
leadership,  there  is  little  doubt  that  he  would  have  been  in- 
capable of  rising  to  the  height  of  the  argument,  and  would 
have  counselled  shilly-shallying  where  it  meant  death,  and 
moderation  where  extreme  courses  were  required  to  avert  a 
national  disaster,  wholesale,  violent,  and  perhaps  fatal;  or, 
if  he  had  not  retained  the  full  leadership  by  the  destruction 
of  the  rising  efforts  of  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Biggar,  and  if  he 
and  they  still  remained  in  political  existence,  and  to  some 
extent  in  political  alliance,  then  there  would  have  been  divided 
counsels;  and  the  time  was  one  for  unity.  All  the  meanness 
and  servility  and  half-heartedness  of  the  country  would  have 
found  in  Mr.  Butt  a  rallying  point,  and  the  crisis  was  one  that 
demanded  all  the  energy  and  courage  and  concentrated  pur- 
pose of  the  country. 


MICHAEL  DAVITT. 


THOMAS  SEXTON. 


JOHN  E.  REDMOND. 


JOHN  DILLON. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

MICHAEL  DAVITT,  ''TRIBUNE  OF   THE  IRISH   PEOPLE"   AND   FATHER 
OF  THE  LAND  LEAGUE. 

During  the  earlier  months  of  1879  the  attention  of  the 
Chief  Secretary  had  been  called  more  than  once  to  the  calam- 
ity that  was  impending  over  Ireland.     He  received  all  these 
statements  with  easy  and  jaunty  denials.    At  last,  on  May  27, 
when  the  House  was  adjourning  for  the  Whitsuntide  recess, 
the  Irish  members  made  a  final  attempt  to  force  the  condition 
of  the  country  upon  the  attention  of  the  Chief  Secretary. 
Entreaty,  argument,  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  facts  of 
the  case;  graphic  pictures  of  the  dire  distress  of  the  country; 
all  were  lost  on  Mr.  Lowther.    He  was  ready  to  go  so  far  as 
to  acknowledge  that  there  was  ''some"  depression    m    the 
agriculture  of  Ireland;  but  he  went  on  to  say  he  was  glad  to 
think  that  that  depression,  although  undoubted,  was  "neither 
so  prevalent  nor  so  acute  as  the  depression  existing  m  other 
parts  of  the  United  Kingdom."    "Seldom,"  justly  remarks 
Mr.  A.  M.  Sullivan,  "did  an  English  Minister  speak  a  sen- 
tence destined  to  have  more  memorable  results.    In  that  mo- 
ment Mr.  James  Lowther  sealed  the  doom  of  Irish  landlord- 
ism"; for  Mr.  Lowther 's  answer  drove  Mr.  Pamell  into  the 
ranks  of  the  Land  League.    The  agrarian  movement  in  Ire- 
land meantime  had  been  greatly  stimulated  by  Mr.  Davitt;  a 
remarkable  man  with  a  remarkable  history. 

Michael  Davitt  was  born  in  1846,  near  the  small  village 
of  Straid,  in  the  county  of  Mayo.  His  father  was  a  farmer 
who  was  among  the  many  thousands  of  victims  of  those  whole- 
sale evictions  which  have  followed  the  curse  of  Landlordism 
in  Ireland.  Mr.  Davitt  was  but  four  years  of  age  when  he  saw 
his  home  destroyed.  His  father  and  mother  went  to  England, 
and  had  to  beg  through  the  streets  of  England  for  bread.  The 
family  settled  in  the  little  town  of  Haslingden  in  Lancashire. 
His  mother  was  in  the  habit  of  frequently  repeating  the  details 
of  this  cruel  and  memorable  episode  in  his  earliest  years;  and, 
undoubtedly,  it  was  this  eviction  scene  which  influenced  the 
fortunes  of  his  entire  family,  and  has  been  the  fiercest  incen- 
tive of  Davitt 's  attitude  towards  landlordism  ever  since.   Over 

629 


630  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

and  over  again  references  to  this  incident  occur  in  his 
speeches.  Replying  once  to  an  ungenerous  attack  made  upon 
him,  which  appeared  under  the  name  of  the  late  Archbishop 
MacHale,  though  probably  never  written  by  him,  Mr.  Davitt 
wrote : 

''Some  twenty-five  years  ago  my  father  was  ejected  from 
a  small  holding  near  the  parish  of  Straid,  in  Mayo,  because 
unable  to  pay  a  rent  which  the  crippled  state  of  his  resources, 
after  struggling  through  the  famine  years,  rendered  impos- 
sible. Trials  and  sufferings  in  exile  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury, in  which  I  became  physically  disabled  for  life,  a  father's 
grave  dug  beneath  American  soil,  myself  the  only  member 
ever  destined  to  live  or  die  in  Ireland,  and  this  privilege 
existing  only  by  virtue  of  ticket-of-leave,  are  the  consequences 
which  followed  that  eviction." 

When  he  was  a  child  he  was  sent  to  a  mill  to  work,  and 
there  he  was  by  an  accident  deprived  of  his  right  arm.  At 
this  time  he  had  received  but  the  merest  rudiments  of  educa- 
tion, and  this  accident  obtained  for  him  the  advantage  of 
another  instalment  of  instruction.  At  eleven  years  of  age  he 
secured  employment  in  the  local  post-office;  and  as  the  post- 
master had  also  a  business  in  jDrinting  and  stationery,  Mr. 
Davitt  had  an  opportunity  of  taking  an  occasional  peep  at 
books. 

In  this  way  he  had  already  attained  some  prominence 
among  the  Irishmen  of  his  district ;  but  up  to  this  time  he  had 
not  fonned  strong  national  opinions;  or,  if  there  were  the 
germs  of  such  opinions  in  his  mind,  they  had  not  assumed 
definite  shape.  One  night  he  went  to  hear  an  address  on  an 
Irish  subject.  The  wrongs  of  Ireland  were  narrated  by  an 
eloquent  tongue.  All  the  latent  forces  and  unformed  notions 
in  Mr.  Davitt 's  nature  were  at  once  crystallized;  and  from 
that  hour  forward  he  was  an  ardent  Irish  Nationalist.  He 
soon  became  a  member  of  the  Fenian  organization,  and  he 
took  part  in  the  attempted  seizure  of  Chester  Castle.  Unable 
to  shoulder  a  rifle  with  his  single  arm,  he  carried  a  small 
store  of  cartridges  in  a  bag  made  from  a  pocket-handkerchief. 

After  the  failure  of  the  enterprise,  he  managed  to  escape 
arrest  and  returned  to  Haslingden;  but  he  soon  entered  on 
active  operations  again  in  connection  with  the  movement,  and 
was  employed  in  the  work  of  purchasing  arms  and  forwarding 
them  to  Ireland.    On  May  14, 1870,  he  was  arrested  in  London 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  G31 

along  with  an  Englishman  named  John  Wilson,  a  gunsmith  of 
Birmingham,  and  he  was  convicted  mainly  on  the  evidence  of 
an  informer  named  Corydon,  and  sentenced  to  fifteen  years 
penal  servitude.  He  was  often  subjected,  like  other  Irish 
political  prisoners,  to  that  brutality  of  punishment  which 
England  and  Russia  are  alone  among  European  countries  in 
inllicting  upon  political  prisoners.  It  is  imjjossible  for  a 
man  of  any  nationality  to  read  his  own  account  of  the  suf- 
ferings and  indignities  through  which  he  had  to  pass  without 
feelings  of  burning  anger.  A  rebel  against  laws  which  had 
broken  up  his  home,  impoverished  and  exiled  those  dearest  to 
him,  he  had  resorted  to  the  only  weapons  which  then  seemed 
capable  of  arresting  the  attention  of  that  country  whose 
apathy  to  Irish  ruin  Mr.  Gladstone  has  so  well  described,  and 
he  was  but  antedating  reforms,  most  of  which  have  since 
passed  into  law;  but  he  was  sent  to  herd  with  murderers, 
pickpockets,  and  burglars,  passed  through  solitary  confine- 
ment, and  was  overworked,  underfed,  and  exposed  to  alt 
changes  of  the  seasons. 

At  last,  on  Wednesday  morning,  December  19,  1877 ;  after 
seven  years  and  seven  months  of  this  dread  suffering,  he  was 
released.  A  series  of  enthusiastic  receptions  awaited  him 
and  the  three  other  Fenian  prisoners  who  had  been  released 
about  the  same  time,  namely,  Color-Sergeant  McCarthy,  Cor- 
poral Thomas  Chambers,  and  Private  John  P.  Bryan.  It  had 
been  constantly  denied  that  Sergeant  McCarthy  had  been  ill- 
treated  in  prison,  and  asserted  that  his  health  had  in  no  way 
suffered.  Two  days  after  his  arrival  in  Dublin,  however, 
McCarthy  gave  testimony  that  could  no  longer  be  denied.  Mr. 
Davitt,  McCarthy,  and  the  two  other  released  prisoners  had 
been  invited  by  Mr.  Parnell  to  breakfast  with  him  in  Mor- 
rison's Hotel.  While  they  were  awaiting  breakfast,  McCarthy 
was  observed  to  grow  pale  and  totter  across  the  room,  and, 
having  been  laid  on  the  sofa,  in  a  few  minutes  he  was  dead. 
The  twelve  years  of  penal  servitude  had  at  last  done  their 
work. 

Mr.  Davitt  then  proceeded  on  a  lecturing  tour  throughout 
England  and  Scotland.  Later  on,  he  deteiTnined  to  go  to 
America  to  see  his  mother  and  other  relatives  who  had  set- 
tled in  the  town  of  Manayunk  in  Pennsylvania.  He  landed 
in  New  York  about  the  beginning  of  August,  1878.  At  this 
time  he  had  very  few  acquaintances  in  America;  he  soon. 


632  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

however,  came  in  contact  with  some  leading  Irishmen  settled 
in  that  country,  and  made  a  favorable  impression  upon  them. 
After  various  consultations,  Mr.  Davitt  formed  an  outline  of 
a  land  movement;  but  his  ideas  were  still  in  a  crude  and 
indefinite  shape. 

When  he  returned  to  Ireland,  time  and  the  seasons  fought 
upon  his  side.  Widespread  distress  threatened  to  be  most 
severe  in  the  West,  and  curiously  enough,  there  already  ex- 
isted in  that  region  the  germs  of  a  land  movement.  The 
tenants  had  kept  up  some  form  of  association  from  the 
moment  at  which  the  worthlessness  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870 
was  discovered.  In  Dublin,  for  instance,  there  was  an  or- 
ganization known  as  ''The  Central  Tenants'  Defence  Asso- 
ciation," the  object  of  which  was  the  attaimnent  of  what 
afterwards  became  known  as  the  "Three  F's."  There  was 
also  a  local  organization  which  subsequently,  perhaps,  did 
more  than  any  other  to  beget  the  Land  League ;  this  was  the 
Tenants'  Defence  Association  of  Balinasloe.  The  foremost 
figure  of  this  association  was  a  man  named  Matthew  Harris. 
Matthew  Harris  was  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  striking 
figures  of  the  Irish  movements  of  the  last  thirty  years.  Dur- 
ing all  this  period  he  devoted  himself  with  self-sacrificing 
and  unremitting  zeal  to  the  attaimnent  of  complete  redress 
of  his  country's  grievances.  In  this  respect  politics  were  with 
him  an  absorbing  passion,  almost  a  religion.  In  pursuit  of 
this  high  and  noble  end  he  risked  death,  lost  liberty,  and 
ruined  his  business  prospects.  Eager,  enthusiastic,  vehement, 
he  had  at  the  same  time  that  grim  tenacity  of  purpose  by 
which  forlorn  hopes  are  changed  into  triumphant  fruitions. 
He  fought  the  battle  against  landlordship  in  the  dark  as 
well  as  in  the  brightest  hour  with  unshaken  resolution.  Reared 
in  the  country,  from  an  early  age  he  saw  landlordship  in  its 
worst  shape  and  aspect ;  his  childish  recollections  were  of  cruel 
and  heartless  evictions.  Thus  it  was  that  in  every  movement 
for  the  liberation  of  the  farmer  or  of  Ireland  during  the  last 
years  of  his  life  he  was  a  conspicuous  figure,  as  hopeful,  en- 
ergetic, laborious,  in  the  hour  of  despair,  apathy,  and  lassi- 
tude, as  in  times  of  universal  vigor,  exultation  and  activity. 

But  it  was  not  in  the  county  of  Galway  that  this  movement 
took  its  birth.  Mr.  Davitt,  as  has  been  seen,  was  a  native 
of  the  neighboring  county  of  Mayo,  and  there  he  determined 
to  make  the  first  start.    The  Land  League  may  be  dated  from 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  633 

one  of  these  meetings.  This  was  a  gathering  which  assembled 
on  April  20,  1879,  at  Irishtown,  in  the  county  of  Mayo.  This 
meeting  was  convened  for  the  purpose  of  protesting  against 
some  acts  of  oppression  on  the  part  of  the  landlords  of  the 
district.  The  promoters  of  the  meeting  were  Mr.  Davitt  and 
Mr.  Brennan,  tlic  latter  afterwards  secretary  of  the  Land 
League.  Mr.  Davitt  did  not  attend  the  meeting,  and  the  chief 
speaker  at  it  was  Mr.  O'Connor  Power,  M.  P.  Several  other 
meetings  followed.  The  deepening  distress  among  the  farm- 
ers and  the  increase  of  evictions  by  the  landlords  supplied  an 
im^^etus  which  had  the  effect  of  advancing  the  movement  with 
extraordinary  rapidity.  The  times,  ia  fact,  were  ripe  enough 
for  an  agrarian  revolt.  But,  as  yet,  the  movement  was  local 
and  obscure.  Scarcely  any  reports  found  their  way  into  the 
metropolitan  newspajiers,  and  the  country  was  generally 
unconscious  of  the  portentous  new  birth.  Deservedly  great  as 
was  the  influence  of  Mr.  Davitt,  and  immense  as  were  his 
exertions,  the  movement  could  not  be  said  yet  to  have  reached 
its  pinnacle  until  the  leader  came,  to  whom,  at  this  moment, 
the  eyes  and  hopes  and  affections,  of  all  the  Irish  Nationalists 
were  gradually  turning.  One  of  the  great  forces  which  had 
inspired  the  hope  and  strength  which  made  the  new  movement 
possible  was  the  spirit  excited  throughout  Ireland  by  the 
attitude  of  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Biggar  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  The  scenes— vexatious,  indecorous,  wanton,  or 
boorish,  as  they  appeared  to  the  English  public— were  to  the 
people  of  Ireland  the  electric  messages  of  new  hope.  Every 
word  of  these  scenes  was  read  with  fierce  and  breathless 
eagerness.  The  representatives  of  a  country  trodden  under 
foot  for  centuries  were  seen  in  the  citadel  of  the  enemy,  ag- 
gressive and  defiant.  The  Parliament  that  trampled  on  every 
Irish  demand  for  so  many  generations  was  seen  raging  in 
hysteric  and  impotent  fury  against  the  growing  omnipotence 
of  the  two  determined  men.  The  movement  that  starts  from 
1879  will  not  be  understood  unless  the  fact  is  grasped  that 
Ireland  at  that  moment  was  living  under  the  burning  glow  of 
Parliamentary  ''obstruction."  The  temper  which  this  fact 
produced  was  the  original  impulse  in  preventing  the  farmers 
of  1879  from  lying  down,  dumb,  helpless,  and  cowering,  under 
eviction,  famine,  and  plague,  as  was  done  by  their  fathers  in 
1846-47. 

The  position  Mr.  Parnell  had  already  attained  marked  him 


634 


IrelaiNd's  Croavx  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


out  as  a  man  who,  if  he  undertook  the  leadership  of  a  move- 
ment, would  carry  it  through  every  defile  of  difficulty  and 
danger  to  the  end.  He  was  rapidly  becoming  the  idol  of  the 
people,  who  could  fuse  their  passions  and  their  affections  into 
a  united  and  mighty  effort.  For  a  considerable  time  Mr. 
Parnell  hesitated  before  taking  a  step  beyond  the  **  Three 
F's,"  but  at  last  he  crossed  the  Kubicon  and  joined  the  ranks 
of  those  who  declared  that  the  struggle  on  the  Land  Question 
should  only  end  with  the  transfer  of  the  proprietorship  of  the 
soil  from  the  landlord  to  the  tiller.  This  was  to  be  the  final 
settlement  of  the  question;  but,  meanwhile,  the  wolf  was  at 
the  door.  How  was  the  emergency  of  deepening  distress,  of 
ever-advancing  famine  and  ever-increasing  eviction  to  be  met? 
This  was  the  terrible  problem  which  Mr.  Parnell  had  now  to 
face. 


Ornament  on  top  of  Devenish  Round  Tower, 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers,"  aoo, 


CHAPTER  X. 

ACUTE  STAGE  IN  THE  LAND  AGITATION-PARNELL  ADVISES,  "KEEP 
A  FIBM  GRIP  or  YOUR  HOLDINGS. 

And  now  I  have  come  to  one  of  the  cross-roads  in  my 
story  All  that  I  have  written  will  have  failed  in  its  purpose 
if  the'  readers  do  not  see  the  road  to  take  at  this  crisis,  clearly 
Irked  out  as  with  an  iron  finger.    1846  and  1847  left  two 

Emories:  the  memory  of  the  ten*\-f;-«^  ^/^  *: 
memory  of  how  that  suffering  was  submitted  to.    Ever  since 
re^ehas  been  no  feeling  so  bitter  in  the  hear  s  of  Irishmen 
especially  the  hearts  of  young  Irishmen,  as  the  feeling  that 
much  of  the  awful  suffering  could  have  been  pre^^nted  if  the 
people  only  had  the  courage  to  act  in  their  own  defence;  to  re- 
fuse to  allow  food  to  be  exported  from  a  starving  nation  ;o  re- 
fuse the  payment  of  impossible  rents  that  one  man  might  lux- 
ur  ate  in  an  hour  of  national  cataclysm  and  tens  of  thousands 
perish  in  the  agonies  of  hunger  and  of  typhus  fever ;  to  refuse 
submission  to  decrees  of  eviction,  and,  through  e^■lctIon   of 
deaa   or  exile  from  lands  brought  to  fertility  by  their  toil 
from  houses  built  in  their  own  sweat  and  blood  and  tears,  ^d 
this  is  sometliing  more  than  a  mere  feeling.    The  idea  wil 
s  and  the  test  of  the  severest  examination,  that  in  a  moment 
o/nat!onal  crisis,  such  as  the  Irish  famine  «-  safety  of  the 
nation  demanded  some  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  landlords, 
rsSce  best  if  willingly  made,  as  by  the  landlords  in  Eng^ 
land  and  in  Scotland;  in  any  case  a  sacrifice,  whether  wiUmg 

*"  Mr"pafnell  found  the  majority  of  the  farmers  face  to 
face  with  either  of  these  two  dilemmas:  if  «|e>- l^ad  all  the 
rent,  they  might  give  every  penny  to  the  landlord,  and  a  low 
themselves,  their  wives,  and  their  children  to  perish     If  they 
had  not  the  rent,  and  the  landlord  insisted  on  his  'right 
they  were  subject  to  eviction  on  a  scale  as  wholesale  as  the 
clearances  that  followed  1846  and  1847.    To  call  upon  the 
people,  under  circumstances  like  these,  to  pay  «"  * ^ /^j;  ; 
was  to  recommend  them  to  follow  the  example  of  1846  with 
the  sequels    of   1847-wholesale   starvation   and  jholesa  e 
eviction.    This  was  not  the  policy  that  recommended  itself  to 

635 


636  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Mr.  Parnell ;  such  a  policy  would  have  been  that  of  a  coward 
and  a  traitor.  The  first  Land  meeting  attended  by  Mr.  Parnell 
took  place  at  Westport  on  June  8,  1879.  Mr.  Parnell,  in  his 
speech,  laid  down  on  clear  lines  the  Land  policy  of  the  future 
and  the  policy  of  the  hour.  He  declared  in  favor,  not  of  the 
**  Three  F's,"  but  of  Peasant  Proprietary. 

''In  Belgium,"  said  Mr.  Parnell,  ''in  Prussia,  in  France, 
and  in  Russia  the  land  has  been  given  to  tlie  people;  to  the 
occupiers  of  the  land.  In  some  cases  the  landlords  have  been 
deprived  of  their  property  in  the  soil  by  the  iron  hand  of 
revolution;  in  other  cases,  as  in  Prussia,  the  landlords  have 
been  purchased  out.  If  such  an  arrangement  could  be  made 
without  injuring  the  landlord,  so  as  to  enable  the  tenant  to 
have  his  land  as  his  own,  and  to  cultivate  it  as  it  ought  to 
be  cultivated,  it  would  be  for  the  benefit  and  prosperity  of  the 
country. ' ' 

But  this,  as  he  said  immediately,  was  to  be  regarded  as  the 
final  settlement  of  the  question ;  the  immediate  point  was  what 
the  people  were  to  do  in  order  to  avert  the  calamity  which 
was  at  that  moment  at  their  very  doors. 

"Now,"  he  said,  "what  must  we  do  in  order  to  induce  the 
landlords  to  see  the  position?  You  must  show  the  landlords 
that  you  intend  to  hold  a  firm  grip  of  your  homesteads  and 
land." 

The  phrase  had  much  appropriateness  to  the  situation  and 
to  the  time  that  it  at  once  passed  into  men's  mouths.  While 
in  the  train  that  brought  him  to  the  meeting,  Mr.  Parnell  was 
passing  over  in  memory  some  of  the  scenes  in  which  Mr. 
Biggar  and  himself  had  taken  part  in  Parliament.  He  was 
musing  over  the  deadly  tenacity  with  which  the  member  for 
Cavan  always  stuck  to  his  purpose.  Tenacity  was  translated 
into  the  shorter  word  ' '  grip, ' '  and  thus  was  born  the  memor- 
able and  potent  phrase  "hold,"  or,  as  it  was  afterwards  ex- 
pressed, "keep  a  firm  gi'ip  of  your  homesteads  and  land." 

From  the  moment  Mr.  Parnell  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
the  Land  movement  it  spread  with  enormous  rapidity,  and 
soon  reached  startling  proportions.  Meeting  after  meeting 
was  held  in  many  parts  of  Ireland,  and  before  long  it  was 
erident  that  Mr.  Parnell  was  at  the  head  of  the  mightiest 
popular  movement  since  the  days  of  O'Connell  and  1845. 

Meantime  the  Government  and  the  London  press  looked  on 
mth  sinister  eye.    A  central  organization  was  formed  in  Sep- 


Ireland's  Coxstiti^tional  Battle  6.37 

tember,  1879.  On  October  21,  1879,  a  meeting  was  held  by 
circular  in  the  Imperial  Hotel,  Lower  O'Connell  (then  Sack- 
ville)  street;  Mr.  A.  J.  Kettle  presided.  The  Land  League 
was  then  and  there  founded.  The  following  resolutions  set 
forth  the  principles  of  the  new  organization : 

I.  That  the  objects  of  the  League  are,  first,  to  bring  about 
a  reduction  of  rack-rents;  second,  to  facilitate  the  obtaining 
of  the  ownership  of  the  soil  by  the  occupiers. 

II.  That  the  objects  of  the  League  can  be  best  attained 

(1)  by  promoting  organization  among  the  tenant  farmers; 

(2)  by  defending  those  who  may  be  threatened  with  eviction 
for  refusing  to  pay  unjust  rents;  (3)  by  facilitating  the  work- 
ing of  the  Bright  Clauses  of  the  Land  Act  during  the  winter ; 
and  (4)  by  obtaining  such  reform  in  the  laws  relating  to  land 
as  will  enable  every  tenant  to  become  the  owner  of  his  holding 
by  paying  a  fair  rent  for  a  limited  number  of  years. 

Mr.  Parnell  was  elected  president,  and  Mr.  Kettle,  Mr. 
Davitt,  and  Mr.  Brennan  were  appointed  honorary  secre- 
taries. Mr.  J.  G.  Biggar,  M.  P.,  Mr.  W.  H.  0 'Sullivan,  M.  P., 
and  Mr.  Patrick  Egan  were  appointed  treasurers,  and  a  reso- 
lution calling  upon  Mr.  Paniell  to  go  to  America  and  obtain 
assistance  was  passed.  Mr.  John  Dillon  was  to  accompany 
Mr.  Parnell  to  America. 

This  was  the  first  time  that  a  leader  of  a  constitutional 
movement  had  gone  among  the  Irish  in  America  for  the  pur- 
pose of  obtaining  assistance  for  the  people  at  home.  Mr. 
Parnell 's  tour  was  a  series  of  enthusiastic  receptions.  Wher- 
ever he  went,  and  in  nearly  every  town  through  which  he 
passed,  he  addressed  thousands  of  people.  Oflfieials  of  the 
United  States  attended  and  presided  over  his  meetings,  and 
at  last  he  was  paid  the  compliment  of  which  only  two  other 
men— Kossuth  and  Dr.  England— had  been  the  recipients  in 
the  whole  course  of  American  history:  he  was  permitted  to 
address  the  House  of  Representatives  at  Washington.  The 
financial  results  of  his  tour  were  extraordinarily  large.  The 
Land  League,  owing  to  the  severity  of  the  distress  through- 
out the  country,  had  resolved  to  devote  a  portion  of  its  funds 
to  the  relief  of  the  distress.  The  funds  raised  by  Mr.  Parnell 
were  divided  into  two  parts ;  one  for  the  purpose  of  organiza- 
tion, tlie  other  for  the  relief  of  distress.  For  both,  about 
$360,000  had  been  subscribed. 

The  indirect  effects  of  this  tour  were,  perhaps,  even  more 


638  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

important.  The  reality  of  Irish  distress  could  no  longer  be 
denied,  and  there  grew  up  a  competition  between  different 
sections  as  to  which  should  most  liberally  contribute  towards 
the  movement  for  preventing  famine.  Thus,  although  Mr. 
Lowther  as  Chief  Secretary  had  denied  the  existence  of  dis- 
tress, the  fact  had  been  brought  so  clearly  home  to  the  mind 
of  the  Lord-Lieutenant  that  his  wife,  the  Duchess  of  Marl- 
borough, issued  an  appeal,  giving  a  dark  picture  of  the  state 
of  the  country,  and  formed  a  relief  committee.  The  Lord 
Mayor  of  Dublin  for  1880  happened  to  be  a  man  of  great 
energy  and  ability,  Mr.  E.  Dwyer  Gray,  and  he  also  formed 
a  committee  of  relief;  and  thus,  by  the  beginning  of  1880, 
no  fewer  than  three  committees  were  working  to  prevent  the 
occurrence  of  famine.  Thus  the  action  of  Mr.  Parnell  and 
the  Land  League  had  brought  the  condition  of  the  country 
from  the  region  of  debate  into  that  of  admitted  fact,  notorious 
to  all  the  nations  of  the  world. 

Even  Mr.  Lowther  and  the  Parliament  were  compelled  at 
last  to  listen.  Acknowledging  the  distress,  they  adopted  a 
method  for  meeting  it  which  is  perhaps  unexampled  even  in 
the  history  of  the  legislation  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  the 
Irish  land  question.  While  the  landlords  were  scattering 
notices  of  eviction  over  the  country  wholesale,  the  Government 
conceived  the  felicitous  idea  that  the  landlords  formed  the 
most  suitable  agency  for  supplying  relief  to  the  tenants. 
According!}^  a  Bill  was  introduced,  the  effect  of  which  was  to 
lend  to  the  landlords  the  sum  of  £1,092,985  without  interest 
for  two  years,  and  one  per  cent  at  interest  afterwards.  This 
money  was  to  be  used  by  the  landlords  in  giving  employment 
to  their  tenants,  and  in  thus  preventing  the  spread  of  famine. 
With  unconscious  humor  this  extraordinary  measure  was 
called  ''The  Relief  of  Distress  Act.'' 

In  March,  1880,  Lord  Beaconsfield  decided  to  dissolve 
Parliament.  The  cry  he  chose  was  an  anti-Irish  manifesto.  I 
will  not  stop  in  this  place  to  examine  into  the  morality  of  the 
statesman  who,  at  the  moment  when  Ireland  was  in  the  very 
agony  of  famine,  did  not  scruple  to  arouse  the  fierce  racial 
passions  of  the  more  powerful  against  the  weaker  nation. 

The  news  of  the  impending  dissolution  reached  Mr.  Parnell 
on  March  8,  when  he  was  speaking  at  Montreal.  At  once  he 
saw  that  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  proceed  to  Ireland  with- 
out one  moment's  delay.  His  lecture  delivered,  he  started  for 
New  York.    On  the  very  morning  of  his  departure  he  laid  the 


Ireland's  Coxrtitutioxal  Battle  639 

foundation  of  a  Land  Leagne  in  America,  and  on  IMareli  10th 
he  sailed  for  home.  He  reached  Queenstown  on  March  21st; 
the  Dissolution  took  place  on  March  24th,  and  the  first  elec- 
tion in  Ireland  was  on  April  1st.  The  interval  for  a  general 
electoral  campaigTi  was  small  indeed.  However,  the  moment 
he  landed  in  Ireland  he  proceeded  to  fight  the  election  with 
an  energy  that  seemed  diabolic.  He  rushed  from  one  part  of 
the  country  to  another,  made  innumerable  speeches,  had  inter- 
views with  most  of  the  Parliamentary  candidates,  himself 
stood  for  three  constituencies.  Throughout  all  this  feverish 
struggle  there  was  ever  by  his  side,  sharing,  and  often  doing 
most  of  his  work,  the  bright,  fiercely  industrious,  sleeplessly 
active  young  secretary  whom  he  had  summoned  to  him  in 
America. 

Mr.  Parnell  fought  the  entire  election  with  the  sum  of 
£1,250— £1,000  which  he  obtained  as  a  personal  loan,  £100  sent 
from  Liverpool,  and  £150  which  was  obtained  by  his  astute 
secretary  from  political  opponents  after  a  fashion  not  un- 
amusing.  He  was  thus  unable  to  put  forward  candidates  for 
several  constituencies  in  which  his  name  would  have  ensured 
success,  and  he  was  obliged  to  put  up  with  the  wrecks  of 
broken  faith  and  falsified  pledges  which  previous  Parliaments 
had  laid  high  and  dry  on  the  political  shore.  In  some  other 
constituencies  he  did  not  find  time  or  opportunity  to  interfere 
at  all.  And  in  this  way  he  and  the  constituencies  and  the 
Irish  cause  were  deprived  of  many  a  man  who  might  have 
swelled  the  ranks  of  those  who  fought  throughout  the  mem- 
orable years  between  1880  and  1885.  His  toughest  contest 
was  in  the  city  of  Cork,  which  he  won  from  Dr.  Nicholas  D. 
Murphy,  a  characteristic  specimen  of  the  class  of  Catholic 
Whigs  whose  timidity  and  treachery  have  been  one  of  the 
most  potent  agencies  in  the  hands  of  English  Ministers  for 
prolonging  the  reign  of  Irish  misery  and  of  Irish  servitude. 
The  result  of  the  whole  election  was  that  there  were  sixty- 
eight  men  returned  as  Home  Eulers,  The  deceptiveness  of 
this  total  will  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  among  the  Home 
Rulers  were  reckoned  such  men  as  Mr.  J.  Orrell  Lever,  re- 
turned as  one  of  the  members  for  Galway,  and  Mr.  Whitworth, 
returned  for  Drogheda.  Of  the  other  Home  Eulers  the  ma- 
jority were  reckoned  supporters  of  Mr.  Shaw,  and  but  a 
small  minority  were  openly  pledged  to  follow  Mr.  Parnell; 
a  considerable  number  had  not  made  a  definite  choice  between 
the  policies  of  the  rival  leaders. 


CHAPTER  XL 

EARLY  LIFE  OF  JUSTIN  M  'CARTHY. 

The  struggle  between  the  two  sections  of  the  Home  Rule 
Party  soon  began.  Without  any  consultation  with  Mr.  Parnell 
a  meeting  of  the  new  party  was  called  for.  Several  of  the 
new  members  refused  to  attend.  A  second  meeting  had  to  be 
convened,  and  this  took  place  at  the  City  Hall,  Dublin,  on  May 
17th.  On  this  occasion  nearly  every  one  of  the  new  men  who 
had  been  returned  to  support  Mr.  Parnell  was  present.  To 
the  general  world  they  were  unknown,  obscure,  and  to  some 
extent  despised;  and  many  of  them  were  young.  But  there 
was  scarcely  one  of  them  whose  previous  career  had  not  been 
a  preparation  for  the  position  which  he  now  held,  and  who 
had  not  been  living  a  life  either  of  action  or  of  thought  to 
which  membership  of  a  party  led  by  such  a  leader  as  Mr. 
Parnell  was  an  appropriate  climax.  Amid  their  varied  char- 
acters they  all  possessed  something  alike  in  a  certain  dash  of 
fanaticism.  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy  had  been  elected  before. 
Almost  from  his  entry  into  the  House  of  Commons  he  had 
drifted  towards  the  side  of  Mr.  Parnell.  Some  surprise  was 
felt  when  he  consented  to  stand  and  be  elected  as  an  Irish 
member;  probably  there  was  more  than  one  city  in  England 
or  Scotland  that  would  have  felt  honor  by  such  a  representa- 
tive as  the  author  of  the  "History  of  Our  Own  Times,"  and 
there  certainly  would  in  time  have  been  a  Liberal  Adminis- 
tration that  would  have  been  glad  to  have  counted  him  among 
its  members.  Even  many  Irishmen  at  the  start  of  Justin 
McCarthy's  career  may  have  felt  that  he  would  have  taken  his 
place  in  the  ranks  of  an  English  Liberal  Government  as 
appropriate  as  in  those  of  an  Irish  National  Party.  And  yet 
Justin  McCarthy  had  a  past  of  which  but  few  people  knew; 
but  to  those  who  knew  that  past,  its  most  complete  and  fitting 
sequel  was  that  Mr.  McCarthy  should  be  one  of  the  leaders  of 
the  first  really  independent  party  in  the  British  Parliament. 

Justin  McCarthy  was  born  in  Cork  in  1830.  When  he  was 
a  boy  the  capital  of  Munster  could  lay  claim  to  really  de- 
serving the  traditional  reputation  of  the  province  for  learning. 
Mr.  McCarthy's  father  was  one  of  the  best  classical  scholars 

CIO 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  641 

of  the  day,  and  there  was  at  that  time  a  schoolmaster  named 
Goulding;  the  name  is  familiar  to  many  a  Cork  man  still; 
who  was  a  really  fine  scholar.  Justin  McCarthy  was  one  of 
Goulding 's  pupils,  and  when  he  left  school  he  had  the  not 
common  power  even  among  hard  students  of  being  able  to 
read  Greek  fluently,  and  to  write  as  well  as  translate  Latin 
with  complete  ease.  He  had  taught  himself  shorthand,  and 
his  first  employment  was  that  of  a  reporter  on  the  Cork 
Examiner.  It  may  be  an  interesting  fact  to  note  that  his 
hand  still  retains  its  cunning.  There  are  two  other  important 
reminiscences  of  Mr.  McCarthy's  reporting  days.  He  was 
present  at  the  meeting  in  Cork  at  which  the  late  Judge  Keogh 
swore  that  oath  which  played  so  tragic  a  part  in  Irish  history ; 
and  he  was  also  present  at  the  famous  dinner  at  which  Lord 
Fitzgerald,  then  a  rising  young  lawyer,  in  the  ardor  and  viru- 
lence of  his  patriotism,  bearded  a  Lord  Lieutenant,  and  scan- 
dalized an  audience  of  Cork's  choicest  Whigs.  It  was  in  1847 
that  Mr.  McCarthy  started  his  jorofessional  life,  and  everybody 
knows  that  all  that  was  young,  enthusiastic,  and  earnest  in 
Cork  shared  the  political  asj^irations  of  that  stormy  time. 
Thene  had  been  in  existence  for  many  years  a  debating  society 
known  as  the  ''Scientific  and  Literaiy  Society,"  and  one  of 
the  many  forms  in  which  the  new  spirit  roused  by  Young 
Ireland  showed  itself  was  the  starting  of  a  body  known  as  the 
Cork  Historical  Society,  as  a  rival  to  the  older  and  tamer 
association.  Among  the  members  of  this  body  were  many 
young  fellows  who  afterwards  rose  to  importance.  Sir  John 
Pope  Hennessy,  and  Justin  McCarthy  himself,  were  among 
its  first  recruits.  The  Historical  Society  became  a  recruiting 
ground  for  Young  Ireland ;  nearly  all  its  members  joined  the 
party  of  combat,  and  they  founded  one  of  the  many  Confed- 
erate Clubs  that  were  started  to  prepare  for  the  coming  strug- 
gle. 

President  Grevy  in  his  sober  age  remembers  the  day  when 
he  mounted  a  barricade.  Similarly  Justin  McCarthy,  in  his 
maturity  of  philosophic  calm,  can  look  back  to  a  time  when 
he  dreamed  of  rifles  and  bayonet  charges,  and  death  in  the 
midst  of  fierce  fight  for  the  cause  of  Ireland.  To  those  who 
know  him  there  is  no  difference  in  the  man  of  to-day  and  the 
man  of  '48.  He  has  still  the  same  unflinching  courage  as 
then.  In  this  respect,  indeed,  Justin  McCarthy  is  a  singular 
mixture  of  incompatibilities.     There  is  no  man  who  enjoys 


b42  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  lionr  more  keenly.  He  has  the  capacity  of  M.  Renan  for 
finding  the  life  around  him  amnsing;  enjoys  society  and  soli- 
tude, work  and  play,  a  choice  dinner  or  an  all-night  sitting. 
But  he  has  eminently  ''a  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  courage" 
—a  readiness  to  face  the  worst  without  notice.  With  his 
advanced  years  he  is  still  a  man  of  sanguine  temperament; 
but  in  '48  he  was  only  eighteen.  He  naturally,  therefore, 
belonged  to  the  section  which  had  Mitchell  for  its  apostle, 
and  open  and  immediate  insurrection  for  its  gospel.  Mitchell 
was  arrested,  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  rescue  him;  and 
there  were  many  among  the  companions  of  McCarthy  who 
saw  in  this  failure  the  death  of  their  hopes,  the  end  of  their 
efforts  for  the  Irish  cause.  Justin  McCarthy  was  not  one  of 
these. 

Even  after  Mitchell's  arrest,  and  the  miserable  fiasco  in 
which  the  rebellion  of  1848  had  ended,  there  were  still  some 
young  and  unconquerable  men  who  thought  that  all  hopes  of 
resurrection  through  revolution  should  not  be  allowed  to  die. 
Probably  they  did  not  hope  to  win  in  the  struggle  against  the 
might  of  England;  but  the  awful  tragedy  thus  being  enacted 
in  Ireland  made  acquiescence  a  crime,  and  they  resolved  to 
do  something  which  would  get  the  world  to  stop  and  listen, 
and  perhaps  pity  and  help.  If  they  could  not  win,  they  would 
show  at  least  that  there  were  some  Irishmen  who  knew  how 
to  die,  and,  perchance,  out  of  their  graves  might  come  some 
hope  for  the  awful  despair  of  the  Irish  nation  in  this  epoch 
of  famine,  plague,  and  eviction.  They  enrolled  members,  gath- 
ered arms,  drilled,  settled  a  scheme  of  simultaneous  revolt  in 
various  parts  of  the  countrj^  In  all  these  things  Justin 
McCarthy  took  his  part,  and  in  the  region  where  the  Cork 
F*ark  now  stands,  the  future  historian  swore  in  the  members 
of  a  revolutionary  organization.  The  effort  ended  as  so 
many  before  and  since:  there  was  a  mistake  about  the  signal ; 
the  simultaneous  outbreak  did  not  take  place,  and  the  few 
sporadic  risings  which  did  break  out  were  crushed. 

With  this  episode  ended  for  the  moment  Justin  McCarthy's 
political  history,  and  from  this  period,  for  many  years,  his 
story  is  that  of  the  literary  man.  In  the  year  1851  Mr. 
McCarthy  first  tried  his  fortunes  in  London.  The  attempt 
ended  in  failure,  and  he  had  to  return  to  tlie  reporter's  place 
in  Cork.  Not  long  after  this  he  met  with  his  first  piece  of 
luck.    There  was  at  that  time  a  Royal  Commission  for  inquir- 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  643 

ing  into  the  fairs  and  markets  of  Ireland,  and  the  secretary 
having  broken  down,  Justin  McCarthy  was  taken  on  as  the 
official  shorthand  writer.  His  aptitude  was  such  that  some 
member  of  the  Commission  urged  him  to  again  go  to  London, 
and  armed  him  with  letters  of  introduction  to  persons  of  in- 
fluence. This  was  in  1852.  McCarthy  again  tried  his  chance 
and  went  to  the  Times  and  other  offices,  but  without  success. 
Before  he  could  continue  this  fruitless  search  he  heard  of  the 
Northern  Times,  the  first  provincial  of  England,  which  was 
just  about  to  be  started  in  Liverpool,  applied  for  a  situation, 
and  was  accejDted. 

But  he  was  still  only  a  reporter,  and  even  he  himself  did 
not  yet  very  well  know  whether  he  was  fitted  for  better  things. 
He  worked  on,  gave  literary  lectures,  and  in  the  end  was 
allowed  the  privilege  of  contributing  to  the  editorial  columns. 
He  remained  in  Liverpool  till  1860 ;  in  that  year  the  Northern 
Times,  pressed  hard  by  more  daring  rivals,  failed.  McCarthy 
was  contended  for  by  several  Liverpool  journals,  but  he 
declined  all,  fixed  in  the  resolve  to  make  or  mar  his  fortune  in 
London.  At  this  time  the  young  journalist  had  a  counsellor 
who  for  many  years  was  the  arbiter  of  his  destiny.  Before 
he  left  Cork  he  had  seen,  but  he  had  never  spoken  to,  Miss 
Charlotte  Allman,  a  member  of  the  well-known  Munster  fam- 
ily, and,  in  the  meantime.  Miss  Allman  had  come  to  reside  with 
her  brother  in  Liverpool.  The  two  young  people  resolved  to 
marry,  in  spite  of  the  strong  opposition  of  relatives  and  in 
face  of  the  frowning  fortunes  of  a  young,  a  badly  paid,  and  as 
yet  unknown  journalist;  and  in  1855  they  were  married  in 
the  town  of  Macclesfield.  To  those  who  knew  Mrs.  Mc- 
Carthy there  is  no  need  to  dilate  on  the  resistless  charm  of  her 
truly  beautiful  nature.  She  never  wrote  a  line;  she  did  not 
even  pretend  to  any  literary  power;  but  she  had  the  keen 
intelligence  of  s^^npathy,  she  had  faith  in  her  husband,  and 
she  had  indomitable  courage.  It  was  she  that  induced  Mr. 
McCarthy  to  refuse  all  the  Liverpool  offers,  and  that  turned 
his  face  steadily  to  the  larger  hopes  of  London.  The  joint 
capital  of  the  young  couple  when  they  landed  in  London  was 
£10.  Of  that  they  spent  more  than  £1  in  buying  an  olive  or 
some  other  sprout  which  was  planted  with  lofty  hopes  in  the 
garden  of  their  new  house  in  Battersea,  and  which,  of  course, 
perished  after  a  short  and  sickly  existence. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

m'carthy's  notable  literaey  and  political  career. 

Mr.  McCarthy's  first  engagement  in  London  was  as  a 
Parliamentary  reporter  on  the  Morning  Star.  He  found 
time  to  do  other  work  in  the  intervals  of  this  hard  occupation, 
and,  mainly  through  the  persuasions  of  his  wife,  tried  his 
hand  at  an  essay  for  one  of  the  big  magazines.  He  had 
taught  himself  French,  German,  and  Italian;  was  familiar 
with  the  three  literatures,  and  his  first  attempt  at  essay- 
writing  had  Schiller  for  its  subject.  He  next  tried  the  West- 
minster Review,  and  two  articles  of  his  in  that  periodical 
suggested  views  so  novel,  and  at  the  same  time  so  correct,  that 
they  attracted  the  attention  of  John  Stuart  Mill.  The 
philosopher  was  introduced  to  the  young  writer,  showed  a 
friendly  interest  in  his  welfare,  and  helped  to  advance  his 
fortunes.  Promotion  at  last  began  to  come  rapidly.  In  the 
autumn  of  1860  he  was  appointed  foreign  editor  of  the  Morn- 
ing Star,  and  in  1865  he  became  editor-in-chief.  Those  who 
remember  the  journal  and  the  times  when  it  lived  will  know 
what  splendid  service  it  did  to  the  cause  of  Ireland,  which  at 
that  period  seemed  terribly  hopeless  indeed;  and  its  tone  of 
energetic  and  even  fierce  advocacy  of  Irish  national  claims 
was,  of  course,  largely  due  to  the  inspiration  of  the  ardent 
Irishman  who  was  then  at  its  head.  It  was  while  he  was  in 
this  position  that  Mr.  McCarthy  became  intimately  acquainted 
with  Mr.  John  Bright.  The  great  tribune  was  fond  of  spend- 
ing some  hours  in  the  office  of  the  Star,  in  which  his  sister, 
the  widow  of  Samuel  Lucas,  who  was  the  brother  of  the 
Frederick  Lucas  of  Irish  history,  had  some  shares ;  and  many 
an  hour  did  the  editor  and  politician  spend  together  in  dis- 
cussing the  oratorical  exploits  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  the  thing  that 
did  duty  for  a  conscience  for  Mr.  Disraeli,  or  the  comparative 
merits  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton.  It  was  one  of  the  unpleas- 
ant consequences  of  the  fierce  struggles  of  the  last  few  years 
that  those  two  old  friends  had  ceased  even  to  speak  to  one  an- 
other. But  in  1868,  when  it  became  clear  that  Mr.  Bright 
was  going  to  become  a  Minister,  and  when  he  sold  out  his 
share  in  the  Morning  Star,  Mr.  McCarthy  lost  all  desire  to  be 

644 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  (H5 

further  connected  with  the  journal,  and  resided  his  position. 
He  then  went  to  America.  His  reputation  had  gone  before 
him,  and  he  found  an  embarrassing  choice  of  offers  awaiting 
him.  He  had,  while  still  editor  of  the  Star,  published  his  first 
novel,  *^Paul  Massey"  (this  appeared  in  1866),  a  story  writ- 
ten after  the  sensational  fashion  of  that  hour,  which  Mr. 
McCarthy  has  since  suppressed.  This  had  been  followed  in 
1867  by  the  *'Waterdale  Neighbors,"  a  charming  story.  One 
of  Mr.  McCarthy's  first  engagements  was  to  write  a  series  of 
stories  for  the  Galaxy,  then  perhaps  the  chief  literary  maga- 
zine in  America.  He  was  also  asked  to  lecture,  and  partly 
because  the  terms  were  extremely  remunerative,  and  partly 
out  of  a  desire  to  see  the  country,  he  consented.  He  was  an 
extremely  successful  lecturer,  and  between  his  pen  and  his 
tongue  found  the  United  States  the  El  Dorado  it  has  proved 
to  so  many  from  the  old  world.  He  paid  a  brief  visit  to 
London  in  the  middle  of  1870,  returned  again  in  the  autumn 
of  that  year,  and  finally  in  the  autumn  of  1871  came  back  to 
England  for  good.  His  name  meantime  had  been  kept  steadily 
before  the  English  reading  public.  In  1869,  ''My  Enemy's 
Daughter,"  which  had  been  written  nearly  ten  years  before, 
ran  through  Belgravia,  then  under  the  management  of  Miss 
Braddon.  Immediately  after  his  return  Mr.  McCarthy  was 
offered,  and  accepted,  an  engagement  on  the  Daily  News  as 
Parliamentary  leader  writer.  For  years  he  was  one  of  the 
best  known  figures  in  the  Reporter's  Gallery,  and  was  looked 
up  to  by  most  of  his  editorial  colleagues,  as  the  man  who 
took  the  most  rapid  and  the  most  accurate  view  of  a  Parlia- 
mentary situation,  and  as  having  the  most  sagacious  head  of 
the  political  writers  of  his  time.  His  literary  fortunes,  mean- 
time, steadily  advanced;  and  in  "Dear  Ladj^  Disdain"  he 
wrote  a  second  novel  which  everybody  talked  about,  and  upon 
which  there  was  a  real  run.  With  the  versatility  which  is  so 
singular  he  soon  after  devoted  himself  to  another  and  a  very 
different  kind  of  work,  undertaking  a  contemporarj^  chronicle, 
under  the  title  ''History  of  Our  Own  Times,"  the  first  two 
volumes  of  which  were  published  in  1878.  Everybody  knows 
the  result.  The  book— to  quote  the  hackneyed  expression- 
took  the  town  by  storm.  It  was  praised  with  equal  fervor  by 
Conservative  and  by  Liberal  critics;  its  style  was  as  much  an 
object  of  eulogy  as  its  tone  and  its  temper.  It  was,  indeed, 
a  model  of  what  contem^^orary  history  should  be.    Equal  jus- 


646  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

tice  was  dealt  out  to  all  parties;  the  portraits  of  men  were 
clear-cut  and  sympathetic,  and  the  style  was  evenly  melodious 
without  one  single  attempt  at  rhetoric,  without  one  phrase 
or  one  passage  that  could  be  called  pretentious.  The  book 
sold  with  enormous  rapidity,  and  edition  followed  edition  in 
rapid  succession.  Great  as  was  its  success  in  Europe,  it  had 
a  success  still  greater  in  America.  Rival  publishers  brought 
out  rival  editions,  and  the  present  writer  never  remembers  to 
have  gone  on  any  journey  in  America  without  seeing  a  copy 
of  the  ** History  of  Our  Own  Times"  in  the  hands  of  several 
of  the  passengers.  But  the  hapless  author  gained  little  from 
this  enormous  American  sale,  for  as  yet  there  was  no  copy- 
right between  England  and  America.  His  old  publishers,  the 
Messrs.  Harper  and  Brothers,  with  that  fair  dealing  which 
characterizes  all  their  transactions,  did  send  him  voluntarily 
an  occasional  instalment  of  a  hundred  pounds  or  so,  but  they 
at  the  same  time  told  him  that  if  there  had  been  an  interna- 
tional copyright  they  could  have  well  afforded  to  have  given 
him  £10,000  for  his  rights 

Little  has  been  said  of  Mr.  McCarthy's  modern  political 
career.  He  is  one  of  the  men  who  does  not  owe  Mr.  Parnell 
anything;  as  the  Irish  leader  would  himself  have  been  the 
first  to  acknowledge ;  but  Mr.  McCarthy  soon  saw  that  in  Mr. 
Parnell  there  was  the  real  chief  of  that  honest  and  independ- 
ent Parliamentary  Party  for  which,  like  so  many  of  the  old 
'48  men,  he  had  been  looking  upwards  of  thirty  years ;  to  Mr. 
Parnell,  then,  he  unreservedly  gave  his  confidence  and  his 
support.  Sagacious,  tranquil,  and  experienced,  he  was  thrown 
into  a  prominent  position  at  an  epoch  of  fierce  and  tem})estu- 
ous  passions;  but  nobody  was  readier  to  see,  when  the  time 
came,  the  necessity  for  strong  action.  He  has  been  ready  on 
every  emergency  to  take  his  share  of  the  unsi^eakable  dru<5g- 
ery  to  which  Irish  members  have  been  subjected;  and  it  im- 
posed a  greater  sacrifice  on  him  than  on  any  other  member  of 
the  Irish  party  to  face  the  odium  and  the  loss  of  personal  and 
professional  prestige  which  a  part  in  these  unpopular  labors 
involved.  If  the  delivery  of  Mr.  McCarthy  were  equal  to  his 
intellectual  and  rhetorical  powers,  he  would  be  amongst  the 
foremost  speakers  of  the  House.  He  is  ready;  he  has  eminently 
clearness  of  head  and  calmness  of  temper;  and  his  ideas 
clothed  themselves  in  language  of  beauty,  smoothness,  aud  ap- 
propriateness with  an  unerring  regularity  which  bielonged  to 


iRELyVNO'b    CUNSTITUTIONAL    BaTTLE  647 

but  two  other  speakers  in  the  Tloiise— Mr.  Gladstone  and  Mr. 
Sexton.  He  has  in  more  than  one  debate  delivered  the  best 
speech  in  point  of  matter  and  of  form.  His  was  the  best 
speech  in  the  strange  debate  which  occurred  under  Mr. 
O'Donnell's  suspension  for  his  attacks  on  M.  Clallamel- 
Lacour,  and  his  was  the  most  effective  of  the  many  effective 
replies  given  to  Mr.  Forster's  historic  attack  on  Mr.  Parnell. 
Mr.  McCarthy  in  one  style  of  speech  was  far  and  away  supe- 
rior to  any  of  his  party,  and  probably  to  any  man  in  the  House 
—that  is,  as  an  after-dinner  speaker.  He  bubbled  over  with 
wit  of  the  most  delicate  and  playful  kind,  and  could  keep  the 
table  in  a  roar.  Finally,  let  this  sketch  of  Mr.  McCarthy's 
be  closed  with  the  mention  of  the  saddest  and  darkest  pages  of 
his  life.  Just  as  his  long  struggle  was  crowned  with  success, 
and  as  he  became  from  the  poor  and  obscure  reporter  the 
popular  novelist,  the  successful  historian  and  the  Member  of 
Parliament,  the  woman  without  whom  he  would  have  re- 
mained, in  all  probability  poor  and  obscure  to  the  end,  was 
seized  with  a  lingering  illness  and  died.  It  would  be  unbe- 
coming to  even  attempt  a  description  of  what  his  loss  meant 
to  Mr.  McCarthy.  Few  can  paint  a  character  completely,  and 
it  is  acquaintance  only  with  Mr.  McCarthy  that  can  make  in- 
telligible the  peculiarly  strong  hold  he  had  over  the  af- 
fections and  admiration  of  his  intimates.  It  is  not  often 
that  there  are  found  united  in  the  same  man  modesty  and 
literary  genius,  a  toleration  of  others  with  a  power  of  abso- 
lute self-abnegation,  a  sane  enjoyment  of  every  hour,  with  the 
courage  of  calmly  facing,  for  the  sake  of  the  right  cause, 
fortunes  worst  blows.  Destiny's  most  cruel  decree.  Moderate 
in  advice,  when  the  fortunes  of  his  country  are  at  stake,  he 
was  always  boldest  when  acts  involved  only  personal  risks  to 
himself.  It  was  this  curious  mixture  of  tenderness,  shjTiess, 
and  almost  feminine  romanticism  with  a  thoroughly  mas- 
culine and  fearless  spirit  that  made  him  so  beloved.  There  is 
something  incomplete,  says  the  French  epigram,  in  the  noble 
life  that  does  not  end  on  the  scaffold,  in  the  prison,  or  on  the 
battlefield.  May  Justin  McCarthy  have  many  and  prosperous 
days,  and  a  tranquil  and  honorable  end!  But  it  is  almost  a 
pity  that  he  cannot  be  hanged  for  high  treason,  to  show  how 
calmly  a  quiet  man  could  die  for  Ireland. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THOMAS   SEXTON,    IRELAND'S   SILVER-TONGUED   ORATOR. 

In  the  debates  of  the  meeting  at  the  City  Hall  Mr.  Thomas 
Sexton  broke  silence  for  only  a  few  minutes.  Nobody  could 
help  remarking  that  his  voice  was  peculiarly  melodious,  but 
few  had  any  conception  of  the  great  things  that  were  in  this 
thin,  delicate,  rather  retiring  man. 

Thomas  Sexton  was  born  in  Waterford  in  1848.  He  had 
not  yet  reached  his  thirteenth  birthday  when  he  entered  a 
competition  for  a  clerkship  in  the  Secretary's  office  of  the 
Waterford  and  Limerick  Company.  The  post  was  naturally 
unimportant;  the  salary,  of  course,  small;  but  that  did  not 
prevent  thirty  youths  entering  the  lists.  Of  these  Sexton 
was  the  youngest,  but  he  obtained  the  first  place.  He  re- 
mained in  the  Secretary's  office  till  he  was  between  twenty 
and  twenty-one  years  of  age,  when,  as  will  be  seen,  he  left  his 
native  town,  drawn  to  Dublin,  like  most  young  men  of  ability 
and  enterprise.  The  influence  of  his  many  years  of  dry  toil 
in  an  office  is  visible  in  Sexton  to-day.  It  has  often  been  re- 
marked that  he  has  what  is  considered  an  un-Irish  talent  of 
dealing  readily,  clearly,  and  accurately  with  figures.  This 
is  no  new  talent.  When  he  was  in  the  railway  office  in  Wa- 
terford his  friends  used  to  amuse  themselves  by  giving  him 
a  long  sum  in  compovmd  addition,  which  most  people  would 
find  it  hard  to  calculate  rapidly  even  with  the  aid  of  pen  and 
ink.  Sexton  would  close  his  eyes,  and  in  a  few  minutes  would 
give  the  answer  with  invariable  accuracy.  He  used  to  say 
that  the  figures  were  "written  on  his  brain."  Sir  George 
Trevelyan  once  brought  in  a  bill  to  increase  official  pay,  and, 
speaking  within  a  few  minutes  after  the  Chief's  Secretary 
had  concluded.  Sexton  was  able  to  tell  almost  to  a  penny 
what  the  sum  total  meant  to  each  individual,  and  was  com- 
plimented by  Sir  George  on  his  accuracy.  But  Sexton  had 
another  life  besides  that  of  the  railway  official.  In  his  boy- 
hood days  there  was  still  a  good  deal  of  literary  and  social 
activity  in  the  Irish  provincial  towns.  The  Mechanics'  In- 
stitute and  the  Catholic  Young  Men's  Society  were  both  flour- 
ishing institutions  in  Waterford,  and  Sexton  soon  became  the 

648 


Ireland'h  Constitutional  Battle  649 

most  prominent  figure  in  both.  lie  established  a  debating 
society,  lectured  when  he  was  but  sixteen  on  Oliver  Goldsmith 
and  John  Banim,  and  on  one  occasion  did  duel  in  the  Town 
Law  with  a  delegation  from  the  Portland  Debating  Society— 
a  neighboring  rival— on  the  still  vexed  question  of  emigra- 
tion. It  speaks  well  for  their  instinctive  appreciation  of 
genius  that  the  people  of  Waterford  did  not  allow  Sexton  to 
leave  their  town,  though  he  was  but  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
altogether  unnoticed.  A  public  dinner  was  held  in  his  honor 
and  he  received  addresses  from  the  societies  in  which  he  had 
figured  so  largely. 

This  was  the  end  of  Sexton  as  a  public  speaker  for  a  long 
series  of  years.  In  Dublin,  where  he  arrived  in  1869,  he  at 
once  became  leader  writer  on  the  Nation,  then,  as  so  long 
before,  the  most  outspoken  advocate  of  the  Nationalist  prin- 
ciples. Sexton  also  in  time  became  editor  of  the  Weekly 
News  and  of  Young  Ireland,  two  publications  also  issued  from 
the  Nation  office.  Immersed  in  these  things,  and  of  the  tem- 
perament shy  and  easy-going,  Sexton  never  sought  or  even 
accepted  any  opportunity  of  displaying  his  oratorical  pow- 
ers. He  took  his  share  in  all  the  National  movements,  but 
it  was  as  a  silent  and  unknown  member  of  those  committees 
which  do  the  practical  work  and  leave  the  speechmaking  to 
others.  Probably  there  was  not  one  even  of  his  intimates 
who  suspected  that  this  retiring  litterateur,  fond  of  his  cigar, 
of  pleasant  company,  and  of  prolonged  vigils,  would  ever 
have  the  courage  to  face  an  audience  larger  than  the  j^etit 
comite  which  his  wit— sly,  delicate,  slightly  cynic— used  to 
delight.  But  in  1879,  the  year  of  the  Land  League  and  of 
revolutionary  upheaval.  Sexton  was  brought  at  last,  and  al- 
most in  spite  of  himself,  into  the  stormy  arena  of  public  life. 
In  1879  he  was  sent  by  the  council  of  the  Land  League  to  ad- 
dress a  meeting  in  Dromore  West,  County  Sligo.  To  the  credit 
of  the  people  there,  be  it  said  that  his  speech  made  a  profound 
impression,  and  that  his  great  gifts  received  immediate  recog- 
nition. But  Dublin  still  did  not  know  him;  and  when  the 
general  election  came  he  went  very  near  being  excluded  from 
the  ranks  of  the  new  Parliamentarians.  He  was  proposed 
for  his  native  county,  but  he  was  withdrawn;  and  when  he 
was  sent  to  Sligo  he  had  to  overcome  many  difficulties,  and 
even  friends,  though  an  attack  by  so  young  and  so  obscure  a 
man  on  a  great  magnate  like  Colonel  King-Harman  was  a 


650  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

hopeless  enterprise.  But  Sexton  stumped  the  county,  roused 
enthusiasm  everywhere,  and  drove  Colonel  King-Harman 
from  the  seat  in  Parliament  Sexton  again  showed  no  anx- 
iety to  push  himself  prematurely  forward.  During  his  first 
session  of  Parliament  he  remained,  comparatively  speaking, 
unnoticed.  He  was  phenomenally  constant  in  attendance,  and 
he  was  in  the  habit  of  putting  what,  in  these  early  days  of  the 
new  Irish  Party,  was  considered  a  very  large  number  of 
questions.  But  nobody  yet  had  any  idea  that  there  was  any- 
thing in  him  above  very  earnest  and  very  respectable  medi- 
ocrity, nor  during  the  recess  which  followed  did  he  advance 
his  position  to  any  appreciable  degree.  He  was  certainly  one 
of  the  most  constant  among  the  speakers  of  the  Land  League 
meetings  throughout  the  country;  but  this  fact,  while  it  pro- 
cured him  the  notice  of  the  Government,  so  far  that  he  was 
included  in  the  famous  trial  of  the  traversers,  did  not  have 
any  perceptible  effect  upon  his  own  political  fortunes.  It 
was  on  an  evening  when  Mr.  Forster's  Coercion  Bill  was  un- 
der discussion  that  Sexton  broke  upon  the  House  for  the  first 
time  as  a  great  orator.  The  House  was,  when  he  rose,  but 
ill-prepared,  indeed,  for  a  patient  acceptance  of  any  speech 
from  an  Irish  Member,  for,  of  the  subjects,  it  was  already 
sick  to  death;  and  the  final  outcome  was  as  predestined  as 
the  procession  of  the  earth  through  the  regions  of  the  air. 
The  physical  circumstances  of  the  moment  tended  to  increase 
the  prevalent  depression,  for  it  was  a  dull,  dark,  dismal  even- 
ing. The  House  was,  therefore,  listless,  somber  and  but  thin- 
ly filled  when  Sexton  rose.  He  spoke  for  two  hours,  not  amid 
the  enthusiastic  plaudits  which  greet  a  powerful  exponent 
of  a  great  party's  principles,  but  amid  chilling  silence,  in- 
terrupted occasionally  by  the  thin  cheers  of  the  small  group 
of  Irishmen  around  him— and  yet  when  he  sat  down  the  whole 
House  instinctively  felt  that  a  great  orator  had  appeared 
among  them.  In  the  London  newspapers  the  speech  was  re- 
ported in  but  a  few  lines.  But  Members  talked  of  it  in  the 
lobby  and  the  smoke-room;  Sir  Stafford  Northcote  was  re- 
ported to  have  praised  it  highly,  and,  among  members  of 
the  house  of  Commons,  at  least.  Sexton's  reputation  was  es- 
tablished. In  the  councils  of  his  party  the  voice  of  Sexton 
has  always  been  for  good  sense.  Sagacity  is,  indeed,  the  very 
soul  of  his  oratory.  To  think  of  him  merely  as  the  eloquent 
speaker  is  to  forget  that  still  greater  claim  to  respect  he  holds 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  C51 

as  a  man  of  remarkably  well  balanced  mind,  of  keen  and  al- 
most faultless  judgment.  To  describe  the  characteristics  of 
Sexton's  oratory  is  a  task  of  extreme  difficulty.  He  can  mar- 
shal facts ;  he  can  discuss  figures  with  the  dryest  statistician, 
and  can  balance  argument  with  the  most  logic-chopping  mem- 
ber of  the  House,  and  he  can,  at  the  same  time,  invest  every 
subject  with  the  glory  of  splendid  language.  For  the  rest. 
Sexton  is  a  keen  observer,  and  his  reading  of  men's  motives 
is  helped  by  a  slight  dash  of  cynicism.  In  ordinary  affairs 
blase  and  physically  lethargic,  his  political  industry  is  mar- 
vellous. He  enters  the  House  of  Commons  when  the  speaker 
takes  the  chair  and  never  leaves  it  until  the  door-keeper's 
ciy  of  ''Who  goes  home?"  is  heard.  He  sits  in  his  place 
during  all  those  long  hours,  grudging  the  time  he  spends  at 
a  hasty  dinner— practically  the  one  meal  he  takes  in  the  day 
—or  the  minutes  he  gives  to  the  smoking  of  the  dearly  loved 
cigar.  Before  he  goes  down  to  the  House  he  has  mastered 
all  the  business  of  the  day,  and  his  breakfast  is  of  Blue  Books. 
Orderly  in  many  of  his  habits,  he  rarely  approaches  the  dis- 
cussion of  any  question  without  full  knowledge  of  all  the  facts 
carefully  arranged  and  abundantly  illustrated  by  letters  or 
other  documents.  He  has  great  mastery  of  detail.  Prob- 
ably he  was  the  only  one,  except  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  who  knew 
all  the  figures  connected  with  the  Redistribution  Bill.  With 
every  measure  that  in  the  least  degree  concerns  Ireland  he  is 
acquainted  down  to  the  last  clause,  and  thus  it  is  that  he  en- 
ters on  all  debates  with  a  singularly  complete  equipment. 
Finally,  his  mind  is  extraordinarily  alert.  His  opponent  has 
scarcely  sat  down  when  he  is  on  his  feet  with  counter-argu- 
ments to  meet  even  the  plausible  case  that  has  been  made 
against  him.  It  seems  impossible  to  take  him  unawares,  and 
words  come  without  hesitation  to  express  every  shade  of 
meaning.  This  gift,  aided  by  sangfroid,  makes  him  a  most 
formidable  opponent,  and  even  the  speaker,  backed  by  all  the 
new  rules  of  the  House  and  his  own  large  and  generous  in- 
terpretation of  his  powers,  has  had  more  than  once  to  suc- 
cumb before  the  ready  answer  and  cool  temper  of  Mr.  Sex- 
ton. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   ROMANTIC   HISTORY   OF    ARTHUR   o'cONNOR. 

Not  one  man  in  a  thousand  would  have  ever  guessed  when 
he  heard  Mr.  Arthur  O'Connor  addressing  the  House  of 
Commons  that  he  had  a  drop  of  Irish  blood  in  his  veins.  The 
whole  air  of  the  member  for  Queens  County  is  rigid,  serious, 
icy.  He  drops  his  words  with  calculated  slowness,  and  the 
subjects  he  selects  for  treatment  are  dry  and  formal  and  sta- 
tistical; the  subjects,  in  short,  which  are  supposed  to  at- 
tract the  plodding  mind  of  the  typical  Englishman. 

The  physique  of  Arthur  0  'Connor,  too,  suggests  the  same 
idea  of  a  calmness  and  unemotional  self-control  which  an 
Irishman  is  rarely  supposed  to  possess;  he  is  tall,  thin,  with  a 
sombre  air  and  a  cold,  dark-blue  eye.  But  to  those  who  have 
learned  to  know  him  all  these  outward  presentments  are  but 
a  mask;  in  the  whole  of  the  Irish  Party — with  all  its  fierce  and 
strange  sj^irits— there  is  not  one  whose  heart  beats  with  emo- 
tion so  profound,  with  a  hatred  so  fierce,  a  holy  rage  so  lethal. 
The  keen  analysis  of  the  French  mind  has  divided  enthusi- 
asm into  two  kinds— the  enthusiasm  that  is  warm  and  the 
enthusiasm  that  is  cold.  The  enthusiasm  of  Arthur  O'Con- 
nor is  of  the  cold,  that  is,  of  the  perilous,  type. 

Arthur  O'Connor  was  born  in  London  on  October  1st,  1844. 
His  father  was  a  County  Kerry  man,  and  was  for  many  years 
one  of  the  most  eminent  physicians,  and  at  the  same  time  one 
of  the  best-known  figures  in  the  social  life  of  London.  Ar- 
thur was  educated  at  Ushaw,  and  in  the  year  1863  began  life 
for  himself  by  competing  for  a  clerkshij)  in  the  War  Office. 
There  was  but  one  vacancy,  and  there  were  thirty  competi- 
tors; O'Connor  got  the  place,  obtaining  a  higher  average  of 
marks  than  any  Civil  Service  competitor  for  many  years. 
For  the  space  of  sixteen  years  the  young  Irishman  led  the 
dull,  sombre,  montonous  life  of  the  Civil  Servant  in  the 
gloomy  building  in  Pall  Mall.  He  was  a  model  clerk  in  be- 
ing always  accurate,  attentive,  hardworking;  there  never  was, 
and  there  never  could  be,  a  charge  of  a  single  act  of  neglect  of 
duty,  or  stupidity,  during  the  entire  period.  But  outside  liis 
office  Arthur  0  'Connor  was  the  most  unclerklike  of  men.    He 

652 


Ireland's  Conrtitittional  Battle  653 

had  political  opinions,  and  political  opinions  of  the  most  un- 
popular, the  most  unfashionable,  above  all  the  most  unprofit- 
able, character.  An  effusive  and  unmeaning  address  to  some 
monarchial  personage  was  once  being  hawked  around  the 
War  OflSce;  it  came  in  the  end  to  Arthur  O'Connor's  desk. 
*'If  you  don't  take  that  away,"  said  O'Connor  to  the  gentle- 
man who  was  collecting  signatures,  "before  I  county  twenty 
I  will  put  it  into  the  fire."  Then  he  not  only  professed  Irish 
National  principles,  but  he  joined  an  Irish  organization,  and 
in  time  became  one  of  its  rulers;  for  he  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  executive  of  the  Home  Rule  Confederation. 
.  Finally  he  began  to  be  seen  in  the  lobby  in  the  House  of 
Commons  in  earnest  and  frequent  colloquy  with  Mr.  Par- 
nell,  and  the  whisper  went  abroad  that  the  statistical  clerk 
was  priming  the  Irish  agitator  with  obstructive  powder  and 
shot.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  just  as  well  to  make  the 
passing  observation  that  O'Connor  never  on  a  single  occa- 
sion told  Mr.  Parnell  even  one  word  in  reference  to  matters 
which  official  honor  called  upon  him  to  keep  private.  Ar- 
thur O'Connor  was  by  no  means  anxious  to  remain  in  his 
dingy  rooms  in  Pall  Mall.  Under  a  scheme  of  reorganiza- 
tion an  offer  was  made  to  him,  as  well  as  to  other  clerks,  to 
retire  if  he  chose.  He  did  so  choose,  and  shook  the  dust  of  the 
War  Office  from  his  feet. 

He  had  already  given  a  taste  of  his  quality  as  a  political 
gladiator  in  minor  theatres,  and  the  poor-law  guardian  in  his 
case  was  veritably  the  father  of  the  member  of  Parliament, 
In  1879  he  was  elected  member  of  the  Chelsea  Board  of  Guard- 
ians, and  the  main  purpose  which  he  and  his  friends  had  in 
getting  this  place  was  that  he  might  look  after  Catholic  in- 
terests. These  interests  did,  indeed,  stand  in  need  of  some 
advocate.  For  six  months  not  one  of  the  Catholic  inmates 
of  the  workhouse  had  been  allowed  to  go  out  to  Mass,  either 
on  a  Sunday  or  on  a  holiday;  nor  was  a  Catholic  priest  per- 
mitted to  enter  the  place ;  no  Catholic  prayer-books  were  given 
to  be  read,  and  the  Catholic  children  were  sent  to  Protestant 
schools;  and,  finally,  the  institution  was  not  stained  by  hav- 
ing a  single  ''Romanist"— as  the  phrase  went  in  the  vocabu- 
lary of  the  Board— among  its  officials.  On  the  very  first  day 
on  which  O'Connor  took  his  seat  the  most  eligible  of  all  the 
applicants  for  the  humble  position  of  ** scrubber"  was  re- 
jected on  the  sole  ground  that  he  was  a  Catholic.    This  was 


()54  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  large  and  complete  penal  code  which  the  new  member 
set  out  to  destroy,  and  the  task  seemed  certainly  audacious 
and  desperate  enough.  The  Board  consisted  of  twenty  mem- 
bers. 0  'Connor  was  the  single  Catholic  in  the  whole  number 
—it  was  one  man  against  nineteen.  O'Connor  started  on  his 
enterprise  in  a  characteristic  fashion.  He  was  not  aggres- 
sive in  manner,  nor  violent  in  language ;  he  made  no  speeches, 
either  strong  or  long,  nor  did  he,  on  the  other  hand,  intrigue, 
or  smile,  or  coax.  He  relied  on  two  weapons  alone— the  wea- 
pons of  knowledge  and  of  hard  work.  He  first  mastered  the 
whole  complicated  system  of  the  poor-law  code ;  after  a  while 
he  had  become  such  an  expert  in  the  law  of  the  workhouse, 
and  was  withal  so  calm  and  so  composed  that  his  fellow- 
guardians  abandoned  any  attempt  to  trip  him  up. 

But  this  was  only  a  small  part  of  O'Connor's  work.  He 
had  been  elected  a  member  of  the  General  Purposes  Com- 
mittee—this was  when  he  was  still  an  unknown  quantity  to 
his  fellow-guardians— and  the  General  Purposes  was  the 
committee  which  had  the  contracts  to  give  and  to  examine, 
which  dealt  with  accounts  and  other  matters  of  high  import 
in  the  economy  of  the  workhouse.  O'Connor  devoted  days 
and  weeks  to  the  study  of  all  these  accounts,  with  the  result 
that  he  knew  every  item  as  intimately  as  if  he  had  to  pay  it 
out  of  his  own  pocket.  This  was  of  all  forms  of  knowledge 
the  one  which  made  O'Connor  most  formidable.  It  became 
impossible  for  a  penny  to  pass  muster  for  which  full  and  sat- 
isfactory explanation  was  not  given;  jobbery  trembled  be- 
neath the  pitiless  eye  of  this  cold  and  calm  inquisitor,  and 
rogues  fled  abashed.  All  this  could  not  be  accomplished  with- 
out terribly  hard  work.  The  meeting  of  the  General  Pur- 
poses Committee  and  of  the  Board  was  on  the  same  day— 
Wednesday— and  every  Wednesday,  as  inevitable  as  night  or 
death,  O'Connor  was  in  his  place  on  the  Committee  and  the 
Board;  and  though  this  work  often  extended  continuously 
from  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  eight  at  night,  with  the 
exception  of  half  an  hour  for  lunch,  in  his  place  he  remained 
all  the  time.  The  Board  was  shocked  at  this  indecent  scrupu- 
lousness, this  shocking  conscientiousness,  this  rude  industry, 
and  disappointed  jobbers  began  to  ask  how  it  was  that  a  man 
could  at  the  same  time  perform  efficiently  the  duties  of  a  Civil 
Servant  and  a  poor-law  guardian.  ''How,"  asked  a  guard- 
ian, "could  Mr.  O'Connor  attend  every  Wednesday,  without 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  655 

exception,  from  ton  to  eight,  without  neglecting  his  official 
duties  for  at  least  one  day  in  the  week?"  This  guardian  re- 
solved to  have  the  matter  out,  and  proposed  a  resolution  call- 
ing the  attention  of  the  Secretary  for  War  to  the  conduct 
of  the  War  Office  clerk.  The  gentleman's  disgust  may  be 
imagined  when  Mr.  O'Connor  himself  stood  up  to  second  the 
resolution;  and  so  had  it  laughed  out  of  court.  O'Connor 
had  nothing  to  fear  from  any  investigation  by  the  War  Sec- 
retary, or  anybody  else,  for  he  had  not  neglected  his  official 
duties;  he  had  not  lost  one  single  day,  and  the  manner  in 
which  he  carried  out  this  programme  will  indicate  the  kind 
of  a  man  he  is.  In  the  War  Office,  as  in  the  other  Civil  Ser- 
vice departments,  each  clerk  is  entitled  to  a  month's  vacation, 
and  this  vacation  he  is  generally  allowed  to  take  at  such  times 
as  he  may  wish.  He  may  take  it  in  a  continuous  month,  or 
in  a  week  now  and  a  week  again,  or  even  by  days  if  he  likes. 
Now,  the  year  of  the  War  Office  began  in  January;  that  of 
the  Board  of  Guardians  some  months  subsequently ;  the  poor- 
law,  therefore,  overlapped  the  year  of  the  War  Office.  Thus 
O'Connor  was  able  to  take  the  War  Office  vacation  of  two 
years  within  the  single  year  of  the  Board;  and  his  two  years' 
vacation  were  the  Wednesdaj^s  which  he  spent  at  the  Board 
of  Guardians.  The  men  are  not  many  who  would  seek  recre- 
ation, rest,  enjoyment  in  ten  hours'  work  every  Wednesday 
of  every  week,  and  in  work  without  pay,  without  glory,  and 
entirely  for  the  benefit  of  the  poorest  and  lowliest  of  mankind. 
Never  was  reformer  so  completely  and  so  rapidly  successful. 
He  was  but  one  year  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Guardians— 
the  combined  forces  of  bigotry  and  jobbery  took  care  that 
he  should  not  be  elected  a  second  time.  As  has  been  said,  he 
was  one  Catholic  against  nineteen  Protestants,  most  of  them 
bigoted  Protestants,  too;  and  at  the  end  of  that  year  every 
Catholic  could  go  to  church  on  Sunday  or  holiday;  the  Cath- 
olic priest  was  admitted  to  the  workhouse  once  a  week  to  in- 
struct the  inmates;  the  Catholic  prayer-books  were  distrib- 
uted in  the  same  way  as  Protestants';  Catholic  children  were 
sent  to  Catholic  schools;  in  short,  of  the  vast  multitude  of 
Catholic  grievances  not  one  remained  unredressed.  And  yet 
all  this  had  been  accomplished  without  a  departure,  perhaps, 
for  one  second  on  the  part  of  O'Connor  from  his  cold,  calm 
delivery;  without  one  violent  word,  with  that  exterior  and 


656  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

perfect  and,  on  occasion,  almost  genial  courtesy,  under  which 
lay  concealed  fierce  passion  and  relentless  purpose. 

Arthur  O'Connor's  part  in  Parliament  has  been  such  as 
one  might  have  anticipated  from  his  previous  career.  He 
at  once  devoted  himself  to  the  work  which  was  sorest  and 
most  uninviting;  had  acquired  in  a  short  time  a  knowledge 
so  intimate  of  the  rules  of  the  House  as  to  be  a  terror  to  all 
speakers,  and  was  a  more  potent,  more  dangerous,  a  more 
detailed  critic  of  the  Estimates  than  Paruell  or  Biggar  in 
their  palmiest  and  most  active  days.  It  is  curious  to  see 
O'Connor  enter  the  House  with  a  bundle  of  notes,  which  ap- 
parently must  have  consumed  days  in  their  preparation;  to 
hear  him  put  Mr.  Courtney  to  shame  as  he  describes  the  ex- 
travagant wages  of  a  charwoman  in  the  Foreign  Office,  and 
to  bring  confusion  to  the  mind  of  the  First  Commissioner  of 
Works  as  he  dilates  on  the  bad  quality  of  the  mortar  in  the 
last  repairs  of  a  Eoyal  palace.  All  this  is  done  with  an  air 
of  unbroken  severity,  but,  at  the  same  time,  of  unruffled  tem- 
per and  of  inflexible  courtesy.  O'Connor  is  the  calm,  patient, 
lofty  spirit  of  economy  that  chides,  but  pities,  and  that  speaks 
in  the  accents  of  sorrow  rather  than  of  anger.  At  some  mo- 
ments it  is  an  explanation  which  O'Connor  prays  for  with 
his  inimitable  air  of  sad  deference.  A  small  speech  is  re- 
quired, of  course,  to  preface  the  inquiry.  The  Minister  hav- 
ing answered,  a  second  speech  is  necessary  in  order  to  have 
a  further  word  on  just  a  trifling  little  difficulty  that  still  re- 
mains to  disturb  O'Connor's  mind.  Then  the  Minister  again 
explains,  and  O'Connor,  now  fully  satisfied,  has  to  express 
his  gratitude  and  content ;  and  the  expression  of  his  gratitude 
and  content  requires  a  third  speech.  And  thus  it  goes  on 
hour  after  hour— O'Connor,  calm,  differential,  appallingly  in- 
quisitive, miraculously  omniscent— the  Minister  restless,  apol- 
ogetic, divided  between  the  desire  to  swear  and  the  dread  of 
its  consequences— with  the  result  that,  when  the  night  is  over, 
the  Treasury  has  got  about  one  out  of  the  fifteen  votes  it 
hoped  to  carry.  Work  of  this  kind,  constantly  done  by  such 
men  as  O'Connor  and  Biggar— and  in  former  days  by  gal- 
lant Lysaght  Finigan— is  and  can  never  be  reported,  is 
rarely  even  described,  is  rarely  even  heard  of,  but  it  is 
willingly,  patiently,  relentlessly,  continuously  going  through 
the  hideous  drudgery  of  unrecognized  toil  like  this  that  such 
men  show  the  depths  of  their  self-devotion,  the  reality  and 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Rattle 


057 


earnestness  of  their  self-forgetfulness.  With  the  doubtful 
exception  of  Mr.  Parnell,  Arthur  O'Connor  lias  the  most  thor- 
oughly and  the  best  House-of-Commons  style  in  the  party. 
Clear,  deliberate,  passionless  in  language,  gesture,  delivery, 
he  is  the  very  best  model  of  an  official  speaker.  The  narrow 
limits  within  which  he  confines  himself  do  injustice  to  his 
powers.  The  only  occasion  on  which  he  did  prominently 
enter  into  general  debate  was  on  the  Bradlaugh  question,  and 
his  answer  to  Mr.  Bright  on  that  occasion  suggested  possi- 
bilities of  sober  but  lofty  eloquence. 

Finally,  the  sternness  of  Mr.  O'Connor's  faith  does  not 
prevent  him  from  being  one  of  the  kindliest  companions,  one 
of  the  most  tolerant  and  even-tempered  counsellors;  though 
he  has  much  of  the  antique  Roman,  he  has  much  also  of  the 
social  charms  of  the  modern  Irishman. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

INTERESTING  ACCOUNT   OF   T.   D,   SULLIVAN,  AUTHOR  OF   IRELAND 's 
NATIONAL  ANTHEM,  ''gOD  SAVE  IRELAND.'' 

Timothy  Daniel  Sullivan  was  born  in  1827.  The  home 
of  the  Sullivans  was  thoroughly  National,  and  amid  the  stir- 
ring times  of  1848  and  the  hideous  disasters  of  the  two  pre- 
ceding years  there  were  all  the  circumstances  to  make  the 
national  faith  of  the  family  bitter  and  robust.  The  father 
was  carried  away,  like  the  majority  of  the  earnest  and  ener- 
getic Irishmen  of  that  time,  by  the  Gospel  which  the  young 
Ireland  leaders  were  preaching  with  such  fascination  of  voice 
and  pen,  became  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  local  '48  club,  and, 
as  a  reward,  was  dismissed  from  his  employment  by  one  of 
the  local  magistrates.  T.  D.  Sullivan,  like  the  rest  of  his 
brothers,  though  brought  up  in  a  small  and  remote  town,  had 
an  opportunity  of  receiving  a  good  education  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word,  and  the  family  was  essentially  literary  as 
well  as  National  in  its  tendencies.  The  Sullivans  were  close- 
ly associated  with  another  Bantry  household,  which  was  des- 
tined by-and-by  to  give  a  prominent  figure  to  the  Irish  his- 
tory of  the  present  day.  The  chief  and  best  schoolmaster 
of  the  town  was  Mr.  Healy,  the  grandfather  of  the  two  mem- 
bers of  the  present  House  of  Commons  of  the  same  name. 
It  was  from  Mr.  Healy  that  Mr.  Sullivan  learned  probably 
the  most  of  what  he  knows.  The  ties  between  the  two  fam- 
ilies were  afterwards  drawn  still  closer  when  T.  D.  Sulli- 
van married  Miss  Kate  Healy,  the  daughter  of  his  teacher. 
Though  A.  M.  Sullivan  was  younger  than  T.  D.,  he  was  first 
to  leave  home  and  seek  fortune  abroad.  After  trying  his 
hand  as  an  artist,  A.  M.  ultimately  adopted  journalism  as 
a  profession,  and  became  connected  with  the  Dublin  Nation. 
T.  D.  meantime  had  also  allowed  his  mind  to  run  into  dreams 
of  a  literary  future,  and  had  filled  a  whole  volume  with  his 
compositions;  but,  with  the  secrecy  which  youth  loves,  he 
had  not  confided  his  transgression  to  anyone.  Two  or  three 
of  the  pieces  had  appeared  in  the  print,  but  it  was  not  till  he 
came  to  Dublin  and  began  to  write  in  the  Nation  that  the 
poetical  genius  of  T.  D.  Sullivan  sought  recognition.    Into 

658 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  059 

the  eolnmns  of  that  journal  he  began  at  once  to  pour  the 
verses  which  he  had  hitherto  so  religiously  kept  secret,  and 
from  the  first  his  songs  attracted  attention.  From  this  time 
forward  the  name  of  T.  D.  Sullivan  is  inextricably  associated 
with  the  Nation. 

Though  T.  D.  Sullivan  has  written  love  poems  and  tender 
elegies,  his  joreference  has  always  been  for  the  muse  that 
stirs  and  cheers.  Many  of  his  poems  became  popular  imme- 
diately on  their  appearance,  and  spread  over  that  vast  world 
of  the  Irish  race  which  now  extends  through  so  many  of  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  A  well-known  story  with  regard  to  the 
'SSong  from  the  Backwoods"  will  illustrate  the  influence  of 
T.  D.  Sullivan's  muse.  Irishmen  know  that  splendid  little 
poem,  with  its  bold  opening,  and  its  splendid  refrain: 

Deep  in  Canadian  woods  weVe  met, 

From  one  bright  island  flown; 
Great  is  the  land  we  tread,  but  yet 

Our  hearts  are  with  our  own. 
And  ere  we  leave  this  shanty  small, 
While  fades  the  autumn  day, 
We'll  toast  old  Ireland! 
Dear  old  Ireland! 
Ireland,  boys,  hurrah! 

The  song,  which  was  published  in  the  Nation  in  1857,  first 
became  popular  among  the  members  of  the  Phoenix  Society— 
who,  it  will  be  remembered,  were  at  work  in  1858— and  was 
carried  to  America  by  Captain  M.  J.  Downing,  one  of  the 
association.  It  rapidly  became  popular,  both  among  the  Fe- 
nians, who  were  beginning  to  be  organized,  and  among  the 
Irish  soldiers  who  were  fighting  in  the  American  army. 
Every  man  of  the  Irish  Brigade  knew  it,  and  it  was  often  sung 
at  the  bivouac  fire  after  a  hard  daj^'s  fighting.  An  extraordi- 
nary instance  of  its  popularity  was  given  by  a  writer,  sign- 
ing himself  Romeo,"  in  the  New  York  Irish  People  of  March 
9th,  1867.  ''On  the  night,"  he  writes,  ''of  the  bloody  bat- 
tle of  Fredericksburg  the  federal  army  lay  sleepless  and 
watchful  on  their  arms,  with  spirits  damped  by  the  loss  of 
so  many  gallant  comrades.  To  cheer  his  brother-officer  Cap- 
tain Downing  sang  his  favorite  song.  The  chorus  of  the  first 
stanza  was  taken  up  by  his  dashing  regiment,  next  by  the 


660  Ireland  s  Crown  or  Thorns  and  Roses 

brigade,  next  by  the  division,  then  by  the  entire  line  of  the 
army  for  six  miles  along  the  river;  and  when  the  Captain 
ceased  it  was  but  to  listen  with  indefinable  feelings  to  the 
chant  that  came  like  an  echo  from  the  Confederate  lines  on 
the  opposite  shore  of 

''Dear  Old  Ireland, 
Brave  Old  Ireland, 
Ireland,  boys,  hurrah!" 

The  song  ' '  God  Save  Ireland ' '  became  popular  with  even 
greater  rapidity.  It  was  issued  at  an  hour  when  all  Ireland 
was  stirred  to  intenser  depths  of  anger  and  of  sorrow  than 
perhaps  at  any  single  moment  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury, and  this  profound  and  immense  feeling  longed  for  a 
voice.  When  ''God  Save  Ireland"  was  produced  the  people 
at  once  took  it  up,  and  so  instantaneously  that  the  author  him- 
self heard  it  sung  and  chorussed  in  a  railway  carriage  on 
the  very  day  after  its  publication  in  the  Nation. 

On  several  other  occasions  the  pen  of  T.  D.  Sullivan  has 
given  popular  expression  to  popular  sentiment.  It  has  been 
his  invariable  rule  in  comiDOsing  these  songs  to  make  them 
"ballads"  in  true  sense  of  the  word— songs,  that  is  to  say, 
that  expressed  popular  sentiment  in  the  language  of  every- 
day life,  that  had  good,  catching  rhymes,  and  that  could  be 
easily  sung. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  to  write  at  any  length  of  the  Par- 
liamentary career  of  T.  D.  Sullivan.  He  was  elected,  as  is 
known,  along  with  Mr.  H.J.Gill,  for  County  Westmeath,  at  the 
general  election  of  1880;  and,  in  spite  of  the  absorbing  na- 
ture of  his  journalistic  duties,  he  has  been  one  of  the  most 
active  and  one  of  the  most  attentive  members  of  the  party. 
He  has  been,  perhaps,  still  more  prominent  on  the  platform, 
and  it  is  at  large  Irish  popular  gatherings  that  his  speech  is 
most  effective.  He  is  Irish  of  the  Irish,  and  expresses  the 
deep  and  simple  gospel  of  the  people  in  language  that  goes 
home,  and  then  his  keen  sense  of  humor  enables  him  to  sup- 
ply that  element  of  amusement  which  is  always  looked  for- 
ward to  with  eagerness  by  the  crowd.  He  often  lights  up 
his  Parliamentary,  like  his  conversational,  efforts  with  bright 
flashes  of  wit.  Speaking  of  special  clauses  in  the  Crimes 
Act  for  the  protection  of  certain  humble  agents  of  the  law 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  601 

one  night,  ho  deelared,  ''There's  a  divinity  doth  hedge  a  bail- 
iff rough  h'lise  him  how  we  will."  "Punctuality,"  he  said 
once  to  a  colleague  who  turned  up  at  a  meeting  with  charac- 
teristic lateness,  "punctuality,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Irish 
Party,  is  the  chief  of  time." 

It  is  when  the  county  meeting  is  over  and  T.  1).  Sullivan 
sits  amid  a  genial  crowd  of  sympathetic  friends  that  his  best 
—certainly  his  most  attractive— talents  are  seen.  Like  all 
the  Sullivan  family,  he  has  plenty  of  musical  ability,  and, 
like  poor  A.  M.,  has  a  splendid  voice.  A  song  by  T.  D.  Sul- 
livan has  never  been  really  understood  until  it  has  been  heard 
sung  by  T.  D.  himself.  His  voice— loud,  clear,  penetrating— 
easily  leads  the  chorus,  no  matter  how  many  voices  join  in, 
and  he  throws  himself  into  the  spirit  of  the  thing  with  all  his 
heart  and  soul.  His  singing  of  "Murty  Hynes"  is  worth 
going  many  miles  to  hear. 

Such  has  been  the  career  of  T.  D.  Sullivan— honorable, 
consistent  and  tranquil.  He  has  to-day  the  same  convictions 
which  guided  his  pen  when  he  wrote  surreptitious  verses ;  he 
has  stood  by  these  convictions  through  years  of  trial  and  fail- 
ure; he  is  as  fresh  and  as  vigorous  at  pushing  them  forward 
at  this  hour,  when  his  hairs  are  gray,  as  he  was  when  he  sailed 
in  boyhood's  auroral  days  over  Bantry  Bay.  His  verses  have 
marked  the  epochs  which  they  have  helped  to  produce,  have 
won  the  affection  of  millions  of  Irish  hearts,  and  form  one 
of  the  many  potent  chains  of  memory  and  love  that  bind  the 
scattered  children  of  the  Celtic  mother  to  their  race  and  to 
their  cradle-land. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

JAMES   O^KELLY,    TRAVELLER,   SOLDIER,   WRITER   AND   PATRIOT. 

James  0 'Kelly  was  born  in  Dublin  in  the  year  1845.  He 
made  acquaintance  at  an  early  age  with  the  passions  which 
make  the  Irish  patriot.  Among  his  companions  in  the  Irish 
metropolis  were  a  number  of  young  men  who,  even  in  the 
dark  hours  between  '55  and  '65,  worked  and  hoped  for  the 
elevation  of  the  country ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  he  learned  in 
a  school  in  London,  in  which  he  spent  a  part  of  his  boyhood, 
the  scorn  that  belongs  to  the  child  of  a  conquered  race.  O  'Kel- 
ly accordingly  entered  upon  political  work  at  an  unusually 
precocious  age,  and  certainly  had  not  reached  his  legal  ma- 
jority when  political  aims  had  become  the  lode-star  of  his 
dreams.  This  was  the  dark  period  when  the  treason  of  Sad- 
leir  and  Keogh  had  broken  all  faith  in  Parliamentary  and 
Constitutional  agitation;  and  when  Youth— especially  if  it 
had  the  mental  and  physical  robustness  of  0 'Kelly— was  not 
inclined  to  listen  to  statistical  comparisons  between  the  re- 
sources of  England  and  Ireland.  The  ''set"  to  which  O 'Kelly 
belonged  were  certainly  arch-heretics  against  the  orthodox 
creed  of  constitutionalism,  and  had  made  up  their  minds  to 
set  about  the  liberation  of  Ireland  in  quite  a  different  kind 
of  style.  The  companions  with  whom  0 'Kelly  then  mixed 
lived  to  try,  and  many  of  them  to  suffer  for,  their  experi- 
ments. Many  of  them  are  dead.  Some  of  them  survive,  and 
are  to-day  as  active  and  as  hopeful  as  if  they  had  not  passed 
through  hideous  suffering  and  abysmal  disaster. 

In  1863  O 'Kelly  was  enrolled  in  the  Foreign  Legion  in 
Paris,  and  was  immediately  called  upon  to  enter  into  active 
service.  The  Arabs  in  the  province  of  Oran  were  in  rebel- 
lion, and  here  0 'Kelly  had  an  opportunity  of  learning  all 
the  wiles  as  well  as  all  the  dangers  of  Arabian  warefare.  The 
rebellion  had  scarcely  been  suppressed  when  the  French  army 
was  called  to  another  and  very  different  scene  of  operations. 
Everybody  remembers  that  when  Maximilian  was  made  Em- 
peror of  Mexico  French  forces  were  sent  by  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  to  win  for  his  nominee  his  new  dominion,  and 
0 'Kelly's  regiment  was  one  of  those  which  were  detailed  for 

662 


Ireiand's  Constitutional  Battle  663 

the  service.  In  all  the  fighting  which  went  on  0 'Kelly  had 
his  share.  O 'Kelly  was  made  prisoner  by  the  forces  of  Gen- 
eral Cauales  in  June,  186G.  0 'Kelly  had  now  a  period  of  re- 
straint, discomfort,  possibly  of  danger,  to  look  forward  to; 
but  an  attempt  to  escape,  unless  successful,  meant  death. 
O 'Kelly  decided  to  make  a  dash  for  liberty;  his  guards  proved 
careless,  and  in  the  darkness  of  the  night  he  evaded  their  vigi- 
lance and  rushed  out  into  the  Unknown.  For  days  he  had 
to  wander  about  in  hourly  peril  of  his  life.  At  one  time  he 
took  to  the  river,  hoping  to  float  down  to  the  point  where 
Mexican  territory  joined  the  United  States.  The  induce- 
ment to  attempt  this  mode  of  escape  was  his  discovery  by  the 
banks  of  the  river  of  what  is  called  a  ''dugout,"  a  rude  boat 
made  from  a  hollowed  tree,  and  in  this  primitive  craft  he 
floated  with  the  stream  for  a  day.  He  had  at  last  to  come 
to  land,  owing  to  the  attentions  of  some  Mexicans  on  the 
shore.  They  proved,  however,  not  unfriendly,  and  finally 
0 'Kelly  made  his  way  into  Texas.  On  American  soil  he  was 
once  more  a  free  man,  but  that  was  the  end  of  his  blessings. 
He  had  not  a  cent;  his  clothes,  after  his  many  days  of  wan- 
dering, were  ragged;  and  who  looks  so  disreputable  as  the 
soldier  in  a  travel-stained  uniform?  However,  0 'Kelly  man- 
aged to  ''strike"  a  fellow-countrjTnan,  and  was  by  him  given 
a  job.  The  job— historical  accuracy  is  especially  desirable 
in  the  biography  of  a  soldier— was  that  of  removing  lumber. 
He  managed  finally  to  make  his  way  to  New  York,  and  when 
he  got  there  he  was  confronted  with  stirring  news  that  led 
him  for  a  while  to  the  hope  that  the  next  time  he  went  a-sol- 
diering  it  would  be  for  his  own  land. 

The  stories  which  were  current  in  those  days  of  the  pos- 
sibilities and  the  resources  for  rebellion  in  Ireland  have  been 
described  long  since  by  many  pens,  and  have  produced  a  bit- 
terness of  controversy  that  warns  off  any  writer.  Suffice  it 
to  say  that  0 'Kelly  did  not  find  things  as  he  expected,  that 
he  had  seen  too  much  of  real  warfare  to  have  any  faith  in 
unarmed  crowds,  and  that  he  was  one  of  those  who  most 
fiercely  opposed  any  attempt  at  insurrection.  Everybody 
knows  that  these  counsels  did  not  then  prevail,  and  that  in 
1867  there  came  some  sporadic  risings,  with  their  sad  sequel 
of  wholesale  arrests,  imprisonments,  and  long  tenns  of  penal 
sei-vitude.  For  years  0 'Kelly  had  to  pass  through  the  daily 
and  nightly  risks,  the  never-ceasing  strain,  the  strange  un- 


664  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

derground  life,  of  the  revolutionary.  0 'Kelly  passed  through 
it  all  with  calm  courage  and  that  cool-headedness  which  every- 
body recognizes,  and,  through  determination,  vigilance  and 
prudence  combined,  succeeded  in  coming  out  unscathed. 
Again  the  French  cause  drew  him  into  politics,  and  during 
the  Franco-Prussian  war  he  rejoined  the  French  army;  when 
Paris  surrendered  he  once  more  left  the  French  service.  He 
then  went  to  New  York.  Up  to  this  time  he  had  not  seriously 
contemplated  adoi^ting  journalism  as  a  profession,  and  his 
efforts  had  been  confined  to  occasional  correspondence  in  the 
National  weeklies.  He  applied  for  a  situation  on  the  New 
York  Herald,  and  his  application,  like  that  of  most  begin- 
ners in  all  manners  of  life,  was  received  coolly  enough.  At 
last,  through  the  absence  of  all  the  regular  employes  of  the 
journal  on  a  special  Sunday  morning,  0 'Kelly  got  his  oppor- 
tunity. General  Sheridan  was  to  arrive  from  Europe  that 
morning,  and  there  was  a  general  anxiety  to  know  what  the 
American  Napoleon  had  to  say  about  the  military  resources 
and  the  military  strategy  of  the  old  world.  The  task  of  in- 
terviewing so  distinguished  a  soldier  was  a  highly  honorable 
one,  but  it  had  one  great  drawback ;  General  Sheridan  was  a 
man  who  was  known  to  hold  the  ''interviewer"  in  mortal 
hate.  There  was  a  whole  host  of  reporters  on  board  the 
steamer  which  went  out  to  meet  the  General.  The  competi- 
tion, therefore,  was  keen,  with  a  keenness  which  nobody  who 
has  not  been  in  America  cannot  completely  understand.  Each 
reporter,  in  his  turn,  tried  his  hand  on  the  General,  and  each 
went  back  disappointed.  At  length  0 'Kelly  made  the  at- 
tempt. He  began  his  attack  altogether  out  of  the  ordi- 
nary, mentioned  places  in  France  which  the  General,  as  well 
as  he,  had  recently  seen ;  gave  a  military  estimate  or  two,  and 
in  this  way  conveyed  the  impression  to  the  General  that  he 
was  something  of  a  kindred  spirit,  and  knew  what  he  was 
talking  about.  The  General  unbent,  and  0 'Kelly,  who  was 
the  ''greenhorn,"  as  newcomers  are  scornfully  called,  of  the 
journalistic  host,  was  the  one  who  was  able  to  give  the  best 
account  of  General  Sheridan's  views  on  his  European  tour. 

0 'Kelly,  starting  thus  well,  was  gradually  advanced,  un- 
til he  became  one  of  the  leader-writers— or  "editors,"  as  they 
are  called  in  America— of  the  New  York  Herald.  In  1873 
there  arose  an  opportunity  of  making  or  marring  his  for- 
tune—an opportunity  which  0 'Kelly  gladly  embraced,  but 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  665 

which  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  men  would  have  ab- 
solutely aiid  unhesitatingly  rejocted.  The  rchellion  in  Cuba 
was  going  on,  and  it  was  a  movement  in  which  the  people  of 
the  United  States  took  a  keen  interest,  these  being  the  days 
when  the  annexation  of  Cuba  was  one  of  the  political  possi- 
bilities and  aspirations  of  the  hour.  But  what  was  the  na- 
ture, and  what  were  the  methods  of  the  rebels?  These  were 
points  upon  which  no  trustworthy  information  could  by  any 
possibility  be  obtained.  The  Spaniards  had  the  ear  of  the 
world,  and  the  story  they  told  was  that  there  was  no  sucli 
thing  as  a  rebellion  at  all.  If  there  had  ever  been  anything 
of  the  kind  it  was  entirely  crushed,  and  Cespedes,  its  leader, 
was  dead.  What  now  remained  was  simply  a  few  scores  of 
scattered  maurauders,  who  were  nothing  but  itinerant  rob- 
bers and  murderers.  There  was  a  strong  conviction  in  the 
United  States  that  these  representations  were  not  altogether 
to  be  relied  on,  and  there  were  plenty  of  Cuban  refugees  and 
insurrectionary  committees  in  the  United  States  who  circu- 
lated reports  of  quite  a  different  character.  It  was  said,  for 
instance,  that  the  Spanish  troops  were  guilty  of  horrible  cru- 
elties—that they  gave  no  quarter  to  men  and  foully  abused 
women;  and  the  rebellion,  instead  of  being  repressed,  was 
represented  as  fiercer  and  more  determined  than  ever.  But 
how  were  these  statements  to  be  confirmed?  The  rebels, 
whether  few  or  many,  were  hidden  behind  the  impenetrable 
forests  of  the  Mambi  Land  (as  the  country  frequented  by 
them  was  called)  as  completely  as  if  they  had  ceased  to  exist. 
To  reach  these  rebels,  survey  their  forces— in  short,  attest 
their  existence— was  the  duty  which  0 'Kelly  volunteered  to 
perform. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

O^KELLY  IN   CUBA  AND   WITH   THE   SIOUX  INDIANS. 

He  knew  that  when  he  set  out  for  Cuba  his  task  was  dif- 
ficult enough,  but  it  was  not  until  he  arrived  in  Cuba  that  he 
realized  to  the  full  the  meaning  of  his  enterprise.  He  imag- 
ined that  he  might  have  been  able  to  accompany  the  Span- 
ish troops,  then  to  pass  through  their  lines  to  the  rebels,  and, 
investigations  among  the  latter  being  completed,  to  return  to 
the  Spanish  lines  again.  He  therefore  asked  a  safe  conduct 
from  the  Captain  General,  but  that  functionary  soon  made  it 
apparent  that  nothing  would  induce  him  to  facilitate  O 'Kel- 
ly's task  in  any  way,  and  he  plainly  told  him  that  if  he  per- 
sisted in  trying  to  get  to  the  rebels  he  would  do  so  at  his  own 
risk.  0 'Kelly  soon  realized  the  true  meaning  of  these  words. 
Throughout  all  Cuba  there  was  a  perfect  reign  of  terror. 
Tribunals  hastily  tried  even  those  susi3ected  of  treason,  and 
within  a  few  hours  after  his  arrest  the  '^ suspect"  was  a  rid- 
dled corpse.  Any  person,  therefore,  who  was  under  the 
frown  of  the  authorities  was  avoided  as  if  he  had  the  plague. 
Thus  0 'Kelly  was  invited  to  dinner  in  the  heartiest  manner 
by  a  descendant  of  an  Irishman;  but  when  this  gentleman 
heard  of  0 'Kelly's  mission  he  begged  him  not  to  pay  the 
visit,  and  promptly  went  to  the  Spanish  authorities  to  ex- 
plain the  unlucky  invitation.  '*It  was  not  possible,"  writes 
0 'Kelly  in  ''The  Mambi  Land,"  the  interesting  volume  in 
which  he  afterwards  recounted  his  adventures— ''it  was  not 
possible  to  turn  back  without  dishonor,  and,  though  it  cost 
even  life  itself,  I  would  have  to  visit  the  Cuban  camp."  "My 
word,"  he  says  in  another  place,  "had  been  given  to  accom- 
plish this,  and  at  whatever  cost  it  should  be  done,"  language 
that  in  the  mouth  of  a  man  like  0 'Kelly  really  means  to  meet 
the  worst  that  fortune  could  inflict. 

He  made  various  efforts  to  accompany  expeditions  of  the 
Spanish  troops  which  were  supposed  to  be  marching  against 
the  insurgents,  but  these  expeditions  either  were  postponed 
or,  after  they  had  been  started,  turned  back  without  even 
coming  in  sight  of  the  rebel  lines.  Then  0  'Kelly  thought  that 
his  purpose  might  be  carried  out  if  he  got  into  communica- 

666 


Ireland's  Constitutjonal  Battle  667 

tion  with  some  of  the  secret  sympathizers  with  the  rebellion 
who  remained  in  the  towns;  but  they,  carrying  their  lives 
every  hour  in  their  hands,  would  not  trust  a  stranger.  At 
last  he  formed  the  desperate  resolve  to  set  out  for  the  rebel 
lines  alone,  with  the  chance  of  being  shot  by  the  Spaniards 
as  a  rebel,  by  the  rebels  as  a  Spaniard,  through  a  country 
which  in  parts  was  supposed  to  be  overrun  by  robbers,  quite 
ready  to  murder,  with  impartial  ferocity,  Spaniard  or  rebel ; 
and  into  the  midst  of  almost  impenetrable  forest,  where  the 
loss  of  the  trail  meant  death.  But  he  had  not  proceeded  far  on 
his  way  when  he  was  placed  under  arrest  by  the  Spanish  au- 
thorities. Then  came  an  order  which  made  the  situation  still 
more  hopeless;  the  order  was  that  under  no  circumstances 
should  0 'Kelly  be  permitted  to  penetrate  to  the  rebel  lines, 
and  the  penalty  was  affixed  in  no  obscure  language.  Brought 
before  General  Morales,  one  of  the  Spanish  authorities, 
O 'Kelly  made  the  remark,  **I  should  regret  very  much  if 
one  of  these  daj's  you  should  be  obliged  to  shoot  me."  *'I 
would  regret  it  very  much  also,"  was  the  reply  of  the  Span- 
iard, ''but  if  you  are  found  in  the  insurgent  lines  or  coming 
from  them  you  will  be  treated  as  a  spy  or  as  one  of  the  insur- 
gents"—in  other  words,  shot. 

And  still  O 'Kelly  persevered.  His  plan  was  now  to  trust 
to  the  sympathizers  with  the  rebellion ;  and  at  last  he  found 
a  letter  on  the  floor  of  his  room  in  the  hotel  one  night  telling 
him  that  if  he  would  proceed  to  a  certain  point  alone  on  the 
following  day  he  would  be  conducted  to  the  rebel  lines.  0  'Kel- 
ly, armed  with  a  couple  of  revolvers,  set  out  the  next  day, 
reached  the  trysting-place,  and  after  hours  of  waiting  in  the 
blackness  of  the  night,  was  conducted  into  the  rebel  lines, 
saw  General  Cespedes,  President  of  the  Republic,  and  spent 
a  month  in  marching  and  countermarching,  and  in  generally 
studying  the  resources,  the  customs  and  the  prospects  of  the 
rebels.  His  task  he  had  now  succeeded  in  accomplishing, 
though  every  other  person  attempting  it  had  failed.  He  had 
ascertained  the  existence  and  estimated  the  chance  of  the 
rebels,  and  the  only  thing  now  left  for  him  was  to  return  to 
America.  Cespedes  offered  to  send  him  home  by  Jamaica, 
but  0 'Kelly  thought  it  necessary  to  go  into  the  Spanish  lines 
in  order  that  there  might  be  no  possibility  of  a  denial  that 
he  had  actually  entered  the  rebel  camp.  He  had  scarcely  re- 
turned to  the  settlements  of  the    Spaniards    when  he  was 


068  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

thrown  into  a  dungeon  in  a  fortress,  wliere  tlie  stencli  was 
terrible,  his  only  companion  a  forger;  and  he  was  convinced 
that  the  object  of  his  captors  was,  if  they  could  not  shoot  him, 
to  kill  him  through  scarlet  fever.  For  weeks  he  was  daily 
tortured  while  in  this  den  by  inquisitions  and  threats  of  im- 
mediate persecution,  alternating  with  tempting  offers  of  large 
bribes  and  immediate  release  if  he  would  betray  the  men  who 
had  helped  him  to  reach  the  Cuban  lines.  In  time  he  was 
removed  to  another  prison,  bound  with  ropes  as  he  was  con- 
veyed there.  In  this  guise  he  reached  Havana,  and  there 
again  he  was  incarcerated  in  a  cell— this  time  of  such  sick- 
ening odor  that  he  had  to  fly  continually  to  the  grated  door  in 
the  hope  of  breathing  a  little  fresh  air.  It  was  evident  that 
the  Spanish  authorities  were  thoroughly  bent  on  inducing 
his  death  from  yellow  fever.  He  escaped  all  these  perils, 
however,  was  sent  to  Spain,  and  then,  through  the  united  ef- 
forts of  General  Sickles,  Senor  Castlelar,  and  Isaac  Butt,  was 
set  at  liberty. 

Later  on,  in  the  war  with  Sitting  Bull  and  the  Sioux  In- 
dians, an  expedition  of  considerable  peril,  0 'Kelly  remained 
throughout  the  business,  until  Sitting  Bull  was  driven  to 
take  refuge  in  Canada.  More  recently  0 'Kelly  conceived 
the  bold  idea  of  reaching  the  Mahdi.  The  continued  obstacles 
which  were  placed  in  his  way  frustrated  his  object,  but  he 
did  not  abandon  his  purpose  until  he  had  adopted  many  ex- 
pedients of  characteristic  daring  and  adroitness.  The  let- 
ters which  he  contributed  to  the  Daily  News  excited  much 
attention,  and  were  the  first  to  throw  any  light  upon  the  char- 
acter and  strength  of  the  movement  of  the  Mahdi.  With  sin- 
gular accuracy  he  pointed  out  the  future  of  the  movement,  and 
some  time  later,  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the  Freeman's  Jour- 
nal, on  the  strategy  of  Lord  Wolseley,  he  forecasted  the  perils 
and  the  final  failure  of  the  campaign  with  striking  truth.  He 
writes  with  the  bold,  slightly  rugged,  realistic  pen  of  the  spe- 
cial correspondent  diverted  to  journalism  from  his  true  avo- 
cation as  a  soldier.  Though  he  has  given  proof  so  abundant 
of  a  courage  that  dares  all,  0 'Kelly's  advice  has  always  been 
on  the  side  of  well-calculated  rather  than  rash  courses;  he 
has,  in  fact,  the  true  soldier's  instinct  in  favor  of  the  adapta- 
Ition  of  ways  and  means  to  ends,  of  mathematical  severity  in  es- 
timating the  strength  of  the  forces,  for  and  of  the  forces 
against  his  own  side.  He  is,  like  so  many  men,  a  bundle  of  con- 


Ireland's  Constitutional  IUttle 


669 


tradictions.  His  whole  temperament  is  revolutionary;  lie 
chafes  under  the  restraints  of  Parliamentary  life,  and  hates 
the  weary  contests  of  words;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  he  in- 
sists on  every  step  being  measured,  every  move  calculated. 
A  friend  jokingly  described  him  once  as  the  "Whig  rebel." 
Again,  his  large  experience  of  life  and  the  ruggedness  of  his 
sense  give  to  his  thoughts  the  mode  of  almost  cynic  realism, 
and  yet  he  is  an  idealist  of  the  first  water,  for  throughout  his 
whole  life  he  has  held  to  the  idea  of  his  country's  resurrec- 
tion with  a  fanatical  faith  which  no  danger  could  terrify,  no 
disaster  depress,  no  labor  fatigue.  And  it  is  a  steady  though 
silent  laborer  for  the  elevation  of  his  people  that  0 'Kelly 
would  himself  wish  to  be  remembered.  "My  best  work,"  he 
wrote  to  a  friend,  "was  not  the  showy  pages  which  have 
caught  the  general  eye,  but  rather  the  quiet  political  work 
which  I  have  done  for  the  last  twenty  years.  To  the  mere 
sabreur's  part  of  my  life  I  attach  no  importance  whatever, 
except  that  within  certain  limits  it  has  furnished  me  with 
the  opportunity  of  observing  men  and  acquainting  myself 
with  the  motive  forces  which  induce  men  to  do  or  not  to  do." 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

JOHN  DILLON  AND  HIS  PATRIOTIC  FAMILY. 

Mr.  Dillon,  as  so  often  happens,  is  the  very  opposite  in  ap- 
pearance and  manner  from  what  the  readers  of  his  speeches, 
especially  the""  hostile  readers,  would  expect.  He  came  in  the 
course  of  time  to  be  regarded  by  large  sections  of  the  English 
people  as  the  embodiment  of  everything  that  was  brutal  and 
sanguinary  in  the  Irish  nature.  He  was  accustomed  during 
the  fierce  days  of  the  Land  League  to  the  most  violent  de- 
nunciation, and  he  was  daily  in  receipt  of  letters  of  menace 
or  of  insult.  To  those  who  know  him  this  popular  image 
was  grotesquely  inaccurate.  Tall,  thin,  frail,  his  physique 
was  that  of  a  man  who  has  periodically  to  seek  flight  from 
death  in  change  of  scene  and  of  air.  His  face  was  long  and 
narrow,  the  features  singularly  delicate  and  refined.  Coal- 
black  hair  and  large,  dark  tranquil  eyes  made  up  a  face  that 
immediately  arrested  attention,  and  that  could  never  be  for- 
gotten. A  stranger  would  guess  that  Mr.  Dillon  was  an  ar- 
tist of  the  school  that  found  delight  in  painting  Madonnas, 
that  spoke  of  the  pursuit  of  art  for  art's  sake  alone, with  a  sub- 
lime unconcern  for  the  struggles  and  aims  and  welfare  of  the 
workaday  world.  A  tranquil  voice  and  a  gentle  manner  would 
further  combat  the  idea  that  this  was  one  of  the  protagonists 
in  one  of  the  fiercest  struggles  of  modern  days.  The  speeches 
of  Mr.  Dillon  were  violent  in  their  conclusions  only.  The  prop- 
ositions which  startled  or  shocked  unsympathetic  hearers  were 
reached  by  him  through  calculations  of  apparently  mathemat- 
ical frigidity,  and  were  delivered  in  an  unimpassioned  mono- 
tone. 

John  Dillon  is  the  son  of  Mr.  John  Blake  Dillon,  one  of  the 
bravest  and  purest  spirits  in  the  Young  Ireland  movement. 
His  father  was  one  of  those  who  opposed  the  rising  to  the 
last  moment  as  imprudent  and  hopeless,  and  then  was  among 
the  first  to  risk  liberty  and  life  when  it  was  finally  resolved 
upon.  John  was  born  in  Blackrock,  County  Dublin,  in  the 
year  1851.  He  never  went  to  a  boarding-school,  and  prob- 
ably he  owes  more  of  his  education  to  home  than  to  other  in- 
fluences.   He  was  mainly  instructed  in  the  institutions  con- 

670 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  671 

neeted  witli  tlie  Catholic  University,  first  in  tlie  University, 
school  in  Harcout  street,  Dublin,  and  afterwards  in  the  Uni- 
versity buildings  in  Stephen's  Green.  He  was  intended  for 
the  medical  profession,  passed  through  his  course  of  lectures, 
and  took  the  degree  of  Licentiate  in  the  College  of  Surgeons. 
His  entrance  into  political  struggle  was  not  precocious.  It 
was  not  until  after  the  arrival  of  John  Mitchell  in  Ireland 
to  fight  the  Tipperary  struggle  after  his  many  years  of  ex- 
ile that  Dillon  first  appeared  in  the  political  arena.  Mitchell 
had  been  one  of  the  earliest  companions  of  his  father,  and 
John  Dillon  was  among  those  who  went  down  to  Queen stown 
to  bid  a  welcome  to  Ireland  to  the  returning  and  still  unre- 
pentant rebel.  He  then  took  an  active  part  in  the  electoral 
contest,  and  helped  to  get  Mitchell  returned.  The  rise  of 
Mr.  Parnell  and  the  active  policy  brought  Mr.  Dillon  more 
prominently  to  the  front.  He  was  one  of  the  first  to  appreci- 
ate correctly  the  new  policy,  and  to  see  the  road  to  salvation 
to  which  it  pointed  the  way.  At  once  he  became  an  eager 
advocate  of  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  policy.  This  brought  him 
into  direct  collision  with  Mr.  Isaac  Butt,  and  his  was  the 
fiercest  and  most  damaging  speech  made  against  the  old  lead- 
er in  the  Molesworth  Hall  meeting,  at  which  Butt  made  his 
last  political  speech.  When  the  Land  League  movement  was 
started  Dillon  at  once  threw  himself  into  the  agitation,  and 
was  appointed  to  accompany  Mr.  Parnell  on  his  historic  visit 
to  America. 

There  were  many  other  members  at  the  meeting  in  the  City 
Hall  whose  history  would  throw  light  upon  the  circumstances 
and  tendencies  of  Irish  life,  social  and  political,  but  we  have 
not  space  to  give  them  more  than  a  few  passing  words.  Rich- 
ard Power,  who  was  elected  in  1874,  when  he  was  barely  of 
age,  was  a  member  of  a  Waterford  family  which  has  played 
a  prominent  and  often  a  romantic  part  in  Irish  history  for 
centuries.  Richard  Lalor,  one  of  the  members  for  Queen's 
County,  represented  a  family  ancient  in  Irish  struggle.  His 
father  was  one  of  the  fierce  spirits  that  led  the  move- 
ment against  the  tithes,  and  for  many  years  was  the  fore- 
most man  in  every  political  effort  in  Queen's  County.  James 
Finton  Lalor,  his  brother,  was  perhaps  the  most  truly  revo- 
lutionary temperament  of  '48.  He  lives  again  in  the  pages  of 
Duffy,  and  he  it  was  who  suggested  to  Mitchell  the  No  Rent 
movement,  which  Mitchell  is  alleged  to  have  spoiled,  and 


672 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


which  for  the  first  time  was  carried  into  effect  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century  after  Finton  Lalor's  fiery  and  restless 
spirit  had  passed  to  rest.  Another  brother,  who  sought  a 
home  in  Australia,  was  the  leader  in  a  small  insurrection  at 
Ballarat,  and  there  lost  an  arm.  When  the  reforms  he  fought 
for  were  granted  he  became  one  of  the  rulers  of  the  country, 
and  afterwards  Si^eaker  of  the  Victorian  Parliament.  Eich- 
ard  was  one  of  the  same  stern  spirit  as  all  of  his  stock.  In 
1848  he  had  his  pike  and  his  thousands  of  pikemen  ready  for 
action,  and  was  until  the  last  the  unconquerable  and  irre- 
claimable rebel— the  Blanqui  of  Irish  politics. 


Composed  from[Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  o'gORMAN  MAHON,  GARRETT  BYRNE,  AND  EDWARD  DWYER  GRAY. 

The  0 'Gorman  Malion,  to  whom  was  entrusted  the  duty 
of  proposing  the  name  of  Mr.  Parnell  as  chairman  of  the 
Irish  Party  belonged  to  even  an  older  agitation.  Tall,  erect 
as  a  pine,  with  huge  masses  of  perfectly  white  hair  and  a 
leonine  face,  he  was  the  majestic  relic  of  a  stormy  and  glori- 
ous youth.  He  was  the  last  survivor  of  the  once  multi- 
tudinous race  of  the  Irish  gentleman,  as  ready  with  his 
pistol  as  with  his  tongue.  Nobody  could  enumerate  the 
number  of  times  he  was  *'out"  and  the  still  larger  num- 
ber of  occasions  in  which  he  dispatched  or  received  the 
cartel.  A  man  of  the  spirit  of  The  0 'Gorman  Mahon  was 
necessary  in  such  times  as  those  of  his  youth.  The  Irish 
Catholic  was  still  an  unemancipated  serf,  and  the  Lords  of 
Ascendency  looked  down  upon  him  with  the  contempt  of  cen- 
turies of  unbroken  sway.  It  was  at  such  a  time  that  the 
swaggering  adherent  of  English  domination  had  to  be  met  by 
a  representative  of  the  ancient  faith  and  of  the  hidden  long- 
ings of  the  oppressed  majority,  before  whose  eagle-eye  priv- 
ilege had  to  quail.  O'Connell  was  the  tongue,  but  The  0 'Gor- 
man Mahon  was  the  sword  of  the  Irish  Democracy  rising 
against  its  oppressors  after  its  centuries  of  bondage ;  and  so 
he  did  his  own  useful  work  in  his  own  day.  There  was  some- 
thing strangely  picturesque  in  the  appearance  of  that  group  of 
young  men  engaged  in  a  still  infant  movement  of  a  man  who 
had  stood  by  the  side  of  O'Connell  at  the  Clare  election  which 
won  Catholic  emancipation.  It  was  almost  as  if  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson were  to  rise  and  with  the  same  pen  that  had  written 
the  ''Declaration  of  Independence"  to  join  in  the  composi- 
tion of  Abraham  Lincoln's  proclamation  against  slavery.  In 
the  years  that  had  j)assed  since  that  day  The  O 'Gorman  Ma- 
hon had  gone  through  a  life  of  strange  and  varied  adventure. 
When,  in  the  whirligig  of  time,  he  was  thrust  upon  Irish  pol- 
itics, he  had  gone  to  South  America,  and  there  had  taken 
part  in  the  struggles  of  the  young  Republics  for  emancipa- 
tion. Returning  to  his  native  land,  he  found  Isaac  Butt  start- 
ing the  new  movement  for  Home  Rule.     Several  constituen- 

673 


674  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

cies  competed  for  him,  but  lie  had  chosen  the  historic  county 
in  whose  history  he  had  played  so  prominent  a  part. 

Garrett  Byrne,  member  for  Wicklow,  was  in  direct  descent 
from  Garrett  Byrne,  who  was  hanged  in  the  rebellion  of  '48. 
John  Barry,  his  colleague,  beginning  life  at  almost  its  hum- 
blest rung,  had  become  an  imjDortant  member  in  a  Scotch  man- 
ufacturing firm,  and  shortly  afterwards  was  in  business  for 
himself.  He  had  also  taken  a  share  in  political  struggles, 
the  history  of  which  has  yet  to  be  told.  Mr.  Corbet  was  a 
member  of  an  ancient  Irish  family,  and  a  man  himself  of 
culture  and  of  considerable  literary  power. 

One  more  figure  requires  description.  On  the  first  day  of 
the  meeting  of  the  Irish  Party  the  chair  was  occupied  by  the 
Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin,  Mr.  E.  Dwyer  Gray,  M.  P.,  for  the 
County  Carlow.  Mr.  Gray  was  the  son  of  the  late  Sir  John 
Gray,  whose  name  has  figured  so  frequently  in  the  Constitu- 
tional struggle.  He  was  born  in  the  year  1846.  Brought  up 
from  his  earliest  youth  in  the  opinions  of  his  father,  whose 
favorite  son  he  was,  he  attained  at  an  early  age  a  correct 
judgment  of  political  affairs.  His  father  had  received  many 
bitter  lessons  during  a  long  political  career.  One  story  he 
was  never  tired  of  repeating  to  his  son.  It  was  of  a  man  who 
offered  to  him  during  the  Young  Island  excitement  a  plan  of 
the  defenses  of  Dublin  Castle.  Gray  treated  the  offer  of  the 
surrender  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant's  citadel  with  suspicion, 
and  a  few  days  afterwards  was  not  surprised  to  find  that  the 
would-be  traitor  was  a  police-spy  in  disguise.  The  mind  of  the 
son  was  even  clearer  than  that  of  his  father,  and  refused 
steadily  to  accept  any  doctrine  or  course  until  it  had  been 
fully  thought  out.  In  this  way  Gray  was  sometimes  regarded 
as  backward  when  he  was  simply  demanding  the  full  rea- 
son for  the  offered  policy,  and  had  not  yet  been  able  to  see 
its  eventual  outlet.  He  succeeded  his  father  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  Freeman's  Journal,  the  chief  newspaper  of  Ire- 
land, and  soon  raised  it  to  double  its  previous  circulation. 
Becoming  a  member  of  the  Dublin  Corporation,  of  which  his 
father  had  been  the  guiding  star  for  many  years,  he  soon  at- 
tained to  the  position  of  its  leading  figure,  and  took  a  keen 
interest  in  advancing  the  hygienic  improvements  of  the  city. 

At  this  period  he  was  Lord  Mayor,  and  had  under  his 
control  vast  sums  which  had  been  subscribed  to  the  Mansion 
House  for  the  relief  of  distress.    Anticipating  a  little,  Gray 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle 


675 


subsequently  came  into  fierce  collision  with  James  Carej'-, 
whom  he  exposed  for  an  attempted  fraud  upon  the  Corpora- 
tion; and  Carey  from  that  day  was  his  bitter  and  relentless 
enemy.  Gray  had  been  returned  to  the  House  of  Commons 
shortly  after  the  death  of  his  father,  and  was  one  of  its  most 
influential  debaters.  There  was  no  man  in  the  Irish  Party, 
and  few  outside  of  it,  who  could  state  a  case  with  such  pellucid 
clearness.  When  Gray  had  completed  his  statement  the  whole 
facts  were  as  clear  to  the  minds  of  his  hearers  as  they  had 
already  been  to  his  own  searching  intellect. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

PARNELL  ELECTED  LEADER— GLADSTONE  MEETS  HIS  MATCH. 

The  great  question  to  be  decided  at  this  meeting  was  the 
future  leadership  of  the  party.  Up  to  a  few  days  before  the 
meeting  there  was  practically  no  intention  even  of  proposing 
Mr.  Parnell  as  a  leader.  The  idea  never  assumed  shape  until 
the  night  before  the  meeting  in  the  City  Hall.  There  hap- 
pened to  be  stopping  at  the  Imperial  Hotel  several  gentlemen 
who  had  been  returned  or  had  resolved  to  support  Mr.  Par- 
nell's  policy.  Among  them  they  discussed  the  question  of 
leadership.  The  gentlemen  who  took  part  in  this  informal 
and  accidental  conference  were  Mr.  John  Barry,  Mr.  Richard 
Lalor,  Mr.  0 'Kelly,  Dr.  Commins,  Mr.  Biggar,  Mr.  T.  P. 
O'Connor,  and,  strangely  enough,  Mr.  McCoan;  Mr.  Healy, 
who  had  not  yet  been  elected  a  member  of  Parliament,  was 
also  present. 

There  was  an  understanding  rather  than  a  formal  resolu- 
tion among  these  gentlemen  that  they  would  propose  Mr. 
Parnell  as  a  leader.  He  himself  did  not  come  to  Dublin  un- 
til next  morning ;  some  gentlemen  went  to  his  hotel  and  others 
met  him  on  his  way  to  the  City  Hall.  In  his  bedroom,  and 
afterwards  as  he  passed  through  the  streets,  mention  was 
made  to  him  of  the  suggestion  that  had  been  made  at  the  in- 
formal meeting  of  the  previous  night.  He  neither  rejected 
nor  encouraged  the  idea,  but  seemed,  on  the  whole,  rather 
inclined  to  the  notion,  in  case  Mr.  Shaw  was  displaced,  of 
proposing  that  the  office  should  be  held  by  Mr.  Justin  Mc- 
Carthy. This  was  the  state  of  things  when  the  meeting  as- 
sembled. Finally  the  vote  was:  For  Mr.  Parnell,  23;  for 
Mr.  Shaw,  18.  Mr.  Shaw  apparently  received  his  defeat  at 
the  moment  with  good  humor,  but  when,  the  next  day,  the 
party  formulated  its  policy  and  declared  in  favor  of  Peasant 
Proprietary  as  the  final  solution  of  the  land  question,  Mr. 
Shaw  already  indicated  a  certain  difference  from  Mr.  Par- 
nell and  his  friends. 

When  the  party  came  over  to  London  the  first  occasion 
arose  for  the  two  sections  taking  opposite  sides.  It  was  on  a 
seemingly  trivial  question.    The  point  at  issue  was  the  part 

676 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  677 

of  the  Plouse  in  which  the  Irish  members  should  take  their 
seats.  In  the  view  of  Mr.  Shaw  and  his  friends  the  existing 
Ministry  was  so  friendly  to  Ireland  that  the  Irish  party  should 
signify  their  general  adherence  by  sitting  on  the  same  side 
of  the  House.  The  supporters  of  Mr.  Parnell  maintained  that 
even  between  a  friendly  Liberal  Ministry  and  an  Irish  Na- 
tional Party  there  might  arise  irreconciliable  difference  on 
the  Irish  National  question  and  on  several  others.  They  held 
that  the  only  hope  of  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  Irish  ques- 
tion was  that  Irish  members  should  maintain  a  position  of 
absolute  independence  of  the  English  parties;  that,  there- 
fore, the  attitude  of  Irish  Nationalists  was  one  of  permanent 
opposition  to  all  English  administrations,  and  that  this  polit- 
ical attitude  should  be  signified  by  their  continuing  to  keep 
their  seats  on  the  Opposition  side  of  the  House. 

Meantime,  in  Ireland,  the  land  question  was  reaching  a 
crisis.  The  increase  of  evictions,  which  had  begun  in  1877, 
the  first  year  of  the  distress,  showed  still  further  signs  of  in- 
crease; the  number  of  tenantry  unable  to  meet  their  rents  was 
reaching  daily  larger  proportions,  and  the  Relief  Commit- 
tee had  on  their  rolls  something  like  500,000  recipients  of 
charity.  Side  by  side  with  all  this  the  Land  League  was 
daily  advancing  with  gigantic  strides,  and  every  week  was 
receiving  a  vast  impetus  through  the  immense  subscriptioub. 
sent  from  America.  It  was  clear  that  the  time  had  come 
when  Ireland  must  make  a  tremendous  step  either  of  ad- 
vance or  retrogression.  Either  distress  was  to  develop  into 
famine,  and  famine  lead  to  wholesale  eviction,  and  another 
lease  of  landlord  power  and  oppression,  or  the  Irish  people 
were  to  throw  off  the  chains  of  centuries,  to  revolt  against 
the  perpetuation  of  their  miseries  and  of  their  servitude,  and 
to  dash  forward  in  an  effort  for  a  new  and  a  better  era. 

Such  was  the  state  of  Ireland,  and  such  the  position  of 
the  Irish  Party,  when  Parliament  met  in  1880.  But  how  was 
it  with  the  Ministry?  They  did  not  know  the  existence  of 
the  distress ;  they  did  not  know  the  strength  of  the  agitation ; 
they  were  far  more  ignorant  of  the  condition  of  the  island 
than  of  countries  separated  by  thousands  of  miles  on  land 
or  by  sea;  above  all  things,  they  had  no  idea  whatever  of 
making  an  attempt  to  deal  with  the  land  question. 

The  first  witness  of  the  state  of  feeling  among  the  Min- 
istry is  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  who,  speaking  in  1881,  said: 


678  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

'^The  present  Government  was  formed  with  no  expressed 
intention  of  bringing  in  another  Irish  Land  Bill.  ...  It 
formed  no  part  of  the  programme  upon  which  the  Government 
was  formed.  Perhaps  no  Government  was  ever  formed  on  a 
greater  or  wider  programme,  if  we  are  to  take  the  speeches 
of  my  right  honorable  friend  the  Prime  Minister  in  the  course 
of  the  Midlothian  campaign  as  the  programme  of  the  Gov- 
ernment; but,  so  far  as  I  recollect  and  am  concerned,  it  was 
not  intimated  in  those  speeches  that  it  was  the  intention  of 
the  Government  to  unsettle  the  settlement  of  the  Land  Act 
of  1870." 

In  the  session  of  1880  the  Marquis  of  Hartington  showed 
that  his  mind  was  not  only  not  made  up  in  favor  of  Land  Re- 
form in  Ireland,  but  that  he  was,  on  the  whole,  rather  antag- 
onistic to  any  such  reform. 

He  was  speaking  in  reply  to  a  motion  of  Mr.  Justin  Mc- 
Carthy that  a  tenant  farmer  should  be  added  to  the  Commis- 
sion of  Inquiry  into  the  land  question.  Several  of  the  Irish 
members  had  spoken  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870  as  an  absolute 
failure,  and  had  taken  it  for  granted  that  the  Ministry  had 
made  up  their  minds  that  another  and  a  larger  Land  Act  was 
required.     Thus  Lord  Hartington  rebuked  them: 

''The  Marquis  of  Hartington  said  he  was  not  surprised 
that  the  honorable  member  for  Tralee  (The  O'Donoghue)  ob- 
jected to  the  composition  of  the  Commission,  seeing  that  with 
him  the  failure  of  the  Land  Act  was  a  foregone  conclusion. 
To  some  minds  the  conclusion  was  not  so  absolutely  certain 
that  the  Land  Act  had  failed,  or  that  it  had  not,  and  it  was 
in  solving  that  question  that  the  Commission  was  expected 
to  be  useful.  The  speeches  attacking  the  Commission  had  all 
been  pervaded  by  a  fallacious  supposition,  namely,  that  the 
Government  looked  to  Baron  Dowse  and  the  other  members 
of  the  Commission  for  a  comprehensive  scheme  of  land  re- 
form. .  .  What  they  wanted  was  facts.  In  the  last  four 
years  there  had  been  almost  continuous  debates  on  the  Irish 
land  question.  The  result  was  that  neither  the  House  nor 
the  Government  could  arrive  at  any  certain  conclusion  on  the 
matter.  What  could  be  more  advisable  under  these  circum- 
stances than  to  ask  a  set  of  honest  and  impartial  men  to  make 
inquiry  on  the  spot,  and  to  report  the  facts  brought  under 
their  notice?  That  was  the  object  of  the  Commission,  and 
not  as  the  honorable  member  for  Longford  (Mr.  Justin  Mc- 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  679 

Carthy)  seemed  to  suppose,  the  elaboration  of  a  compre- 
hensive scheme  of  land  reform." 

The  chief  and  most  significant  testimony  of  the  mind  of 
the  Ministry  at  this  period  is  that  given  by  Mr.  Gladstone 
himself.  During  his  visit  to  Midlothian  in  the  Autumn  of 
1884  he  said: 

''I  must  say  one  word  more  upon,  I  might  say,  a  still  more 
important  subject— that  subject  of  Ireland.  It  did  not  enter 
into  my  address  to  you,  for  what  reason  I  know  not ;  but  the 
Government  that  was  then  in  power,  rather,  I  think,  kept 
back  from  Parliament,  certainly  were  not  forward  to  lay  be- 
fore Parliament  what  was  going  on  in  Ireland  until  the  day 
of  the  Dissolution  came,  and  the  address  of  Lord  Beaconsfield 
was  published  in  imdoubtedly  very  imposing  terms.  .  .  . 
I  frankly  admit  that  I  had  had  much  upon  my  hands  con- 
nected with  the  doings  of  that  Government  in  almost  every 
quarter  of  the  world,  and  I  did  not  know— no  one  knew— 
the  severity  of  the  crisis  that  was  already  swelling  upon  the 
horizon,  and  that  shortly  after  rushed  upon  us  like  a  flood." 

Such,  then,  was  the  condition  of  the  problem  presented 
to  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  followers.  In  their  own  country  thou- 
sands of  people  face  to  face  with  starvation ;  land  tenure  still 
in  such  a  position  that  the  tenant  had  no  protection  from 
rack-rent  and  from  eviction,  and  therefore  from  periodic 
famine ;  an  agitation  rising  daily  in  passion  and  in  strength ; 
the  hour  demanding  revolutionary  land  reform ;  and  the  mind 
of  even  an  honest  Ministry  either  blank  or  hostile. 

This  contradiction  between  the  demands  of  the  Irish  Ques- 
tion and  the  resolves  of  the  Government  is  a  central  fact  in  all 
that  follows.  It  will  justify  to  any  candid  man  measures 
which  at  the  time  appeared  uncalled  for  and  extreme;  and, 
above  all  things,  it  will  explain  how  it  was  that  the  Parnell- 
ites  were  driven  at  the  very  outset  of  the  Session  of  1880  into 
an  attitude  of  hostility  to  a  ministry  that  was  Liberal  and 
inclined  to  be  friendly. 

The  Queen's  speech  was  soon  to  give  evidence  of  the  un- 
mistakable ignorance  and  unreadiness  of  the  Government. 
It  was  of  considerable  length;  it  dealt  with  Turkey,  and 
Afghanistan,  and  India,  and  South  Africa;  but  it  contained 
not  one  word  about  the  Irish  land  question.  Immediately  af- 
ter the  reading  of  the  Royal  address  the  Irish  members  re- 
tired to  the  dingy  rooms  in  King  Street,  Westminster,  which 


680  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

were  then  their  offices.  The  omission  of  all  mention  of  the 
Irish  land  question  was  pointed  out  with  indignant  surprise, 
and  it  was  immediately  resolved  that  the  moment  the  House 
reassembled  the  Irish  members  should  take  action  by  at  once 
giving  notice  of  an  amendment  to  the  Queen's  speech.  The 
amendment  to  the  Queen's  speech  in  1880  was  the  germ  which 
afterwards  was  transformed  into  the  Land  Act  of  1881. 

The  section  led  by  Mr.  Shaw  had  much  to  say  in  favor 
of  the  difficulties  of  the  Government,  and  could  urge  with 
some  justice  that  it  was  unfair  to  demand  immediate  treat- 
ment from  the  Ministry  of  a  question  of  such  vast  importance 
and  such  extraordinary  complexity  as  the  Irish  land  ques- 
tion. The  section  led  by  Mr.  Parnell,  on  the  other  hand, 
pointed  out  that  the  Irish  land  question  had  already  reached 
a  stage  when  further  delay  meant  wholesale  destruction; 
showed  how  long  and  patient  had  already  been  the  endurance 
of  the  postponement  of  the  land  settlement  by  their  constitu- 
ents; and,  above  all,  urged  that  the  primary  consideration 
of  a  National  Party  was  the  need  of  the  Irish  people,  and 
not  the  fortunes  of  an  English  Ministry.  If  the  Irish  demand 
were  allowed  to  occupy  a  second  and  subsidiary  place ;  if  that 
demand  were  made  dependent  upon  the  convenience  of  the 
Ministry,  it  was  held  by  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  followers  that 
the  cause  would  be  lost. 

The  amendment  was  brought  forward  on  the  reassembling 
of  the  House  after  the  interval  which  follows  the  reading  of 
the  Queen's  speech.     It  was  in  these  words : 

**And  to  humbly  assure  her  Majesty  that  the  important 
and  pressing  question  of  the  occupiers  and  cultivators  of  the 
land  in  Ireland  deserves  the  most  serious  and  immediate  at- 
tention of  her  Majesty's  Government,  with  a  view  to  the  in- 
troduction of  such  legislation  as  will  secure  to  these  classes 
the  legitimate  fruits  of  their  industry." 

It  was  on  the  night  when  this  amendment  was  brought  for- 
ward that  Mr.  Parnell  spoke  for  the  first  time  in  Parliament 
since  he  had  reached  his  new  position.  He  rose  about  eleven 
o'clock;  the  House  was  crowded  and  eager,  and  when  the 
Speaker  called  out  the  name  of  the  member  for  Cork  there 
was  a  movement  of  keen  interest,  and  in  the  galleries  re- 
served for  strangers  almost  everybody  got  up  to  have  a  look 
at  the  new  Irish  leader.  Mr.  Parnell  spoke  briefly,  but  with 
vehemence  and  force.    He  drew  a  rapid  picture  of  the  state 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  681 

of  things  in  Ireland,  wliicli  was  listened  to  with  more  curiosity 
than  sympathy,  and  the  general  result  was  that  Mr.  Parnell 
was  estimated  as  a  very  violent  and  rather  irrational  man, 
who  represented  nothing  but  a  small  and  irresponsible  knot 
of  senseless  irreconcilables.  The  attitude  of  the  House  to 
Mr.  Shaw  was  very  different.  He  himself  seemed  to  chal- 
lenge comparison  with  his  successor,  for  the  moment  Mr. 
Parnell  sat  down  Mr.  Shaw  rose.  The  first  and  most  sig- 
nificant fact  was  that  the  two  men  spoke  from  different  parts 
of  the  House.  Mr.  Parnell  had  risen  from  a  seat  below  the 
gangway  on  the  Opposition  side.  Mr.  Shaw  spoke  from  the 
very  bosom  of  the  Radical  section,  and  when  he  rose  he  was 
rewarded  with  a  burst  of  hearty  cheers  from  all  the  Liberal 
benches.  He  spoke  in  the  style  that  is  now  so  well  known; 
his  speech  gave  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction  and  the  opinion 
was  freely  expressed  by  the  English  members  that  his  re- 
marks were  in  welcome  contrast  to  the  heat  and  exaggeration 
of  Mr.  Parnell.  The  contest  between  the  two  men  was  held 
to  be  undecided.  There  was  much  contempt  for  the  group 
of  young  men  who  formed  Mr.  Parnell 's  chief  support,  and 
the  expectation  was  universal  that  Mr.  Parnell 's  tenure  of 
office  would  be  brief  and  inglorious.  The  appearance  of  the 
two  men  in  the  debate  strengthened  this  conviction  in  the 
English  mind,  and  English  members  might  be  heard  to  com- 
ment with  cheerfulness  that  I\Ir.  Parnell  might  be  a  dashing 
guerillero,  but  Shaw  was  the  sagacious  statesman  and  the 
real  leader. 

But  the  Ministry  and  the  House  of  Commons  were  soon  to 
find  that,  however  much  Mr.  Shaw's  methods  might  be  more 
agreeable  than  those  of  Mr.  Parnell,  it  was  with  Mr.  Parnell 
and  his  colleagues  that  they  had  to  count.  The  new  Minis- 
ters, confident  in  the  magnificence  of  their  recent  victory,  in 
the  still  verdant  and  unbroken  strength  of  their  party,  and 
in  the  loftiness  of  their  hopes,  could  not  understand  their 
path  being  crossed  by  this  then  insignificant  section  of  the 
House.  Between  them  and  the  Irish  Party  open  warfare  had 
not  been  declared,  and  its  possibility  would  not  be  even  con- 
templated, especially  by  men  who  had  given  such  repeated 
assurances  of  their  sympathy  for  Ireland  as  Mr.  Gladstone 
and  Mr.  Bright.  The  Liberal  Ministers  and  the  followers  of 
Mr.  Parnell  were  at  that  stage  in  which  it  was  yet  undecided 
whether  doubting  affection  would  end  in  closer  bonds  or  in 


682  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

permanent  estrangement ;  but,  meantime,  Mr.  Parnell  and  his 
friends  contemplated  a  second  move.  The  great  object  at  that 
time  was  to  stay  the  hands  of  the  landlord,  made  omnipotent 
over  the  tenantry  by  the  failure  of  the  crops ;  and  to  meet  this 
emergency  the  Irish  Party  brought  in  the  Suspension  of  Evic- 
tions Bill.  The  second  reading  of  the  Suspension  of  Evictions 
Bill  came  on  at  two  o'clock  one  fine  morning,  to  the  horror 
and  surprise  of  the  Treasury  bench.  Mr.  Gladstone  looked 
up  from  the  paper  on  which  he  was  writing  his  nightly  report 
of  Parliamentary  proceedings  to  the  Queen,  with  a  gaze  first 
of  pained  amazement  and  then  of  pathetic  appeal  to  the  ser- 
ried and  resolute  ranks  opposite  him.  But  the  Irishmen,  who 
had  to  think  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  other  faces  that 
looked  to  their  inner  minds  with  hungry  hope  from  cabin  and 
field,  had  their  advantage,  were  determined  to  hold  fast,  and 
declared  that  the  discussion  of  the  Bill  must  go  on.  The 
Premier  yielded  to  the  inevitable,  made  the  important  an- 
nouncement that  the  Government  themselves  would  consider 
the  subject  raised  by  Mr.  Parnell's  measure,  and  so  the  Irish 
Land  Question,  which  but  a  few  days  before  had  been  scouted 
out  of  court,  which  had  never  been  mentioned  at  the  first 
Cabinet  Council,  of  whose  existence  the  Queen's  Speech  knew 
absolutely  nothing,  had  already  within  a  couple  of  weeks  after 
the  meeting  of  Parliament  been  taken  up  by  the  Government 
as  one  of  the  chief  and  primary  questions  of  the  Session ;  and 
the  starving  tenants,  just  emerging  from  famine,  might  hope 
that  the  landlords  would  not  be  allowed  to  work  unchecked 
their  wicked  will.  This,  in  fact,  was  the  first  Parliamentary 
victory  that  the  Land  League  gained. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS  STRUGGLING  WITH  THE  IRISH  QUESTION. 

The  Disturbance  Bill  of  Mr.  Forster  was  the  Suspension 
of  Evictions  Bill  of  Mr.  Parnell  under  another  name.  The 
Parnellites,  so  far,  had  gained  their  point,  but  they  were  to 
reap  still  further  advantage.  The  speakers  for  the  Govern- 
ment had,  of  course,  to  array  the  terrible  figures  of  eviction 
increasing  with  distress,  to  make  strong  sj^eeches  and  urge 
powerful  reasons  in  favor  of  a  measure  which  went  counter 
to  so  many  of  the  prejudices  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Irish 
distress  thus  became  the  cry  of  an  English  as  well  as  an  Irish 
party,  and  striking  statements  and  valuable  admissions  were 
made  which  justified  the  whole  position  of  the  Land  League. 
For  instance,  it  was  during  a  debate  on  the  Disturbance  Bill 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  committed  himself  to  the  famous  doctrine 
that,  in  the  circumstances  of  distress  in  which  Ireland  then 
was,  a  sentence  of  eviction  might  be  regarded  as  equivalent 
to  a  sentence  of  death ;  and  it  was  this  and  such  like  expres- 
sions of  opinion  that  long  paralyzed  the  hand  of  the  Govern- 
ment against  the  Land  League  agitation.  Everybody  knows 
that  the  Disturbance  Bill  was  fiercely  opposed  stage  after 
stage  by  the  Tories  in  the  House  of  Commons,  that  it  was 
finally  carried  by  overwhelming  majorities,  and  that,  when  it 
went  to  the  House  of  Lords,  it  was  thrown  out  with  every  cir- 
cumstance of  ignominy  and  contempt. 

This  ending  to  the  business  placed  both  the  Government 
and  the  Irish  Party  in  a  strange  and  difficult  position.  It  had 
been  stated  by  Mr.  Gladstone  that  a  sentence  of  eviction  was 
equivalent  to  a  sentence  of  death,  and  the  equally  significant 
and  appalling  statement  had  been  added  by  him  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  statistics  supplied  by  the  Irish  authorities,  15,000 
persons  were  to  receive  the  sentence  of  eviction  within  that 
single  year.  The  reality  of  the  dangers  of  the  peace  of  Ire- 
land Mr.  Forster  was  himself  foremost  in  acknowledging? 
and  were  they  then  to  allow  Ireland  to  drift  unhelmed— or,  to 
use  Mr.  Gladstone's  own  words,  ''without  hoi3e  and  without 
remedy"— to  the  abyss  of  wholesale  eviction,  tempered  by 
wholesale   assassination,   towards   which   the   action   of   the 

6S3 


684  Irel.\nd's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

House  of  Lords  had  pushed  it  ?  It  is  hard  at  this  moment  to 
say  what  the  Govermnent  could  have  done.  They  had  just 
come  from  the  countr}^  with  a  triumphant  majority.  Was  it 
in  political  human  nature  that  they  should  risk  this  majority 
by  another  appeal  to  the  country  within  a  few  months,  and 
before  they  had  fulfilled  a  single  item  in  the  vast  programme 
which  they  had  set  before  them?  The  Ministry  might  have 
been  greatly  weakened,  and  the  mighty  weapon  for  the 
repair  of  past  Conservative  errors  and  for  future  Liberal 
conquest  might  have  been  returned  to  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Gladstone,  pointless  and  broken.  The  truth  is,  the  dif- 
ficulty of  the  situation  was  the  permanent  and  incurable 
difficulty  of  the  present  Parliamentary  relations  of  England 
and  Ireland;  it  was  the  difficulty  of  having  to  govern  one  coun- 
try through  the  public  opinion  of  another.  An  Irish  Minister 
face  to  face  with  such  a  crisis  could  with  confidence  have  ap- 
pealed against  a  verdict  so  plainly  hostile  to  the  interests  of 
Ireland  as  the  rejection  of  the  Suspension  of  Evictions  Bill, 
with  the  full  knowledge  that  the  public  opinion  of  his  own 
people,  at  once  sympathetic  and  informed,  would  have  re- 
doubled his  power  of  meeting  so  protentous  an  emergency. 
But  the  English  Minister  had  to  appeal  to  a  public  almost 
entirely  ignorant  of  the  merits  of  the  controversy,  and  fickle 
in  its  sjTupathies  because  of  ignorance. 

But  there  was  one  step  which  might  have  been  taken,  and 
which  might  have  resulted  in  some  good.  On  August  24th, 
Mr.  Forster  made  an  important  statement : 

"He  had  always  said  they  must  carry  out  the  law;  but 
he  must  also  repeat  that,  if  they  found,  as  they  had  not  within 
the  past  two  or  three  weeks  found,  and  as  they  hoped  they 
would  not  find,  that  the  landlords  of  Ireland  were  to  any  great 
extent  making  use  of  their  powers  so  as  to  force  the  Govern- 
ment to  support  them  in  the  exercise  of  justice,  the  Govern- 
ment should  accompany  any  request  for  special  powers  with 
a  Bill  which  would  prevent  the  Government  from  being 
obliged  to  support  injustice.  He  would  go  further  and  say. 
under  any  circumstances  if  it  was  found  that  injustice  and 
tyranny  were  largely  committed— although  he  did  not  believe 
that  such  would  be  the  case— it  would  then  be  their  serious 
duty  to  consider  what  their  action  should  be,  and  he  did  not 
think  that  any  man  in  the  House  would  expect  him  to  remain 
any  longer  the  instrument  of  that  injustice." 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  685 

Here  was  some  promise  of  a  break  in  the  run  of  disaster 
which  now  menaced  Ireland.  The  landlords  might  evict  on  a 
wholesale  scale,  and  all  their  history  down  to  that  very  year 
pointed  to  their  making  full  and  savage  use  of  every  power 
which  the  law  and  the  seasons  had  placed  in  their  hands ;  but 
if  a  Minister  of  the  Crown,  rather  than  carry  on  this  law, 
were  to  resign  his  office,  tlie  public  opinion  of  the  country 
would  necessarily  be  fixed  upon  the  difficulties  and  the  horrors 
of  the  problem ;  and  the  Ministry,  with  such  a  force,  behind 
them,  would  have  been  able  to  dictate  to  the  House  of  Lords 
a  prompt  and  complete  remedy.  But  many  days  had  not 
elapsed  when  this  hope  disappeared.  A  cold  fit  had  super- 
vened with  extraordinary  rapidity  upon  the  outburst  of  angry 
and  worthy  resolve,  and  Mr.  Forster,  catechised  by  the  Oppo- 
sition, explained  his  words  until  his  great  purpose  vanished 
into  thin  air  and  meaningless  talk.  The  final  result  of  the 
Session  then  was  this:  A  Eelief  of  Distress  Bill  had  been 
passed,  through  which  money  was  to  reach  distressed  tenants, 
having  first  passed  through  the  hands  of  the  landlords,  and  a 
Commission  of  Inquiry  had  been  added  to  the  long  and  dreary 
inquisitions  that  had  investigated  the  Land  Question. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

PARNELL   URGES   THE   BOYCOTT— IMPORTANT   UTTERANCES   OF    THE 

IRISH   LEADER. 

The  situation  which  Mr.  Parnell  had  now  to  consider  was 
one  of  extreme  difficulty.  The  composition  of  the  Land  Com- 
mission, the  words  of  Lord  Hartington,  and  the  silence  of  the 
other  Ministers,  gave  but  too  much  reason  to  believe  that  the 
mind  of  the  Government  was  not  even  yet  made  up  for  any- 
thing like  a  large  measure  of  land  reform.  The  refusal  for 
so  many  years  of  any  measure  of  relief,  followed  by  the  miser- 
able insufficiency  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870,  were  too  much  cal- 
culated to  make  Mr.  Parnell  draw  pessimist  conclusions  from 
such  facts.  The  great  evil  he  had  to  avoid  was  that  the 
mighty  agitation  of  1880  should  not  end,  as  did  that  of  1869-70, 
in  an  abortive  and  halting  measure.  Meantime  there  was  the 
country  before  him,  organizing  itself,  as  it  had  rarely  ever 
been  organized  before,  with  mightier  forces  making  in  the 
direction  of  complete  reform  than  had  ever,  perhaps,  stood 
behind  any  movement.  The  nature  of  Mr.  Parnell  impelled 
him  to  drive  in  political  matters  the  hardest  of  hard  bargains 
within  his  power;  his  grip  of  a  political  advantage  for  his 
countrymen  was  as  relentless  as  the  grip  of  death.  His  course 
in  the  months  that  followed  was  dictated  mainly  by  the  sense 
that  through  no  word  or  act  of  his  should  the  chance  of  the 
people  for  a  full  and  final  settlement  of  all  their  claims  be 
jeopardized  or  diminished. 

It  is  another  essential  evil  of  the  present  relations  between 
England  and  Ireland  that  no  great  reform  can  be  carried  out 
—especially  on  the  Land  Question— without  bringing  the  peo- 
ple of  Ireland,  as  Mr.  Chamberlain  said,  to  a  state  bordering 
on  revolution;  and  to  a  state  bordering  upon  revolution  the 
Irish  people  were  now  fast  approaching.  Mr.  Parnell  natur- 
ally gave  no  encouragement  to  the  idea  that  the  position  of 
the  Irish  Land  Question  had  not  yet  passed  beyond  the  stage 
of  inquiry.  The  movement  in  its  new  phase  received  its  first 
word  of  real  guidance  from  Mr.  Parnell  at  a  meeting  held  in 
Ennis  on  September  19th,  1880,  and  the  speech  be  then  deliv- 
ered gave  the  keynote  of  the  situation.     First,  he  told  the 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  687 

people  to  place  no  confidence  in  the  Government  Commission ; 
and,  while  he  did  not  positively  advise  farmers  against  giving 
evidence,  he  warned  them  against  the  danger  of  the  accept- 
ance of  any  responsibility  for  the  proceedinigs  of  that  body. 
Then  he  passed  on  to  the  declaration  which  after  events  did 
so  much  to  prove  correct— that  it  was  to  themselves  and  their 
own  organization  the  farmers  were  mainly  to  look  for  redress. 

'4)epend  upon  it  (he  said)  that  the  measure  of  the  Land 
Bill  of  next  session  will  be  the  measure  of  your  activity  and 
energy  this  winter;  it  will  be  the  measure  not  to  pay  unjust 
rents;  it  will  be  the  measure  of  your  determination  to  keep 
a  firm  grip  of  your  homesteads ;  it  will  be  the  measure  of  your 
determination  not  to  bid  for  farms  from  which  others  have 
been  evicted,  and  to  use  strong  force  of  public  opinion  to 
deter  any  unjust  men  amongst  yourselves— and  there  are 
many  such— from  bidding  for  such  farms.  If  you  refuse  to 
pay  any  unjust  rents,  if  you  refuse  to  take  farms  from  which 
others  have  been  evicted,  the  Land  Question  must  be  settled, 
and  settled  in  a  way  that  will  be  satisfactory  to  you.  It  de- 
pends, therefore,  upon  yourselves,  and  not  upon  any  Com- 
mission or  any  Government.  When  you  have  made  this  ques- 
tion ripe  for  settlement,  then,  and  not  till  then,  will  it  be 
settled.'* 

And,  finally,  he  gave  the  advice  with  regard  to  '^boycot- 
ting" which  was  afterwards  quoted  hundreds  of  times  against 
him. 

**Now  what  are  you  to  do  (he  said)  to  a  tenant  who  bids 
for  a  farm  from  which  another  tenant  has  been  evicted  ? 

** Several  voices:    Shoot  him! 

*  *  Mr.  Parnell :  I  think  I  heard  somebody  say  '  Shoot  hun ! ' 
I  wish  to  point  out  to  you  a  very  much  better  way— a  more 
christian  and  charitable  way,  which  will  give  the  lost  man  an 
opportunity  of  repenting.  When  a  man  takes  a  farm  from 
which  another  has  been  unjustly  evicted,  you  must  show  him 
on  the  roadside  when  you  meet  him;  you  must  show  him  in 
the  streets  of  the  town ;  you  must  show  him  in  the  shop ;  you 
must  show  him  in  the  fair-green  and  in  the  market  place,  and 
even  in  the  place  of  worship,  by  leaving  him  alone ;  by  putting 
him  into  a  moral  Coventry;  by  isolating  him  from  the  rest 
of  his  country  as  if  he  were  the  leper  of  old— you  must  show 
him  your  detestation  of  the  crime  he  has  committed." 

There  have  been  few  things  that  Mr.  Parnell  has  said 


688  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

througliout  liis  career  wliieli  have  been  more  bitterly  criticised 
than  the  counsel  given  in  these  words.  Barristers  have  as- 
sailed him  in  the  House  of  Commons  who  would  have  merci- 
lessly boycotted  the  counsel  that  held  direct  intercourse  with 
a  client  without  the  mediation  of  a  solicitor;  doctors  who 
would  mercilessly  boycott  a  professional  brother  who  adver- 
tised or  comj^ounded  medicines,  or  violated  any  other  article 
of  a  complex  professional  code;  politicians  who  had  merci- 
lessly driven  out  of  their  organizations  the  backsliders  from 
political  principles;  members  of  clubs  who  had  ostracized 
offenders  against  the  laws  of  honor  or  of  conventionality; 
representatives  of  working  classes  who  had  wrung  from  a 
Conservative  Ministry  the  right  of  workmen  to  boycott  avari- 
cious employers.  The  principles  of  boycotting  have  thus  been 
applied  in  ordinary  times,  and  in  ordinary  occupations,  by 
some  of  those  who  most  loudly  denounced  it.  One  of  the  most 
fertile  sources  of  landlord  wrong  and  tenant  suffering  was 
the  fierce  competition  for  the  possession  of  land.  It  had  in- 
duced tenants  to  offer  a  rent  measured  not  by  the  capacities 
of  the  land,  but  by  their  own  despair ;  and  it  is  perfectly  clear 
that  as  long  as  eviction  produced,  through  this  unchecked 
competition,  an  increase  of  rent,  eviction  was  a  temptation 
and  not  a  horror  to  the  landlord.  At  this  moment  the  Irish 
tenants  were  engaged  in  a  great  effort  to  break,  once  and 
forever,  the  thraldom  of  centuries.  Against  this  effort  were 
arrayed  the  mighty  forces  of  the  Empire.  By  a  strict  com- 
bination alone  among  themselves  could  the  Irish  tenantry 
hope  for  success;  and  the  boycotting  of  any  man  who  lent, 
by  land-grabbing,  assistance  to  the  landlord  was  essential 
to  success.  Boycotting  was  abused ;  it  was  occasionally  used 
for  private  purposes;  it  sometimes  led  to  crime;  but  it  was 
at  least  a  far  less  savage  mode  of  warfare  than  assassination, 
which  it  largely  replaced.  Until  coercion  brought  homicidal 
frenzy,  it  did  much  to  keep  down  the  number  of  outrages; 
and,  as  Mr.  John  Dillon  said  in  reply  to  an  attack,  it  kept  the 
roofs  over  the  heads  of  many  a  thousand  men  and  women 
who,  without  it,  would  have  been  thrown  on  the  roadside  to 
perish. 

The  meeting  at  Ennis  was  followed  by  several  other 
demonstrations,  at  most  of  which  were  the  same  array  of 
numbers,  which  had  been  unparalleled  since  the  days  of  the 
Liberator.    At  all  of  these  meetings  Mr.  Parnell  practically 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  689 

preaelied  the  same  principles.  It  would  be  well  worth  while 
for  anybody  who  wishes  to  study  the  strange  career  of  this 
Irish  Leader  to  read  over  again  those  speeches;  for  he  will 
find  in  them  that  foresight,  and  that  grasp  of  the  central  and 
essential  facts  of  the  situation  and  the  real  necessities  of  the 
time,  which  justify  Mr.  Parnell's  extraordinary  reputation. 
He  had  to  fight  at  this  period  not  merely  the  halting  purpose 
of  the  Ministry,  but  also  the  feeble  resolves  of  some  men 
within  the  National  ranks.  They  solemnly  recommended 
moderation  to  the  farmers,  when  the  real  danger  was  not  in 
the  extravagance  of  the  demands  made  by  the  Irish  people, 
but  in  the  grudging  bestowal  of  minimized  concession  by  the 
House  of  Commons  and  the  House  of  Lords.  They  amused 
themselves  with  elaborate  schemes,  instead  of  leaving  the 
responsibility  to  the  Ministers.  They  had  much  to  say  of  the 
difficulties  of  Mr,  Forster,  and  little  of  the  difficulties  of  the 
peasants  who,  with  their  backs  to  the  walls,  fought  a  life-and- 
death  struggle  with  hunger  and  eviction.  Mr.  Parnell,  while 
personally  courteous  and  tolerant  to  a  degree  that  looked 
almost  weakness,  at  this  time,  to  these  gentlemen  and  their 
proposals,  steadily  pursued  his  own  path.  He  used  to  point 
out  the  objection  to  the  "three  F's"  as  either  a  practical  or 
a  final  solution  to  the  question.  The  settlement  which  he  pro- 
posed was  peasant  Proprietary. 

*'We  seek  as  Irish  Nationalists  (he  said  at  New  Ross  on 
September  25,  1880)  for  a  settlement  of  the  Land  Question 
which  shall  be  permanent— which  shall  for  ever  put  an  end  to 
the  war  of  classes  which  unhappily  has  existed  in  this  country 
.  .  .  a  war  which  supplies,  in  the  words  of  the  resolu- 
tion, the  strongest  inducement  to  the  Irish  Landlords  to  up- 
hold the  system  of  English  misrule  which  has  placed  these 
landlords  in  Ireland.  And  looking  forward  to  the  future  of 
our  country,  we  wish  to  avoid  all  elements  of  antagonism  be- 
tween classes.  I  am  willing  to  have  a  struggle  between  classes 
in  Ireland— a  struggle  that  should  be  short,  sharp,  and  de- 
cisive—once for  all ;  but  I  am  not  willing  that  this  struggle 
should  be  perpetuated  at  intervals,  when  these  periodic  reval- 
uations of  the  holdings  of  the  tenants  would  come  under  the 
system  of  what  is  called  fixity  of  tenure  at  valued  rents." 

It  is  well  to  add  that,  in  every  one  of  the  speeches  in  which 
he  spoke  of  peasant  proprietary,  he  definitely  laid  down  the 
doctrine  that  peasant  proprietary  was  to  be  obtained  not  by 


690  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

violence,  but  by  the  payment  of  reasonable  compensation  to 
the  landlords. 

''Now,  then,  is  the  time  for  the  Irish  tenantry  to  show 
their  determination— to  show  the  Government  of  England 
that  they  will  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  the  owner- 
ship of  the  land  of  Ireland.  .  .  .  And  I  see  no  difficulty 
in  arriving  at  such  a  solution,  and  in  arriving  at  it  in  this 
way:  by  the  payment  of  a  fair  rent,  and  a  fair  and  fixed  rent 
not  liable  to  recurrent  and  perhaps  near  periods  of  revision, 
but  by  the  payment  of  a  fair  rent  for  the  space  of,  say,  thirty- 
five  years,  after  which  time  there  would  be  nothing  further  to 
pay,  and  in  the  meantime  the  tenant  would  have  fixity  of 
tenure. '  * 

One  sentence,  finally,  from  his  speeches  of  this  period.  Mr. 
ParnelPs  mode,  means,  and  end  were  impulsively  described 
once  by  Mr.  Gladstone  as  passing  through  rapine  to  dismem- 
berment, rhave  already  quoted  the  sentence  which  will  effec- 
tually dispose  of  the  charge  of  rapine,  and  How  for  one  on 
which  the  seeking  of  dismemberment  was  mainly  founded. 
Speaking  at  Galway  on  October  24, 1880,  Mr.  Parnell  said : 

*'I  expressed  my  belief  at  the  beginning  of  last  session 
that  the  present  Chief  Secretary,  who  was  then  all  smiles  and 
promises,  should  not  have  proceeded  very  far  in  the  duties 
of  his  office  before  he  would  have  found  that  he  had  under- 
taken an  impossible  task  to  govern  Ireland,  and  that  the  only 
way  to  govern  Ireland  is  to  allow  her  to  govern  herself.  .  .  . 
And  if  they  prosecute  the  leaders  of  this  movement  .  .  . 
it  is  not  because  they  wish  to  preserve  the  lives  of  one  or  two 
Landlords  .  .  .  but  it  will  be  because  they  see  that  be- 
hind this  movement  lies  a  more  dangerous  movement  to  their 
hold  over  Ireland;  because  they  know  that  if  they  fail  in 
upholding  landlordism  here— and  they  will  fail— they  have 
no  chance  of  maintaining  it  over  Ireland;  it  will  be  because 
they  know  that  if  they  fail  in  upholding  landlordism  in  Ire- 
land, their  power  to  misrule  Ireland  will  go  too.  I  wish  to 
see  the  tenant  farmers  prosperous;  but  large  and  important 
as  is  the  class  of  tenant  farmers,  constituting  as  they  do,  with 
their  wives  and  families,  the  majority  of  the  people  of  this 
country,  I  would  not  have  taken  off  my  coat  and  gone  to  this 
work  if  I  had  not  known  that  we  were  lajang  the  foundation 
in  this  movement  for  the  regeneration  of  our  legislative  in- 
dependence. '  ^ 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle 


691 


This  sentence,  wliicli  was  often  quoted,  as  it  will  be  seen, 
siinply  demands  the  restoration  of  the  Irish  Parliament ;  and 
that  is  not  dismemberment.  It  was  almost  enough  to  make 
an  Irishman  frenzied  to  hear  this  sentence  of  Mr.  Parnell 
quoted  over  and  over  again  as  the  sudden  revelation  of  some 
new,  diabolical,  unheard  of  policy.  Mr.  Parnell  announced 
himself  a  Home  Ruler.  Was  there  anything  new,  or  diabol- 
ical, or  unheard  of  in  that?  Mr.  Butt  was  a  Home  Ruler,  so 
were  all  his  followers;  Mr.  Parnell  himself  had  been  elected 
as  a  Home  Ruler  five  years  before  the  Galway  speech.  To 
say  that  he  could  not  have  entered  into  the  Land  agitation  if 
he  did  not  believe  that  it  would  help  towards  Home  Rule,  was 
to  make  the  not  very  unnatural  declaration  that  the  reform 
of  the  Land  system  would  tend  towards  the  restoration  of  an 
Irish  Parliament. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

BUCKSHOT  FORSTEE  WANTS   COERCION— IRISH   LEADERS   PLACED  ON 

TRIAL. 

In  the  meantime,  while  thus  the  movement  in  Ireland  was 
reaching  its  springtide,  how  was  it  with  the  Chief  Secretary? 
From  this  period  forward  Mr.  Forster  disappears  from 
history  as  an  advocate  of  reform  and  becomes  the  chief,  the 
fiercest,  and  the  main  champion  of  coercion.  As  the  days 
went  on,  instead  of  resignation,  came  symptoms  of  the  most 
stringent  resolution  to  carry  out  the  unjust  law  to  its  bit- 
terest end.  Extra  police  were  drafted  into  the  counties  of 
Mayo  and  Galway,  thus  raising  the  burden  of  taxation  upon 
the  two  counties  that  had  suffered  the  most  bitterly  and  es- 
caped the  most  narrowly  from  the  bitterest  horrors  of  famine. 
The  Orange  writers  in  the  North  of  Ireland  adopted  their 
usual  policy  of  representing  as  a  vast  conspiracy  against 
Protestantism  a  movement  the  unsectarian  character  of  which 
was  universally  acknowledged,  and  sought  to  prevent  an  alli- 
ance of  Protestant  and  Catholic  farmers  against  their  common 
enemy  by  the  characteristic  effort  to  rouse  the  dying  embers 
of  religious  hate.  The  landlord  organs  began  to  cry  out  for 
repression,  and  the  London  papers  played  their  characteristic 
part  of  blackening  events  in  Ireland  and  of  exasperating  the 
growing  resentment  between  the  two  countries. 

Towards  the  beginning  of  October  the  cry  for  coercion 
had  swollen  to  a  tempest,  but  for  a  moment  it  was  laid  by 
two  remarkable  speeches  from  Mr.  Bright  and  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain. 

*'I  saw,"  said  Mr.  Bright,  *'the  statement  the  other  day 
that  about  100  of  them  (the  Irish  landlords),  equal  nearly 
to  the  number  of  the  Irish  members,  had  assembled  in  Dub- 
lin and  discussed  the  state  of  things,  and  they  had  nothing  but 
their  old  remedy— force,  the  English  Government  armed  po- 
lice, increased  military  assistance  and  protection,  and  it  might 
be  measures  of  restriction  and  coercion  which  they  were  anx- 
ious to  urge  upon  the  Government.  The  question  for  us  to 
ask  ourselves  is.  Is  there  any  remedy  for  this  state  of  things  ? 
Force  is  no  remedy.    There  are  times  when  it  may  be  neces- 

692 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  G93 

sary,  and  when  its  employment  may  be  absolutely  unavoid- 
able, but  for  my  part  I  should  rather  regard,  and  rather  dis- 
cuss, measures  of  relief  as  measures  of  remedy,  than  meas- 
ures of  force,  whose  influence  is  only  temporary,  and  in  the 
long  run,  I  believe,  is  disastrous.'* 

A  conflict  then  arose  within  the  Cabinet  itself.  I  cannot 
pretend  to  tell  the  story  of  this  internal  struggle,  and  I  can 
only  repeat  what  was  the  gossip  of  the  period.  It  was  said 
that  Mr.  Chamberlain,  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  and  Mr.  Bright 
held  out  steadily  and  for  a  considerable  time  against  the  de- 
mand for  coercion  made  by  Mr.  Forster.  But  Mr.  Forster 
put  forward  this  demand  with  daily  increasing  vehemence. 
For  some  days,  according  to  the  remark  of  the  time,  the  Cab- 
inet was  within  short  distance  of  being  broken  up.  The  main 
argument  before  which  the  hesitations  of  the  Ministry  broke 
down  was  the  enormous  increase  which  Mr.  Forster  was  able 
to  show  in  the  outrages  in  October  and  November.  And  the 
increase  which  appeared  in  the  figures  he  laid  before  his  col- 
leagiies  was  enormous  indeed.  By-and-by  these  figures  will 
be  examined  and  it  will  be  seen  what  the  merits  of  the  case 
were  upon  which  Mr.  Forster  based  his  demands.  For  the 
present,  suffice  it  to  say  that  Mr.  Forster  carried  his  point; 
the  opponents  of  coercion  resolved  to  remain  in  the  Cabinet, 
and  it  was  announced  that  the  next  session  of  Parliament 
would  open  with  a  proposal  for  the  enactment  of  coercive  leg- 
islation. Meantime  a  blow  was  made  at  the  leaders  of  the 
movement.  On  November  2nd,  1880,  an  information  was 
filed  at  the  suit  of  the  Eight  Hon.  Hugh  Law,  then  the  Attor- 
ney-General, against  Mr.  Parnell  and  four  of  his  Parlia- 
mentary colleagues,  Mr.  T.  D.  Sullivan,  Mr.  Sexton,  Mr.  John 
Dillon,  and  Mr.  Biggar;  and  also  against  Mr.  Patrick  Egan, 
treasurer,  and  Mr.  Brennan,  secretary  of  the  organization. 
In  the  indictment  were  also  bundled  several  persons  who  held 
subordinate  places  in  the  organization,  or  were  entirely  un- 
connected with  it. 

There  were  nineteen  counts  in  the  indictment  against  the 
traversers.  The  main  charges  were:  Conspiring  to  incite 
the  tenants  not  to  pay  their  rents;  deterring  tenants  from 
buying  land  from  which  other  tenants  had  been  evicted ;  con- 
spiring for  the  purpose  of  injuring  the  landlords;  and  form- 
ing combinations  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  these  unlaw- 
ful ends.    This,  then,  was  the  proceeding  of  the  Government ! 


694  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

There  is  scarcely  one  of  these  charges  which  was  not  the 
glory  instead  of  the  shame  of  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  fellow- 
traversers.  Mr.  Parnell  had  found  the  people  face  to  face 
with  famine  and  groaning  under  the  oppression  of  centuries. 
He  had  brought  them  to  such  assertion  of  their  rights,  to 
such  potent  combination,  that,  instead  of  being  swept  away, 
as  in  ail  previous  crises,  by  wholesale  hunger  and  plague  and 
eviction,  and  thereafter  reduced  to  deeper  wretchedness  and 
more  hopeless  slavery,  not  one  man  among  them  died  from 
hunger  or  from  disaster,  and  that,  rising  up  from  their  mis- 
ery and  impotence,  they  gradually  reached  the  position  of 
practical  omnipotence  over  their  oppressors.  The  events 
and  calamities  which  seemed  to  drive  the  tenantry  back  into 
the  doom  of  hunger  and  of  servitude  had  brought  to  them 
a  new  birth  of  political  hope  and  power ;  and  an  hour  of  ap- 
parently darkest  misery  had  been  changed  into  the  dawn  of  a 
new  and  better  day.  A  man  of  any  other  nationality  who 
had  accomplished  such  things— if  he  had  been  an  Italian  or 
a  Pole ;  still  more,  at  this  epoch,  if  he  had  been  a  Bulgarian 
or  a  Montenegrin— would  have  taken  an  imperishable  place 
in  the  adoration  of  Englishmen;  and  his  reward,  being  an 
Irishman,  was  that  a  Liberal  Administration  dragged  him 
through  the  mire  of  a  criminal  court.  The  trial  was  opened 
by  a  startling  episode.  With  their  usual  mistake  in  regard- 
ing things  in  Ireland  as  necessarily  the  same  as  in  England, 
because  called  by  the  same  names,  the  English  public  were 
and  are  accustomed  to  look  upon  an  Irish  judge  as  raised 
above  the  passions  of  political  partisanship.  They  were 
strangely  shocked  in  the  course  of  the  preliminary  proceed- 
ings of  the  trial  to  read  a  judgment  of  the  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Queen's  Bench,  in  which  the  trial  was  to  take  place— a 
judgment  in  which  the  traversers  were  denounced  with  ve- 
hement passion.  The  times  had  been  so  changed  since  the 
elevation  of  a  man  like  Judge  Keogh  to  the  Bench  that  the 
Lord  Chief  Justice  found  that  even  the  English  people  could 
not  stomach  such  conduct,  and  he  retired  at  the  opening  of  the 
trial. 

The  trial  was  one  of  the  solemn  mockeries  of  the  time. 
It  was  known  by  the  Crown  that  no  impartial  jury  would 
convict  the  saviour  of  the  action  of  treason  to  the  nation; 
and  after  a  trial  extending  over  twenty  days,  the  jury  were 
discharged  without  agreeing  to  a  verdict,  ten,  according  to 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  695 

universal  rumor,  being  in  favor  of  acquittal  and  two  for  con- 
viction. Another  event  of  importance  occurred  during  this 
recess.  Shortly  after  his  arrival  in  America  on  his  memor- 
able mission,  Mr.  Parnell  found  the  services  of  a  secretary 
absolutely  necessary.  He  had  previously  made  the  acquain- 
tance of  a  young  Irishman  who  at  that  period  was  secretary 
in  a  London  house  of  business  and  the  London  correspondent 
of  the  Nation  newspajDcr.  The  young  man  had  made  a  strong 
impression  upon  the  Irish  leader,  had  gained  his  confidence, 
and  had  taken  part  with  some  others  in  many  of  the  impor- 
tant consultations  at  critical  moments.  This  was  Mr.  T.  M. 
Healy.  To  Mr.  Healy  Mr.  Parnell 's  thoughts  turned  when 
he  found  himself  immersed  in  a  hopeless  sea  of  correspon- 
dence. He  requested  Mr.  Healy 's  presence  in  America  by 
telegraph.  On  the  day  he  received  this  telegram  Mr.  Healy 
threw  up  his  situation,  and  on  that  same  evening  he  was  on 
his  way  to  the  vessel  which  took  him  to  America. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE   IRREPRESSIBLE   ^^TIM*'   HEALY  — HIS   EARLY   STRUGGLES. 

Timothy  Michael  Healy  was  born  in  Bantry,  County  Cork, 
in  the  year  1855.  Bantry,  as  has  been  seen,  is  also  the  birth- 
place of  the  Sullivans,  and  here  Healy  had  beheld  all  the 
scenes  of  quick  decay  which  have  been  already  described. 
He  had  peculiar  opportunities,  indeed,  for  becoming  familiar 
with  the  awful  horrors  of  the  famine,  for  his  father,  at  sev- 
enteen years  of  age,  had  been  appointed  clerk  of  the  Union 
at  Bantry,  and  his  occupation  brought  him  into  contact  with 
all  the  dread  calamities  of  that  terrible  time.  He  has  told 
his  son  that  for  the  three  famine  years  he  never  once  saw 
a  single  smile.  Outside  the  abbey  in  which  the  forefathers 
of  Healy  and  the  other  men  of  Bantry  are  buried,  are  pits 
in  which  many  hundreds  of  the  victims  of  the  famine  found 
la  coffinless  grave ;  and  Mr.  Healy  will  tell  jou,  with  a  strange 
blaze  in  his  eyes,  that  even  to-day  the  Earl  of  Bantry,  the 
lord  of  the  soil,  will  not  allow  these  few  yards  of  land  to  be 
taken  into  the  graveyard,  preferring  that  they  should  be 
trodden  by  his  cattle.  Reared  in  scenes  like  these,  it  is  no 
M^onder  that  Healy,  whose  nature  is  vehement  and  excitable, 
should  have  grown  up  with  a  burning  hatred  of  English  rule 
in  Ireland. 

He  went  to  school  to  the  Christian  Brothers  at  Permoy, 
but  fortune  did  not  permit  him  to  waste  any  unnecessary  time 
in  what  are  called  the  seats  of  learning;  and  at  thirteen  he 
had  to  set  out  on  the  difficult  business  of  making  a  livelihood. 
It  is  characteristic  of  his  nature  that,  though  he  has  thus 
fewer  opportunities  than  almost  any  other  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons  of  obtaining  education— except  such  as 
his  father,  an  educated  man,  may  have  imparted  to  him  as  a 
child— he  is  really  one  of  the  best  informed  men  in  the  place. 
He  is  intimately  acquainted  with  not  only  English,  but  also 
with  French  and  with  German  literature,  and  the  ''rude  bar- 
barism" of  imagination  of  English  journalists  is  keenly  alive 
to  the  most  delicate  beauties  of  Alfred  de  Musset  or  Hein- 
rich  Heine,  and  could  give  his  critics  lessons  in  what  con- 
stitutes literary  merit  and  literary  grace.    Another  of  the 

696 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  697 

accomplishments  wliicli  Mr.  Healy  taught  himself  was  Pit- 
man's shorthand;  and  shorthand  in  his  case— as  in  that  of 
Justin  McCarthy  and  several  other  of  his  colleagues— was 
the  sword  with  which  he  had  in  life's  beginning  to  open  the 
oyster  of  the  world.  At  sixteen  years  of  age  he  went  to  Eng- 
land and  obtained  a  situation  as  a  shorthand  clerk  in  the  of- 
fice of  the  superintendent  of  the  Nortli-Eastern  Railway  at 
Newcastle.  Newcastle-on-Tyne  has  a  very  large  and  a  very 
sturdy  Irish  population,  who  take  an  active  part  in  all  po- 
litical movements  that  are  going  on,  and  when  Healy  went 
there  he  found  himself  at  once  surrounded  by  count rjanen 
who,  if  anything,  held  to  the  National  faith  more  sturdily 
than  their  brethren  at  home.  Probably  he  himself,  if  he  were 
to  trace  the  mental  history  of  his  political  progress,  would 
declare  that  in  his  case,  as  in  that  of  so  many  other  Irishmen, 
it  was  an  English  atmosphere  that  first  gave  form  and  in- 
tensity to  his  political  convictions.  At  all  events,  the  new- 
comer was  not  long  at  Newcastle  when  he  was  a  persistent 
and  an  active  participator  in  all  the  political  strivings  of  his 
fellow-countrymen,  and  it  speaks  strongly  of  his  force  of 
character  and  their  discrimination  that,  though  yet  but  a  strip- 
ling, he  was  chosen  for  several  positions  of  authority.  New- 
castle is  one  of  the  few  towns  in  England  that  can  boast  of 
having  a  society  exclusively  devoted  to  Irish  purposes,  and 
of  the  Irish  Literary  Institute  Mr.  Healy  was  for  a  considera- 
ble time  the  secretary.  He  was  also,  as  far  back  as  1873, 
secretary  to  the  local  Home  Rule  Association.  Of  Mr. 
Healy 's  habits  in  Newcastle  a  characteristic  account  is  given 
by  one  of  his  friends.  He  lodged  in  the  house  of  an  excel- 
lent Irish  family— known  to  every  Irish  visitor  in  Newcastle 
—and  in  the  family  there  was  a  Celtic  abundance  of  children. 
It  will  relieve  many  friends  of  Mr.  Healy  to  be  informed  that 
this  man,  before  whom  Ministers  tremble,  and  even  potent 
officials  grow  pale,  is  the  delight  and  the  darling  of  children, 
whose  foibles,  tastes,  and  pleasures  he  can  minister  to  with 
the  unteachable  instinct  of  genius.  The  moment  the  young 
clerk  put  his  foot  inside  his  lodgings  there  came  a  shout  of 
welcome  from  the  young  world  upstairs;  the  next  minute  he 
was  romping  with  them  all,  and,  during  the  whole  period  of 
his  stay  within  doors  he  was  the  gayest  and  the  youngest  in 
the  house.  But  when  the  time  came  for  starting  into  the  out- 
side world  of  Newcastle  and  of  Englishmen,  Healy  at  once 


698  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

put  on  his  suit  of  mail ;  liis  hat  was  tightened  down  upon  his 
head,  his  face  assumed  a  frown  of  a  most  forbidding  aspect, 
and  even  his  teeth  were  set.  And  so  he  went  out  to  encounter 
the  world  of  strangers  among  whom  he  lived. 

In  March,  1878,  he  removed  to  London.  He  is  distantly 
related  to  Mr.  John  Barry,  M.  P.  for  Wexford,  and  at  that 
period  Mr.  Barry  was  associated  with  a  large  Scotch  floor- 
cloth factory.  Mr.  Healy  was  employed  as  a  confidential 
clerk  in  this  firm.  He  began  at  the  same  time  to  contribute 
a  weekly  letter  to  the  Nation  on  Parliamentary  proceedings, 
which  had  just  begun  to  get  lively.  From  this  time  forward 
his  face  accordingly  became  familiar  in  the  lobby  of  the  House 
of  Commons.  He  had  previously  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Mr.  Parnell  and  the  other  prominent  Irish  figures  of  the  last 
Parliament  at  Home  Rule  meetings  and  elsewhere;  and  his 
connection  with  the  Sullivan  family  had  made  him  more  or 
less  familiar  with  the  ''inside"  of  Irish  political  movements. 
He  at  once  threw  all  his  force  on  the  side  of  the  ''active"  sec- 
tion of  the  old  Home  Rule  Party,  and  Mr.  Parnell  has  sev- 
eral times  remarked  that  it  was  to  Mr.  Healy 's  advocacy  and 
explanation  of  his  policy  in  the  columns  of  the  Nation  that 
the  active  party  owed  much  of  its  success  in  those  early  days 
when  its  objects  and  tactics  were  misunderstood  and  actively 
misrepresented.  The  London  correspondence  of  Mr.  Healy 
was  indeed  a  rare  journalistic  treat.  In  the  opinion  of  many 
his  pen  is  even  more  effective  than  his  tongue;  mordant, 
happy  illustration,  trenchant  argument— all  this  was  to  be 
found  in  those  London  letters,  and  is  still,  happily,  at  the  ser- 
vice of  Irish  national  journalism.  The  style  of  Mr.  Healy 
is  founded  palpably  on  that  of  John  Mitchel,  and  he  has  many 
of  the  excellences,  and  a  few  also  of  the  faults,  of  that  writer ; 
but  these  very  faults  only  make  him  the  more  readable,  for 
liveliness,  after  all,  is  the  first  attraction  of  journalistic  prose. 

Anticipating  a  little,  Mr.  Healy  had  scarcely  taken  his 
place  in  the  House  when  he  set  to  work,  and  his  first  speech 
was  in  reply  to  the  Marquis  of  Hartington.  It  was  late  at 
night  when  the  young  member  rose ;  the  deputy  leader  of  the 
Ministerialists  had  made  an  effective  address,  and  most  of 
Mr.  Healy  *s  friends  felt  rather  anxious  as  to  the  result.  Mr. 
Healy  can  now  bear  to  be  told  that  there  were  very  di- 
vided opinions  as  to  the  merits  of  his  first  appearance.  His 
speech  was  delivered  in  a  hard,  dogged  style,  and  gave  evi- 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  C99 

dence  rather  of  fierce  conviction  than  of  debating  power.  It 
was  some  time,  indeed,  before  the  House  would  acknowledge 
that  there  was  anything  in  Mr.  Healy ;  and  there  has  scarcely 
ever  been  an  Irish  member  who  had  in  his  early  days  to  face 
the  fire  of  such  brutal,  mean,  and  cowardly  attack.  Gentlemen 
of  the  press  professed  to  be  shocked  at  the  intelligence  that 
the  new  member  was  poor— that  he  actually,  like  themselves, 
wrote  for  a  living;  and  even  the  cut  of  his  clothes  afforded 
l)roof  of  the  ignobility  of  his  character.  But  Mr.  Healy  took 
no  notice  of  all  this  ribaldry,  except,  perhaps,  to  become 
fiercer  in  his  wrath  and  more  persistent  in  his  activity.  In 
the  nine  weeks'  struggle  against  coercion  he  was,  though  a 
novice,  one  of  the  three  or  four  men  who  did  the  largest 
amount  of  talking,  and  one  has  to  go  to  the  records  of  Big- 
gar's  best  days  and  Sexton's  longest  speech  to  find  any  ap- 
proach to  the  performances  of  Healy.  When  at  last  the  Co- 
ercion Bills  were  done  with,  in  1881,  Mr.  Healy  found  more 
profitable  employment  in  discussing  the  details  of  the  Land 
Bill.  While  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  members  of 
Parliament  were  floundering  in  the  mazes  of  that  extraordi- 
nary measure,  Mr.  Healy  had  found  the  key  of  the  labyrinth, 
and  was  perfectly  familiar  with  its  details.  He  worked,  as 
is  known,  night  and  day  at  the  bill,  obtained  several  conces- 
sions, and  finally  succeeded,  under  circumstances  to  be  pres- 
ently described,  in  having  the  ''Healy  Clause"  adopted.  These 
various  successes  at  last  made  the  House  begin  to  change  its 
opinion  of  its  latest  recruit.  It  was  observed  that  Mr.  Glad- 
stone and  Mr.  Law  used  to  listen  with  the  utmost  attention  to 
anj^thing  Mr.  Healy  had  to  say.  The  Premier  was  even  one 
night  beheld  in  pleasant  converse  with  his  young  and  unspar- 
ing antagonist,  and  at  once  the  ser\'ile  herd  of  Toiy  journal- 
ists began  to  recognize  Mr.  Healy 's  talents.  The  saying  of 
the  time  is  well  known  that  but  three  men  in  the  House  of 
Commons  knew  the  Land  Bill— Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr.  Law,  and 
Mr.  Healy. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

CHARACTERISTICS    OF   MR.    HEALY. 

A  few  words  as  to  Mr.  Healy's  general  characteristics. 
Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  of  all  his  qualities  is  his  rest- 
less industry.  From  the  moment  he  crosses  the  tessellated 
floor  of  the  lobby,  at  about  four  in  the  evening,  till  the  House 
rises,  he  is  literally  never  a  moment  at  rest— excepting  the 
half  hour  or  so  he  spends  at  dinner  in  the  restaurant  within 
the  House.  He  has  almost  as  many  correspondents  as  a  Min- 
ister, and  he  tries  to  answer  nearly  every  letter  on  the  day 
of  its  receipt.  Then  he  takes  an  interest  in  and  knows  all 
about  everything  that  is  going  on,  great  or  small,  English, 
Scottish,  or  Irish.  With  eyes  ablaze,  he  comes  to  tell  you 
of  some  atrocious  job  that  is  perpetrated  under  sub-section  B 
in  the  schedule  to  a  Scotch  Bill  on  Hypothec,  or  a  Welsh  meas- 
ure on  threshing-machines;  and  he  points  out  the  advantage 
to  an  Irish  bill  for  reforming  the  grand  jury  by  a  block  he 
has  put  against  a  bill  for  increasing  the  number  of  commis- 
sioners in  bankruptcy.  The  extent  of  his  knowledge  of  Par- 
liamentary measures  is  astonishing;  many  utter  opponents 
in  public  policy  seek  his  aid  in  this  regard,  and— tell  it  not 
in  Gath!— there  have  been  occasions  when  he  has  been  seen 
explaining  in  the  Library  the  mysteries  of  legislation  to  Mr. 
Herbert  Gladstone.  Indeed,  Healy  held  himself  at  the  ser- 
vice of  everybody.  A  puzzled  colleague  comes  to  ask  for  en- 
lightenment; Healy  has  put  his  ideas  into  the  shape  of  an 
amendment  before  he  has  had  time  to  give  them  full  expres- 
sion. Besides  all  this,  Healy  has  frequently  to  write  a  col- 
umn or  two  for  a  newspaper  in  the  course  of  the  evening. 
And  he  is  never  absent  from  the  House  when  anything  of  im- 
portance is  going  forward.  He  is,  perhaps,  the  only  man  in 
the  House,  except  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  cannot  bear  a  moment's 
idleness ;  and,  like  the  late  Premier,  he  is  distinguished  from 
other  members  by  the  fact  that  even  in  the  division  lobbies 
he  is  to  be  seen  utilizing  the  precious  moments  by  writing 
at  one  of  the  tables.  The  characteristics  of  his  oratory  are 
at  this  time  familiar.  Often,  when  he  stands  up  first,  he  is 
tame,  disjointed,  and  ineffective,  but  he  is  one  of  the  men 

700 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Rattle  701 

who  gather  stronglh  and  firo  as  tlifty  go  along,  and  before  ho 
has  resumed  his  scat  lie  has  said  soine  things  that  have  set  all 
the  House  laugliing,  and  some  that  have  put  all  the  House 
into  a  rage.  Finally,  Healy  has  the  defects  of  his  qualities. 
The  ardor  of  his  temperament  and  the  fierceness  of  his  con- 
victions often  tempt  him  to  exaggeration  of  language  and  of 
conduct.  Those  who  play  the  complicated  game  of  politics 
for  such  miglity  stakes  as  a  nation's  fate  and  the  destinies 
of  millions  ought  to  keep  cool  heads  and  steady  hands.  A 
quick  temper  and  a  sharp  tongue  cause  many  pangs  to  his 
friends,  but  keener  tortures  to  Healy  himself.  He  is  betrayed 
into  a  rude  expression,  and  then  goes  home  and  remains  in 
sleepless  contrition  throughout  the  night.  It  was,  of  course, 
inevitable  that  when  the  Land  League  agitation  broke  out 
one  of  these  antecedents  and  of  this  temperament  should 
throw  himself  into  the  movement;  and  to  those  who  now 
know  Mr.  Healy  it  will  not  be  surprising  to  hear  that  he 
worked  with  fierce  energy  and  often  spoke  with  passionate 
vehemence.  Passing  through  the  South  of  Ireland,  Mr.  Healy 
became  acquainted  with  the  case  of  Michael  McGrath.  Mc- 
Grath  had  held  for  years  a  farm,  but,  the  rent  having  been 
raised  from  £48  to  £105,  had  at  last  to  yield  in  a  struggle, 
and  was  evicted.  His  land  was  ''grabbed"  by  another  farm- 
er named  Cornelius— or,  as  he  was  called  in  the  district, 
"Curley"— Mangan,  and  a  decree  of  ejectment  was  given 
against  McGrath  for  the  house  that  had  been  built  by  his 
own  hands  or  by  those  of  his  father.  McGrath  and  his  fam- 
ily did  not  tamely  submit  to  the  judgment  of  the  law.  They 
stood  a  siege  for  some  days,  and,  when  the  evicting  party  ap- 
proached near  enough,  threw  boiling  water  upon  them.  The 
family  were  watched  so  closely  that  they  were  unable  to  go 
out  even  to  get  a  drink  of  water,  and  at  last  were  reduced 
by  famine  to  capitulation.  But  the  struggle  was  not  over. 
McGrath  went  back  to  his  farm  and  was  sent  to  gaol.  As 
each  member  of  the  family  was  released,  he  or  she  went  back 
again,  and  again  they  were  each  in  turn  sent  to  gaol.  At 
last  they  had  to  give  up  the  struggle  for  the  house,  and  they 
then  adopted  an  expedient  which,  perhaps,  could  only  be  re- 
sorted to  in  Ireland,  of  all  civilized  lands.  McGrath  got 
a  boat  and  turned  it  upside  down,  and  under  this  boat  lived 
himself,  his  wife,  his  sister,  and  his  children.  The  many 
tourists  who  crowd  in  the  summer  season  to  the  beautiful 


702  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

regions  of  Glengariff  were  acenstomed  to  stop  on  the  road 
between  Glengariff  and  Bantry  to  see  this  curious  household. 
Mr.  Healy  was  much  struck  with  the  story,  and  he  and  Mr. 
J.  W.  Walsh,  then  an  organizer  of  the  Land  League,  paid  a 
visit  to  Mangan  to  remonstrate  with  him  on  the  injustice  he 
had  done  to  the  tenant,  whose  property  he  had  helped  the 
landlord  to  rob. 

For  his  action  in  this  matter  Mr.  Healy  was  arrested,  and 
this  was  the  first  prominent  arrest  by  the  new  Chief  Secre- 
tary of  the  Liberal  Government.  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  friends 
at  once  resolved  to  make  a  return  blow.  The  lamented  death 
of  Mr.  William  Redmond  left  a  vacancy  for  the  borough  of 
Wexford.  Mr.  Healy  was  immediately  nominated,  and  re- 
turned without  even  the  mention  of  opposition.  But  he  had 
not  yet  escaped  from  Mr.  Forster's  vengeance.  He  was 
charged  under  one  of  the  Acts  in  the  terrible  code  known  as 
the  Whiteboy  Acts.  The  Acts  date  from  the  last  century,  and 
the  prisoner  convicted  under  them  is  liable  to  a  lengthened 
term  of  penal  servitude,  and  to  be  once,  twice,  or  thrice  pub- 
licly or  privately  whipped  each  year.  The  case  came  before 
Judge  Fitzgerald,  and  he  joined  the  prosecuting  counsel  in 
exhausting  every  effort  to  secure  a  conviction.  The  two  per- 
sons, Mr.  Healy  and  Mr.  Walsh,  were,  in  the  first  place,  tried 
at  the  winter  assizes,  and  this  was  in  itself  an  unusual  and 
suspicious  occurrence.  The  winter  assizes  are  intended  for 
the  relief  of  prisoners  who,  being  imprisoned,  would  other- 
wise have  to  wait  till  the  spring  assizes,  without  having  their 
eases  decided;  but  Mr.  Healy  and  Mr.  Walsh  were  not  im- 
prisoned. They  were  put  on  bail,  and  this  was,  perhaps,  the 
first  instance  in  which  bailed  prisoners  were  tried  at  these 
assizes.  The  disadvantage  to  Mr.  Healy  and  Mr.  Walsh  was 
that  they  were  not  tried  by  a  jury  of  county  farmers,  many 
of  whom  might  be  in  their  favor,  as  their  crime,  if  any,  had 
been  committed  in  the  defence  of  the  farmers'  cause.  Then 
they  were  tried  as  misdemeanants,  which  reduced  their  power 
of  challenge  to  six  names;  and,  throughout  the  trial.  Judge 
Fitzgerald  was  a  far  more  effective  cross-examiner  on  be- 
half of  the  Crown  than  the  prosecuting  counsel.  But  in  spite 
of  all  these  efforts,  Mr.  Healy  and  Mr.  Walsh  were  acquitted. 

It  is,^  perhaps,  as  well  here  to  tell  the  fate  of  McGrath. 
He  continued  in  his  boat  for  some  years— still  pursued  by 
the  many  agencies  that  are  on  the  side  of  the  landlords  in 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle 


703 


Ireland.  For  instance,  lie  was  charged  by  the  county  sur- 
veyor with  trespassing  on  the  road  on  which  this  boat-house 
was  placed,  and  he  only  escaped  through  the  inexhaustible 
ingenuity  of  Mr.  Maurice  Healy,  Mr.  Ilealy's  brother.  But 
finally,  through  exposure  to  the  weather,  poor  McGrath 
caught  t>T)hus-fever,  passed  through  the  illness  under  the 
boat,  died  under  it,  and  was  there  waked.  Since  then  neigh- 
bors have  built  a  small  house  for  his  widow  and  children. 


Sculpture  on  Window:  Cathedral  Church.  Glendalough:  Beranger,  17/9. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

WILLIAM    o'bRIEN",   FOUNDER    OF    THE   UNITED   IRISH    LEAGUE. 

William  O'Brien  comes  from  a  good  stock,  and  was 
brought  up  from  his  earliest  years  in  those  principles  of 
which  he  has  become  so  prominent  and  so  vigorous  an  advo- 
cate. On  the  day  his  elder  brother  was  born,  in  1848,  the 
sub-inspector  of  police  in  Mallow  had  a  warrant  to  search 
the  house  for  firearms,  but  desisted  from  using  it  because  of 
Mrs.  O'Brien's  illness,  and  on  Mr.  O'Brien  giving  his  word 
that  there  were  no  arms  in  the  house.  O'Brien's  father  was 
one  of  the  fiercest  and  most  resolute  spirits  of  the  Young 
Ireland  Party,  but  afterwards,  like  so  many  of  the  men  who 
survived  the  terrible  abortiveness  of  that  time,  was  by  no 
means  friendly  to  physical  force  movement.  In  time  he  had  to 
remonstrate  with  some  of  his  own  offspring  for  their  adhe- 
sion to  Fenianism,  but  his  mouth  was  closed  whenever  his 
remonstrances  became  too  vehement  by  an  allusion  to  this 
episode  in  the  days  of  his  own  haughty  youth. 

William  was  born  on  October  2nd,  1852,  in  Mallow,  with 
which  town  his  family  on  the  mother's  side  has  been  con- 
nected from  time  immemorial.  He  received  his  education  at 
Cloyne  Diocesan  College.  This  was  a  mixed  school,  attend- 
ed by  both  Catholic  and  Protestant  children.  There  was  not 
the  slightest  sectarian  animosity  between  the  children  of  the 
different  creeds,  but  there  was  plenty  of  political  argument 
and  differences.  The  Catholic  Nationalists  in  the  school 
formed  a  sort  of  small  Irish  party,  and  held  their  own ;  Will- 
iam O'Brien  being  successful  in  carrying  off  the  cash  prizes, 
while  his  brothers  and  others  carried  off  the  honors  in  cricket, 
football,  and  the  like.  William  from  his  earliest  years  had 
the  same  principles  as  he  professes  to-day.  Apart  from  the 
example  of  his  father,  he  had  in  his  brother  a  strong  apostle 
of  the  epistle  of  national  rights.  To  his  brother,  his  senior 
by  some  years,  he  looked  up  with  that  mixture  of  affection 
and  awe  which  an  elder  brother  often  inspires  in  a  younger 
brother.  This  brother  was  indeed  of  a  type  to  captivate  the 
imagination  of  such  a  nature  as  that  of  his  younger  brother. 
He  was  a  man  of  inflexible  resolution,  great  daring  and  bound- 

704 


Ireland's  Conhtitutional  Battle  705 

less  enthusiasm.  Among  the  revolutionaries  of  his  district 
he  was  the  chief  figure,  and  there  was  no  raid  for  arms  too 
desperate,  or  no  expedition  too  risky  for  his  spirit.  He  took 
part  with  Captain  Mackay,  who  was  one  of  the  boldest  of 
the  Fenian  leaders,  in  many  of  the  raids  for  arms  on  police 
barracks  and  other  places  in  the  County  of  Cork.  He  was 
arrested,  of  course,  when  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  sus- 
pended, and  underwent  the  misery  and  tortures  which,  as 
has  already  been  described,  were  inflicted  on  untried  prison- 
ers under  the  best  of  possible  Constitutions  and  the  freest 
of  possible  Governments.  With  this  episode  in  the  life  of 
the  elder  brother,  the  brightness  of  the  life  of  William 
O'Brien  for  many  a  long  day  ceased.  His  family  history  is 
strangely  and  terribly  sad.  In  the  O'Brien  household  there 
were  at  the  one  moment  three  members  of  the  family  dying. 
The  father  of  the  family  had  died  before,  and  now  two  of 
his  sons  and  his  daughter  were  lying  on  their  death-beds  at 
the  same  time.  The  two  brothers  died  on  the  one  day,  and 
a  fortnight  afterwards  the  sister  died  also.  The  shock  to 
a  nature  so  fiercely  and  intensely  affectionate  as  that  of  Will- 
iam O'Brien  can  well  be  imagined.  The  death  of  his  father 
and  the  illness  of  his  brothers  had  thrown,  to  a  great  extent, 
the  support  of  the  entire  family  on  his  hands,  and  to  them 
he  was  not  merely  a  brother,  but  to  a  certain  extent  a  helpful 
parent.  It  seemed  for  a  time  as  if  he  were  to  be  swept  away 
by  the  same  disease  which  had  proved  fatal  to  so  many  of 
his  kin.  He  was  only  saved  from  death  by  a  journey  to 
Egypt,  but  he  has  never  really  recovered  from  the  shock  to 
his  mind  and  heart  which  this  family  tragedy  caused,  and 
he  is,  and  will  be  forever,  haunted  by  its  memory. 

The  first  thing  which  William  O'Brien  ever  wrote  was  a 
sketch  of  the  trial  of  Captain  Mackay.  This  attracted  the 
attention  of  Alderman  Nagle,  the  proprietor  of  the  Cork 
Daily  Herald,  and  he  was  offered  an  engagement  upon  that 
paper.  There  he  remained  until  somewhere  towards  1876, 
when  he  became  a  member  of  the  reporting  staff  of  the  Free- 
man's Journal.  He  had  become,  meantime,  and  remains,  an 
expert  shorthand  writer.  He  did  the  ordinary  work  of  the 
reporter  for  several  years,  with  occasional  dashes  into  more 
congenial  occupation  in  special  descriptions  of  particular 
picturesque  incidents.  Whenever  his  work  had  any  connec- 
tion with  the  politics,  condition,  or  prospects  of  his  country 


706  Ireland's  Crowx  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

he  devoted  himself  to  it  with  a  special  fervor.  It  was  his 
descriptions  of  the  County  of  Mayo  in  the  great  distress  of 
1879  which  first  concentrated  the  attention  of  the  Irish  peo- 
ple on  the  calamity  impending  over  the  country.  While  he 
was  working  with  an  energy  as  great  as  that  of  any  other 
journalist  in  Dublin  at  his  own  profession,  his  heart  was  in 
the  cause  of  his  people.  When  the  Coercion  Act  was  passed 
in  1880  he  thought  the  moment  had  come  for  him  to  offer  his 
services  to  maintain  the  fight  in  face  of  threats  of  danger,  and 
he  proposed,  through  Mr.  Davitt  and  Mr.  Egan,  that  he 
should  take  up  some  of  the  work  of  the  League.  His  health, 
however,  was  at  the  time  so  weak  that  his  friends  feared  that 
the  imprisonment  which  was  almost  certain  to  follow  employ- 
ment by  the  League  would  prove  fatal  to  his  constitution,  and 
he  was  dissuaded  from  joining  the  ranks  of  the  movement. 
In  June,  1881,  when  the  conflict  between  Mr.  Forster  and 
the  Land  League  was  at  its  fiercest,  the  idea  occurred  of  es- 
tablishing a  newspaper  as  an  organ  of  the  League  and  Par- 
nellite  Party.  At  once  the  thoughts  of  several  people  turned 
to  the  able  and  brilliant  writer  on  the  Freeman's  Journal, 
and  he  was  invited  by  Mr.  Parnell  to  found  United  Ireland 
and  to  become  its  editor. 

It  was  then  for  the  first  time  that  the  higher  powers  of 
O'Brien  were  discovered.  Great  as  was  his  reputation  as  a 
writer  of  nervous  and  picturesque  English,  he  had  hitherto 
been  unknown  as  the  author  of  editorial  and  purely  political 
articles,  and  few  were  prepared  for  the  political  grasp  and 
feverish  and  bewildering  force  of  the  editorials  he  contrib- 
uted to  the  new  journal.  He  had  now  been  placed  in  the  po- 
sition for  which  his  whole  character  and  gifts  especially  fitted 
him.  O'Brien  is  the  very  embodiment  of  the  militant  jour- 
nalist. In  some  respects,  indeed,  his  character  resembles 
that  of  the  French,  rather  than  of  the  Irish,  litterateur. 
Though  he  has  keen  literary  instincts  and  a  fine  soul,  his  work 
is  important  to  him  mainly  because  of  its  political  results. 
Fragile  in  frame  and  weak  in  health,  he  is  yet,  above  all 
things,  a  combatant,  ready  and  almost  eager  to  meet  danger. 
If  he  had  been  born  in  Paris  he  would  probably  have  been 
found  at  the  top  of  a  barricade,  or,  like  Armand  Carrel,  might 
have  perished  in  a  political  duel.  A  long,  thin  face,  deep- 
set  and  piercing  eyes,  flashing  out  from  behind  spectacles, 
sharp  features  and  quick,  feverish  walk— the  whole  appear- 


Iheland's  Constitution'al  Hattle  707 

ance  of  the  man  speaks  a  restless,  fierce  and  enthusiastic 
character. 

The  times  were  such  as  to  bring  out  to  the  full  all  his 
qualities  of  mind  and  character.  As  has  been  said,  the  foun- 
dation of  United  Ireland  came  in  the  agony  of  the  struggle 
against  coercion.  Its  tone  was  a  trumpet  call  to  further  and 
fiercer  advance  instead  of  an  appeal  to  retreat,  and  natu- 
rally, before  long,  Mr.  Forster  knew  that  either  United  Ire- 
land should  be  crushed  or  the  spirit  of  revolt  would  grow 
daily  fiercer  and  unbending.  Mr.  O'Brien  was  accordingly 
arrested  the  day  after  Parnell,  under  an  act  which  was  ob- 
tained for  imprisoning  mauvais  sujets  and  village  tyrants, 
the  perpetrators  and  participators  in  crime!  It  was  a  part 
of  the  sadness  that  has  followed  his  whole  life  that  at  the 
very  moment  of  his  arrest  his  mother  was  seriously  ill,  a 
woman  whose  nobility  of  character  deserved  the  affection  she 
received  from  her  son.  During  his  imprisonment  the  au- 
thorities were  gracious  enough  to  allow  him  out  under  es- 
cort to  pay  a  visit  to  her,  and  he  was  released  the  day  be- 
fore her  death.  After  various  attempts  to  have  the  paper 
published  in  different  places,  sometimes  in  England  and  some- 
times in  France,  United  Ireland  was  finally  suppressed  by 
Mr.  Forster.  With  the  overthrow  of  Mr.  Forster  the  paper 
was  again  revived.  Then  began  a  long  and  lonely  duel  be- 
tween Mr.  0  'Brien  and  the  Administration,  which  lasted  with 
scarce  an  interruption  for  three  of  the  fiercest  years  in  Irish 
history. 

While  Mr.  0  'Brien  was  being  tried  for  a  * '  seditious  libel ' ' 
a  vacancy  arose  in  the  representation  of  Mallow,  through 
the  promotion  of  Mr.  Johnston,  the  Attorney-General,  to  a 
judgeship.  It  had  been  arranged  before  that  whenever  the 
general  election  came  Mr.  O'Brien,  as  a  Mallow  man,  should 
appeal  to  the  town  to  throw  off  its  servitude  to  Whiggery 
and  join  the  rest  of  the  country  in  the  new  demand  for  the 
restoration  of  Irish  rights.  The  opportunity  for  the  appeal 
had  come  sooner  than  anybody  had  anticipated.  The  pros- 
ecution of  O'Brien  by  the  Government  lent  a  singular  oppor- 
tuneness to  the  struggle,  and  a  still  further  element  of  sig- 
nificance was  added  to  the  contest  by  the  Government  send- 
ing down  Mr.  Naish,  their  Attorney-General,  as  his  oppo- 
nent. Mallow,  in  some  respects,  has  a  history  similar  to 
that  of  Athlone,  Sligo,  and  some  other  small  constituencies 


708 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


of  Ireland.  During  tlie  dreadful  interregnum  between  the 
betrayal  of  Keogh  and  the  rise  of  Butt  it  had  followed  the 
example  of  the  other  small  constituencies  in  sending  into  Par- 
liament the  worthless  representatives  of  Whiggery  or  Tories. 
The  representatives  of  Mallow,  like  the  representatives  of 
Galway  and  Athlone,  and  of  Sligo,  and  Carlow,  bought  that 
they  might  sell.  The  contest  for  Mallow,  under  circum- 
stances like  these,  attracted  an  immense  amount  of  attention, 
and  all  Ireland  looked  to  the  result  with  feverish  eagerness. 
The  reputation  of  Mallow  had  been  so  bad  for  so  many  years 
that  there  were  doubts  mixed  with  hope,  and  the  utmost  ex- 
pectation was  that  Mr.  O'Brien  would  be  returned  by  a  small 
majority.  The  full  significance  of  the  change  that  had  come 
over  all  Ireland  was  shown  when  the  result  was  announced 
and  it  was  found  that  O'Brien  had  been  returned  by  a  ma- 
jority of  72-161  to  89. 


Sculpture  on  a  Capital-  Priest's  IIouco,  Glendalough :  Beranger,  i779. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers." 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

FIRST   HOME  RULE   BILL— DESCRIPTION   OF   ITS   INTRODUCTION   INTO 
THE    HOUSE    OF    COMMONS    BY    MR.    GLADSTONE. 

Prime  Minister  for  the  third  time,  Mr.  Gladstone  found 
himself  face  to  face  with  the  greatest  task  of  his  great  life; 
and  the  obstacles  were  greater,  and  not  smaller,  than 
those  he  had  ever  before  encountered.  The  IMarquis  of  Plar- 
tington  refused  from  the  start  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
a  Ministry  which  proposed  Home  Rule  in  any  shape.  Mr. 
Chamberlain  and  Sir  George  Trevelyan  had  pledged  them- 
selves beforehand  against  certain  forms  of  Home  Rule,  but 
they  entered  the  Cabinet,  and  it  was  yet  to  be  seen  whether 
Mr.  Gladstone  could  produce  a  plan  which  they  could  accept. 
For  weeks  there  were  contradictory  rumors  every  hour  as 
to  how  the  struggle  in  the  Cabinet  was  going  on;  but  all 
doubts  were  set  at  rest  by  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  Sir  George 
Trevelyan  taking  their  seats  one  evening  below  the  gang- 
way and  announcing  to  the  the  world  that  they  had  been  un- 
able to  agree  with  the  plan  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  But  Mr.  Glad- 
stone was  not  to  be  turned  back  from  his  great  purpose  by 
the  desertion  of  any  colleagues,  however  eminent,  and  went 
on  with  the  preparation  of  his  bills.  The  Tories  meantime 
kept  pestering  him  with  questions  every  day,  apparently  ex- 
pecting that  such  a  mighty  problem  as  the  Constitution  of 
a  country  could  be  fixed  in  a  few  hours.  It  is  known  that 
Mr.  Gladstone  intended  to  deal  simultaneously  with  the  Na- 
tional and  the  Land  question,  and  the  first  intention  was  to 
bring  in  the  Land  Bill  first,  and  then  the  Home  Rule  Bill. 
This  plan  was  changed,  and  at  last,  on  April  8,  1886,  the 
Home  Rule  Bill  was  introduced. 

The  scene  was  as  thrilling  as  any  ever  beheld  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  never  had  there  been  more  abundant  signs 
of  absorbing  public  interest.  In  order  to  secure  seats  the 
Irish  members  began  to  arrive  from  six  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  by  eight  or  nine  o'clock  every  seat  in  the  House  was 
seized.  The  result  was  that  members  spent  all  the  day  within 
the  walls  of  the  Westminster  Palace— breakfasting,  lunching, 
and  dining  there.     When  the  sitting  commenced  a  number  of 

709 


710 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


members  who  had  remained  without  seats  brought  in  chairs 
and  placed  them  on  the  floor  of  the  House— a  sight  unprece- 
dented, I  believe  in  the  history  of  the  Assembly.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's entrance  was  marked  by  a  striking  incident.  As  he 
sat,  pale,  panting  and  still  under  the  excitement  of  the  great 
reception  he  had  received  from  the  crowds  outside,  the  whole 
Liberal  Party  (with  four  exceptions)  and  all  the  Irish  mem- 
bers sprang  to  their  feet  and  cheered  him  enthusiastically. 
The  four  exceptions  to  this  general  mark  of  reverence  and 
esteem  were  the  four  Dissentient  leaders.  Lord  Hartington, 
Sir  Henry  James,  Sir  George  Trevelyan  and  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain remained  sitting,  and  in  a  group  by  themselves  they  pre- 
sented a  curious  look  of  isolation  amid  these  surroundings. 
It  took  Mr.  Gladstone  upwards  of  three  hours  to  set  forth 
all  the  details  of  his  great  measure.  His  voice  lasted  well 
to  the  end,  and  the  attention  of  the  House  never  relaxed  for 
a  moment.  The  speecch  was  calm  in  language,  and  the  Tories 
were  decent  enough  to  abstain  from  any  outbursts  of  im- 
patience. Indeed,  the  general  desire  to  catch  every  word  of 
a  speech  in  which  every  sentence  was  fateful  produced  a 
reticence  from  both  friend  and  foe. 


Ornamont  on  leather  caso  of  Book  of  Armagh. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers." 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

HOME   RULE  DEFEATED. 

It  would  be  wearisome  to  got  at  any  length  through  the 
story  of  the  intrigues,  negotiations,  rise  and  fall  of  fortune 
that  characterized  the  interval  between  the  introduction  and 
the  second  reading  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill.  It  became  evi- 
dent from  the  start  that  Mr.  Gladstone  had  enormously  in- 
creased his  difficulties  in  passing  the  Home  Rule  Bill  by  the 
introduction  of  the  Land  Bill.  It  was  quite  true  that  he  had 
guaranteed  the  British  Exchequer  absolutely  against  loss ;  but 
his  enemies  were  either  stupid  or  unscrupulous  enough  to 
misrepresent  his  scheme  and  to  travesty  it  into  a  plan  which 
would  lose  to  the  British  Exchequer  every  penny  advanced, 
and  ultimately  add  several  millions  to  the  burdens  of  the 
British  taxpayer.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  implored,  both  then  and 
at  a  later  stage  in  the  struggle,  to  drop  his  Land  Bill.  These 
appeals  might  have  been  addressed  with  some  hope  of  suc- 
cess to  an  unscrupulous  or  a  reckless  politician,  but  they 
were  hopeless  to  a  statesman  who  felt  the  obligations  of 
honor  and  the  necessities  of  public  interest.  Some  of  Mr. 
Gladstone's  chief  opponents  were  quite  ready  to  denounce 
Land  Purchase  at  one  stage  of  the  controversy— as  will  pres- 
ently be  seen— and  to  advocate  and  propose  it  at  another; 
but  recklessness  and  indecency  of  this  kind  belong  to  a  dif- 
ferent order  of  mind  from  that  of  Mr.  Gladstone. 

Another  difficulty  of  Mr.  Gladstone  was  that  his  oppo- 
nents brought  entirely  opposite  objections  to  his  plan.  The 
retention  of  the  Irish  members  was  demanded  by  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain; their  exclusion  was,  according  to  the  Marquis  of 
Hartington,  the  logical  necessity  of  the  plan.  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain objected  to  the  scheme  of  Land  Purchase;  the  Mar- 
quis of  Hartington  took  very  good  care  not  to  say  anything 
which  might  injure  the  prospects  of  large  monetary  relief  to 
the  class  of  which  he  is  a  member.  The  speech  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone at  the  Foreign  Office  to  a  meeting  of  his  supporters 
was  held  to  make  the  second  reading  of  the  bill  secure;  the 
same  speech  on  the  following  day  in  the  House  of  Commons 
—Mr.  Chamberlain  acknowledged  that  the  two  speeches  were 

711 


712  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

exactly  the  same— lost  the  votes  of  those  who  the  day  be- 
fore, at  the  Foreign  Office,  had  practically  pledged  them- 
selves to  support  the  second  reading. 

Among  many  of  the  absurd  charges  brought  against  Mr. 
Gladstone  for  his  conduct  of  the  measure  is  that  he  sprang 
the  question  upon  the  country.  The  charge  is  entirely  un- 
true. He  exhausted  every  means  to  keep  the  question  in 
control  of  the  United  Liberal  Party,  and  to  prevent  its  ref- 
erence to  the  tumultuous  and  passionate  tribunal  of  the  bal- 
lot-boxes. In  those  clauses  which  provoked  criticism  he 
promised  amendment,  and  the  whole  bill  he  proposed  to  post- 
pone until  an  autumn  sitting,  after  the  House  had  affirmed 
the  principle  of  Home  Rule  by  passing  the  second  reading. 
It  was  those  who  defeated  the  second  reading  of  the  bill,  and 
so  provoked  the  general  election,  that  must  bear  the  respon- 
sibility of  all  that  has  since  happened.  If  the  second  reading 
had  been  carried  the  interval  would  have  been  spent  in  the 
calm  consideration  of  the  various  points  of  difference  among 
those  who  honestly  accepted  the  principle  of  an  Irish  Legis- 
lative Assembly,  and  in  all  probability  a  compromise  would 
have  been  arrived  at.  There  had  not  arisen  at  this  period 
any  of  that  fierce  bitterness  which  at  present  rages  between 
the  two  sections  of  the  Liberal  Party,  and  so  the  points  of 
difference  could  have  been  debated  in  calmness  and  settled 
by  mutual  concession. 

But  it  was  not  to  be.  The  enemies  of  Mr.  Gladstone 
forced  on  the  contest  when  they  felt  sure  of  victory.  A  meet- 
ing of  the  Dissentient  Liberals  was  held  a  few  days  before 
the  second  reading  division.  A  letter  was  read  from  Mr. 
John  Bright.  The  letter  has  never  been  i^roduced,  though 
Mr.  Chamberlain  distinctly  undertook  to  produce  it  when 
this  fact  was  commented  upon  by  Mr.  John  Morley  in  a  speech 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  world  is  still  ignorant  of 
its  character.  It  was  certainly  used  as  an  argument  in  fa- 
vor of  voting  against  the  bill,  and  it  served  more  than  any- 
thing else  to  bring  about  that  fateful  decision;  but  whether 
that  was  the  advice  of  Mr.  Bright,  or  whether  he  advised  ab- 
sention,  is  one  of  the  political  mysteries  that  possibly  this 
generation  will  never  penetrate.  The  decision  of  the  Dis- 
sentient Liberals  to  vote  against  the  bill  sealed  its  fate.  The 
division  took  place  on  June  7.  Mr.  Gladstone  wound  up  the 
debate  with  one  of  the  most  effective,  most  powerful,  most 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle 


713 


touching  speeches  he  has  ever  delivered.  But  his  eloquence 
for  once  was  impotent;  the  bill  was  defeated  by  a  majority 
of  30. 

Gladstone,  however,  lived  to  carry  a  second  Home  Rule 
Bill  triumphantly  through  the  House  of  Commons.  It  was, 
of  course,  defeated  by  the  Lords,  but  there  is  a  tradition  in 
England  that  no  popular  measure  passing  the  lower  House 
ever  fails  to  become  a  law  of  the  realm. 


Ornament  on  top  of  Devenish  Round  Tower. 
From  Petrie's  "Round  Towers,"  400. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

THE   '^UNITED   IRISH   LEAGUE.'' 

There  is  little  more  to  be  added  to  complete  the  history 
of  the  Irish  Constitutional  Movement.  Most  Irishmen  and 
Irish-Americans  interested  in  the  struggle  of  their  brothers 
in  the  old  land  for  National  Self-Government  are  acquainted 
with  the  facts  leading  up  to  the  tragic  death  of  the  greatest 
of  Irish  modern  leaders— the  incorruptible  and  fearless 
Charles  Stewart  Parnell.  It  makes  one  of  the  saddest  chap- 
ters in  the  checkered  history  of  Ireland,  and  for  many  rea- 
sons it  has  been  thought  well  to  omit  it  altogether  from  this 
work. 

For  several  years  after  Parnell 's  death  Ireland  was 
plunged  in  the  turbulent  sea  of  faction,  but  at  last,  through 
the  efforts  of  William  O'Brien,  the  '' United  Irish  League" 
was  established  in  one  of  the  western  counties  and  spread 
rapidly  throughout  the  country.  People  who  had  been  pre- 
viously antagonistic  stood  together  upon  the  same  platform 
in  the  new  organization  and  demanded  similar  action  on  the 
part  of  their  leaders.  A  conference  of  both  sections  of  the 
Irish  members  of  Parliament  was  held,  and  the  will  of  the 
people  obeyed,  by  the  election  of  John  E.  Redmond  as  chair- 
man of  the  United  Irish  Party.  This  action  was  soon  after- 
wards ratified  by  a  National  Convention.  An  auxiliary  or- 
ganization was  next  established  in  the  United  States,  with 
John  F.  Finerty,  of  Chicago,  as  National  President.  Sev- 
eral branches  have  been  founded  in  the  principal  cities  of 
the  Union,  and  many  large  sums  of  money  have  been  for- 
warded to  the  home  body.  The  fruits  of  the  reuniting  of 
the  two  sections  in  Ireland  have  been  a  large  measure  of 
local  self-government  and  a  liberal  Land  Act.  Both  enact- 
ments have  been  of  great  benefit  to  the  country.  The  former 
has  justified  the  advocates  of  Home  Rule  in  claiming  that 
the  Irish  people  are  fully  capable  of  governing  themselves; 
the  latter  will  eventually  result  in  the  complete  abolition  of 
landlordism— the  greatest  curse  of  Ireland  since  the  days  of 
Cromwell.  The  Irish  people  and  their  representatives  in 
the  English  House  of  Commons  are  now  pressing  the  de- 

714 


Ireland's  Constitutional  Battle  715 

mands  of  the  laborers,  and  the  leaders  of  English  public 
opinion  agree  that  a  generous  bill  for  the  amelioration  of 
the  condition  of  the  toilers  of  Ireland  will  be  the  principal 
feature  of  the  next  session  of  Parliament. 

Meanwhile,  the  fight  for  Home  Rule  goes  on,  and  remains 
the  question  of  the  hour  par  excellence  in  British  politics. 
That  the  present  generation  will  witness  the  opening  of  an 
Irish  Parliament  in  Dublin  with  full  control  of  Irish  affairs 
is  the  hearty  prayer  and  firm  belief  of  the  Irish  people  and 
their  millions  of  sympathizers  the  world  over. 

F.  J.  Ryan. 


AVONDALE. 
pabnell's  home  amid  the  wicklow  hills. 

A  silent,  square  house,  standing  in  the  heart  of  the  Wick- 
low hills.  It  was  Parnell's  home  in  what  now  seems  the 
long  ago,  the  house  in  which  he  was  born,  where  his  youth 
was  spent.  Looking  at  it  from  the  banks  of  the  Avonmore, 
that  sings  its  way  to  the  Meeting  of  the  Waters,  it  is  pathetic 
in  its  desolation.  Not  a  sound  falls  upon  the  ear— only  the 
murmur  of  the  river !  All  else  is  silent,  and  the  silence  seems 
ordained.  On  one  side  of  the  house— the  sloping  sward,  the 
green  grass  and  a  few  trees  dotting  the  lawn  that  leads  down 
to  the  river;  on  the  other  side— the  deep  dip  down  to  the 
stream  below,  the  sides  thick  with  mountain  ash  and  red- 
berried  holly  and  stunted  oak. 

Here  and  there  an  aapen  tree,  its  leaves  quivering  and 
trembling,  and  sweet  briar  in  the  underwood.  Standing  there 
are  the  ruins  of  the  old  Keep,  where  in  the  years  that  are 
dead  the  sentinels  of  the  0 'Byrnes  and  O'Tooles  kept  vigil 
on  the  passes  that  led  down  from  the  English  Pale ;  and  when 
the  word  was  passed  that  my  Lord  Deputy  or  his  knights 
were  moving  among  the  hills  with  the  swords  of  the  foreign 
garrison,  the  beacon  light  on  that  old  watch  tower  licked  the 
darkness  of  the  night,  and  the  signals  that  warned  and  grew 
and  grew  until  they  girt  the  hills  and  ringed  around  the 
mountains  of  the  Golden  Spears,  and  sent  the  alarm  away  to 
Glenmalure,  that  same  golden  valley  where  my  Lord  Deputy 
Grey  de  Wilton  went  down  into  the  dust,  together  with  his 


716  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

steel-clad  esquires,  on  the  morning  tliey  met  the  strong  arms 
of  the  O 'Byrnes,  of  the  Wicklow  passes. 

From  this  Keep  one  looks  away  to  the  mountains  in  the 
soft  distance,  which  were  an  Irish  garrison  and  a  rebel  home 
down  to  the  days  when  Michael  Dwyer  laid  down  his  long, 
sure  flintlock  and  trusted  to  an  English  promise.  At  your 
feet  in  the  gully,  the  River  Avonmore,  that  in  the  summer 
weathers  its  way  from  its  home  'mid  the  hills,  rippling  against 
the  huge  boulders  that  stand  up  awkwardly  in  the  river's 
bed— a  stream  where  the  trout  rises  and  the  kingfisher 
flashes  its  light.  But  in  the  winter  time  it  comes  along  swol- 
len, angry,  frothing,  dashing  its  spray  over  the  rocks,  carry- 
ing along  on  its  sullen  rush  the  ash  trees  that  grew  by  its 
banks  and  smashing  them  against  the  piers  of  the  bridges. 

A  well-wooded  country  this  Garden  of  Ireland  looks  from 
the  old  Keep,  the  purple  hills  in  the  distance  fading  into  a 
gray  background  to  that  stretch  of  country  where  the  Seven 
Churches  are  crumbling  away,  and  where  Glendalough  lies 
solemn  and  silent.  It  is  not  so  far  away,  there  to  the  south, 
where  Esmond  Kyan  made  his  stand  against  the  yeomen  and 
the  red-coats  at  Arklow  one  hundred  years  ago— made  such 
a  stand  that  your  foreign  generals  learned  to  their  bitter 
cost  that  the  Insurgents  of  '98  were  not  a  mob  of  rebels, 
but  soldiers  of  a  nation.  Behind  are  the  roads  that  Joseph 
Holt  kept  clear  during  that  sad  but  glorious  time,  and  the 
bridge  where  he  annihilated  the  Welsh  mercenaries  with 
thrust  of  pike. 

There  stands  Avondale,  in  this  grand  old  county,  where 
the  history  of  Ireland  was  written  by  the  sword-point  dipped 
in  blood.  Sad,  indeed,  the  house  looks  even  by  day,  but  at 
night  the  tall  trees  in  the  avenue  meet  like  funeral  plumes 
overhead  and  shut  out  the  light  and  the  stars.  Then  the 
vapor  on  the  waters  of  the  river  rolls  along  like  the  dust  from 
the  feet  of  marching  men,  and  the  water  rail's  cry  is  mourn- 
ful, and  the  bark  of  the  dog  in  the  distance  sounds  dismal 
and  dreary. 

Avondale,  square  and  modern,  is  eerie  to  those  who  know 
the  history  of  the  man  who  lived  there  as  a  lad  and  who  be- 
gan to  dream  dreams  for  the  old  land  at  an  age  when  most 
of  ns  are  growing  our  boyish  lessons. 

They  will  tell  you  down  there  how  Parnell  would  listen 
to  the  traditions  of  the  great  rising  in  '98,  and  how  his  eyes 


Ireland's  ('onhti'imitional  Battle  717 

would  deepen  and  darken  at  the  stories  of  cruel  massacre. 
His  chair  in  the  library  is  there  to-day,  the  same  old  chair 
into  which  he  used  to  curl  himself  and  read  the  heavy  vol- 
umes containing  the  reports  of  the  debates  of  the  old  Irish 
House  of  Commons.  There  is  his  nook  by  the  fire-place  in 
the  hall  where  he  used  to  sit  and  think  out  half-formed  plans 
and  skeletons— and  the  same  heavy  oak  clock  that  to-day 
ticks  its  life  away,  just  as  it  counted  the  hours  when  Parnell 
as  a  child  watched  its  slow  hands  go  round  and  wondered 
how  they  moved. 

There  in  the  hall,  too,  are  specimens  of  ore  that  he  had 
from  the  hills  near  by,  the  pillar  of  polished  marble  from  his 
own  quarries  at  Arklow.  Then  there  is  the  bog-oak  wheel- 
barrow, with  its  silver  mountings,  and  the  spade  with  which 
he  turned  the  first  sod  of  the  East  Clare  Railway ;  the  many 
camans  the  Gaels  gave  him,  the  caskets  in  which  lie  the  parch- 
ments that  made  him  a  freeman  of  many  a  city,  both  here 
and  across  the  wide,  salt  sea.  But  the  man  they  did  honor  to  for 
work  done  for  Ireland  is  dead,  and  the  dust  has  gathered  on 
the  caskets.  It  is  unutterably  sad  looking  at  all  these  things. 
His  hands  had  touched  them.  The  books— his  hands  had 
opened  them;  they  never  raised  up  their  voices  against  him 
and  clamored  for  his  undoing. 

He,  like  an  Irish  king,  is  sleeping,  sleeping 
In  Irish  earth,  under  the  low,  green  mound, 

And  Erin  hath  his  memory  in  her  keeping; 
His  grave  is  sacred  ground. 


REV.  MICHAEL  P.  O'HICKEY,  D.D.,  M.  K.  I.  A., 
Professor  of  Gaelic,  Maynooth  College. 


SECTION  VII. 


RE-CREATING  A  NATION 

OR, 

THE  WORK  OF  THE  GAELIC  LEAGUE 


BY 


RIGHT  REV.  PATRICK  O'DONNELL,  Bishop  of  Raphoe 

VERY  REV.  DR.  M.  P.  O'HICKEY,  of  Maynooth  CoUege 

SIR  THOMAS  GRATTAN  ESMONDE,  Bart 

VERY  REV.  DR.  RICHARD  HENEBRY,  Ph.  D. 

PROF.  KUNO  MEYER,  Ph.  D. 

THOMAS  O'NEILL  RUSSELL 

CONTAINING 

OUR  LANGUAGE,  OUR  NOBLEST  INHERITANCE— THE   LANGUAGE  OF 

OUR  SIRES— THE  INTELLECTUAL  REVIVAL  IN  IRELAND— A 

CRITICAL  ESSAY  ON  IRISH  MUSIC— A  SURVEY  OF 

CELTIC  PHILOLOGY— IRISH  MANUSCRIPT 

LITERATURE 


719 


RE-CREATING  A  NATION 


INTRODUCTORY. 

BY  P.  F.  HOLDEN,  NAT.  SEC.  GAELIC  LEAGUE  IN  AMERICA. 

The  object  of  the  Gaelic  League  is  the  upbuilding  of  an 
Irish  Ireland.  The  object  of  the  American  branch  is  to  aid 
the  movement  at  home  morally  and  financially,  and  to  secure 
for  those  of  our  race  now  in  this  country  and  for  their  chil- 
dren, the  future  citizens  of  America,  an  opportunity  to  learn 
something  of  the  language,  literature,  history,  music,  and 
characteristics  of  their  ancestors. 

Our  people  in  Ireland  have,  it  is  generally  admitted,  drift- 
ed away  through  various  causes  from  Gaelic  ideals  and  cus- 
toms ;  the  Gaelic  League  would  bring  them  back  to  their  orig- 
inal moorings  and  hold  them  there.  It  would  make  the  Irish 
language  the  language  of  the  home,  the  Church,  the  school- 
house,  and  the  market  place,  simply  because  that  language 
is  the  natural  medium  of  expression  amongst  the  Irish  peo- 
ple. It  is  not  at  all  sought  to  banish  English  as  a  com- 
mercial factor.  To  Gaelic  Leaguers  there  is  no  reason  in 
the  world  why  the  Irish  cannot  be  a  bi-lingual  people,  as  is 
the  case  in  many  other  nations.  The  Gaelic  League  advo- 
cates the  revival  of  Irish  music,  Irish  dancing,  and  all  Irish 
customs.  It  would  supplant  cricket  and  croquet  with  foot- 
ball and  hurling ;  it  would  banish  the  woolen  fabrics  of  Glas- 
gow, Liverpool  and  Newcastle-on-Tyne  from  the  stores  and 
farm-houses  of  Ireland,  and  in  their  place  it  would  bring  the 
native  industries  of  Cork,  Dublin  and  Galway.  But,  above 
all  things,  it  would  cultivate  an  Irish  way  of  looking  at  things 
—in  other  words,  it  would  make  for  an  Irish  world-outlook 
suited  to  the  ideas  and  capacities  of  the  people. 

How  far  our  brothers  are  succeeding  in  this  immense  un- 
dertaking may  be  judged  from  the  very  encouraging  reports 
sent  to  American  newspapers  at  frequent  intervals  in  late 
years,  as  well  as  by  the  verbal  accounts  of  the  officers  of  the 
Gaelic  League  in  America  who  have  made  extensive  journeys 
through  the  country.     Irish  is  now  being  taught  in  the  col- 

721 


722  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Ro  es 

leges,  convents  and  National  schools.  Irish  sermons  are  be- 
ing preached  from  cathedral  and  chapel  by  archbishops,  bish- 
ops and  priests,  while  not  even  the  Irish  cardinal  himself 
disdains  to  speak  at  a  public  meeting  in  the  National  tongue. 
This  is  great  news  for  the  advocates  of  an  Irish  Ireland.  It 
encourages  those  of  us  who  have  been  forced  to  remain  ex- 
iles in  this  country  to  lend  a  helping  hand  in  the  struggle 
at  home  as  well  as  to  do  something  to  elevate  the  social  con- 
dition of  our  people  here.  There  is  much  that  we  can  do. 
To  begin  with,  we  should  at  least  expect  that  Irish  history 
would  be  taught  in  the  schools  built  and  supported  by  the 
Irish  people  and  their  children.  For  nearly  one  hundred 
years  Irish  Americans,  taken  as  a  whole,  have  learned  noth- 
ing of  their  country  and  their  ancestors  other  than  that  which 
was  furnished  them  by  the  stage  Irishman  and  the  vulgar 
cartoons  in  the  so-called  comic  weekly  and  daily  newspapers. 
The  great  objection  on  the  part  of  Irish  and  Irish- American 
pastors  to  having  Irish  history  taught  in  the  parochial  schools 
is  the  cost  of  the  text-books  now  available.  They  say  that 
the  children  of  Irish  parents  are  already  sufficiently  taxed 
and  cannot  well  afford  to  pay  a  dollar  or  more  for  a  history 
of  Ireland  in  addition  to  other  expenses.  The  Gaels  of  Chi- 
cago have  set  themselves  to  the  task  of  doing  away  with  this 
obstacle,  and  in  the  near  future  they  hope  to  have  ready  for 
publication  a  simple  but  complete  catechism  of  Irish  history 
that  will  retail  at  a  merely  nominal  price.  This  done,  we 
can  reasonably  expect  that  millions  of  Irish  children  will  be 
learning  to  be  proud  of  their  nationality,  proud  of  their  Irish 
names,  and  filled  with  the  desire  to  learn  more  of  the  lan- 
guage, literature  and  history  of  the  ancestors  who  took  such 
a  glorious  part  in  the  world's  civilization.  Already  we  have 
accomplished  much.  Branches  of  the  Gaelic  League  exist  in 
almost  every  principal  city  in  America,  and  their  influence  on 
the  community  in  which  they  live  is  great  and  wide-spread- 
ing. We  have  five  or  six  newspapers  already  printing  arti- 
cles in  Gaelic.  We  have  several  Irish  music  clubs,  and  per- 
haps even  better  experts  on  the  bagpipe  and  violin  than  ex- 
ist to-day  in  Ireland.  Gaelic  chairs  have  been  instituted  in 
two  or  three  of  the  principal  educational  establishments,  from 
California  to  Washington,  D.  C.  What  is  yet  possible  for 
us  to  accomplish  by  missionary  work  and  agitation  in  the 
press  and  from  the  platform  is  evident  in  the  recent  action 


The  Gaelic  League 


723 


of  tlio  Boston  City  Connoil  in  dirocting  tlint  Oaolic  be  taught 
in  the  liigh  schools  of  that  city. 

In  the  following  pages  the  leaders  of  the  Gaelic  move- 
ment in  Ireland  liave  set  forth  the  necessity  as  well  as  the 
desirability  of  de-Anglicising  Ireland;  they  have  shown  the 
value  and  intrinsic  worth  of  the  things  that  are  peculiarly 
Irish,  and  the  advanced  position  their  readoption  and  per- 
petuation will  secure  for  the  Irish  people  in  the  eyes  of  all 
other  nations. 

Chicago,  Nov.,  1903. 


Composed  from  the  Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  I. 

OUR  LANGUAGE  OUR  NOBLEST  INHERITANCE. 

By  Right  Rev.  Patrick  O'Donnell,  Bishop  of  Raplioe. 

If  the  work  of  the  Gaelic  League  is  worth  doing  at  all,  it 
is  worth  doing  well  and  now.  It  is  now  or  never  with  the 
Irish  language.  We  have  the  men,  we  have  the  motives,  and 
we  can  have  the  means  for  a  revival  of  the  Gaelic  speech 
in  every  region  where  our  race  has  found  a  home.  But  let 
the  Irish-speaking  districts  in  the  old  country  be  contracted 
during  the  next  quarter  of  a  century,  as  during  the  last;  let 
the  brilliant  young  scholars,  priests  and  laymen  who  have 
pledged  their  life-work  to  the  cause  of  our  ancient  language 
be  upset  in  this  campaign ;  let  the  evidences  disappear  which 
living  men  possess  of  the  marvelous  beauty  of  our  Celtic 
speech  on  the  lips  of  the  old  men  of  our  mountain  glens,  and 
it  would  appear  very  doubtful  whether  even  the  magic  of 
a  native  Parliament  could  restore  vigorous  life  to  the  inspir- 
ing language  of  the  Gael. 

It  sounds  profane  to  ask  whether  our  ancient  tongue  is 
worth  preserving.  Yes,  it  is,  even  as  the  spoken  language, 
and  so  well  worth  preserving  that  if  the  effort  be  not  made, 
and,  with  God's  blessing,  made  sucessfully,  we  should  be 
held  accountable  for  casting  from  us  what  is,  in  the  natural 
order,  apart  from  the  national  spirit,  the  noblest  inheritance 
of  our  race. 

It  is  the  misfortune  of  many  good  Irishmen  to  know  noth- 
ing of  the  Irish  language,  however  anxious  about  it;  and, 
through  an  untoward  history,  it  is  the  way  with  many  others 
to  care  but  little  for  its  fate,  because  the  invader  has  branded 
it  as  an  inferior  tongue.  But  it  never  happened  that  any- 
one competent  to  form  an  opinion  who  knew  Irish  did  not 
esteem  it  as  a  noble  vehicle  of  human  thought  and  feeling. 

So  long  as  Latin  remained  the  one  language  of  letters  in 
Europe  it  was  customary  for  writers  to  vary  the  uncouth- 
ness  of  nouns  in  the  vernacular.  To  this  custom  our  early 
Irish  writers  were  no  exception.  But  this  lang-uage,  spoken 
at  the  Enaeh  Tireonnill  in  November,  '98,  and  at  Gartan  in 
June,  '97,  was  no  uncouth  language.    It  was  the  most  beau- 

724 


The  Gaelic  League  725 

til'ul  I  ever  lieard.  Neither  is  the  tongue  spoken  every  day 
in  the  Aran  Islands  or  in  the  glens  of  Cork  or  Kerry  an  un- 
worthy medium  of  communication  between  man  and  man.  It 
is  the  language  for  the  poet,  scholar  and  orator,  as  well  as 
for  the  farmer,  shepherd  and  artisan.  Its  power  of  expres- 
sion, its  tunefulness,  its  compass  are  not  surpassed.  The 
blackbird  in  the  bushes,  the  mist  upon  the  morn,  the  sun- 
shine on  the  mountain,  the  cataract  tumbling  down  from 
Erin's  hills,  the  billows  thundering  in  her  caverns  or  dashing 
against  the  cliffs,  the  storm  in  the  valley,  the  river  sweep- 
ing majestically  through  the  plain,  have  all  their  counter- 
parts in  the  langiiage  of  this  island  of  smiles  and  tears. 

Neither  the  memories  of  the  past,  dear  as  they  are  to  us 
all,  nor  the  service  of  antiquarian  research  would  move  the 
hard  workers  of  to-day  to  devote  their  lives  to  the  revival  of 
Irish  if  the  language  in  itself  were  not  a  noble  language. 
But  hear  it  well  spoken  (in  conversation,  argument,  sermon 
or  poem)  and  a  man  of  Irish  fibre  is  conscious  that  he  is 
listening  to  THE  language— the  one  language  that  touches 
every  chord  of  his  feeling,  sounds  the  depths  of  his  heart, 
follows  the  turns  of  his  mind  and  expresses  the  yearnings  of 
his  whole  being. 

Before  pronouncing  the  Celtic  tongue  as  gutteral  in  sound 
go  first  and  hear  it  as  it  is  spoken,  with  unschooled  poetic 
tongue  and  the  salt  of  proverb,  by  way  of  those  fine  old 
Irishmen  that  are  still  to  be  found  in  the  mountain  valleys 
of  our  land,  nature's  gentlemen;  yes,  and  true  gentlemen 
by  the  blood  of  a  Milesian  pedigree  that  perhaps  cannot  be 
reckoned  through  all  the  generations,  but  that  certainly  can 
be  seen  in  every  gesture  of  the  hand,  in  every  expression  of 
the  countenance,  in  every  word  of  welcome  and  in  every  act 
of  hospitality.  Talk  of  these  men  as  ignorant !  They  have 
an  education,  a  refinement,  even  a  wise,  far-seeing  judgment 
of  men  and  things  that  books  will  never  bring.  You  will 
find,  too,  in  the  most  remote  parts  of  Ireland,  tall,  venerable 
women  of  deliberate  bearing  and  queenly  mien,  who  never 
perhaps  left  their  native  parish,  but  who  would  not  be  con- 
sidered out  of  place  if  transported  to  the  lofty  halls  of  a 
lordly  castle.  They  speak  a  beautiful  language,  these  peo- 
ple, and  they  speak  it  beautifully,  and  before  people  bearing 
Irish  names  commit  themselves  to  indifference  about  the  Irish 
tongue  let  them  try  this  test  or  hear  a  sermon  preached  in 


726  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

our  soul  stirring  language  by  an  Irish  priest  who  knows  its 
idiom  and  is  master  of  its  vocabulary. 

Some  of  the  best  Irish  I  have  ever  heard  was  spoken  by 
old  men  who  were  Protestants  around  my  native  place;  and 
it  is  a  good  sign  that  Irishmen,  without  distinction  of  creed, 
are  now  interested  in  the  revival  movement.  I  hope  the 
movement  may  advance  with  swelling  wave  into  the  parts  of 
Ireland  where  Irish  is  no  longer  spoken.  It  is  a  language 
for  the  whole  island.  In  a  country  so  far  apart  from  the 
rest  of  the  world  there  is  no  danger  we  shall  know  too  many 
languages.  The  Irish  language  movement  might  sweep  the 
whole  island,  and  Ireland  become  Irish  speaking  from  the 
center  to  the  sea  without  injuring  the  cultivation  of  any  other 
language  or  preventing  our  young  people  from  acquiring 
that  knowledge  of  English  which  is  so  needed  for  our  emi- 
grants. The  truth  is  that  the  Irish  revival  movement  is  the 
most  hopeful  program  yet  launched  in  our  midst  for  the  im- 
provement of  education  all  round,  and  for  bringing  back  again 
to  Erin  that  love  of  learning  and  of  books  that  was  so  char- 
acteristic of  her  past. 

The  language  spoken  at  Tara  and  Croghan,  at  Kincora 
and  Cashel,  Emonia  and  Filach,  the  tongue  of  Finn  and  of 
Cuchullin,  of  Maeve  and  Maclia,  of  Nial,  Brian  and  Hugh 
Roe,  the  speech  in  which  Patrick  catechised;  the  mother 
tongue  of  Erin's  saints  and  scholars  and  heroes,  the  mother 
tongue  of  the  Irish  race,  should  last  as  long  as  the  race  it- 
self to  interpret  its  feelings  and  voice  its  aspirations  in  every 
region  where  even  a  few  Irishmen  are  gathered  together. 
Now  is  the  time  to  check  its  decline  and  spread  far  its  sway. 
"What  Father  O'Growney,  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde,  Dr.  Hickey, 
Father  Henebry,  Mr.  MacNeil  and  their  colleagues  agree 
upon  is  sure  to  be  as  good  a  plan  as  need  be  desired.  Let 
us  give  them  a  fair  chance  of  doing  a  work  which  they  can 
do  so  well,  and  which  is  an  obligation  on  our  people.  And, 
with  a  fair  field,  let  us  spare  them  that  carping  criticism,  the 
spirit  of  which  seems  to  cling  to  us  as  a  national  failing  not 
alone  indeed  in  this  department  of  effort  for  the  Irish  lan- 
guage. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  LANGUAGE  OF  OUR  SIRES. 

By  Rev.  Michael  P.  O'lUckcy,  D.  D.,  M.  R.  L  A.,  Professor 
of  Irish  at  Maynooth  College. 

The  Irish  language  is  a  vast  subject,  and  admits  of  va- 
ried and  almost  endless  treatment.    I  can  neither  discuss  it 
in  all  its  aspects  nor  deal  with  it  fully  and  exhaustively  un- 
der any  one  aspect.    The  chief  difficulty  is  to  decide  what 
exactly  I  should  say,  and  what  I  should  leave  unsaid.    On 
the  whole,  I  cannot,  perhaps,  do  better  than  discuss  the  fol- 
lowing questions:     (1)    Can  the  Irish  language  be  preserved 
and  how?     (2)    Should  it  be  preserved,  revived,  cultivated 
and  perpetuated,  and  why?    Before  I  enter  upon  the  dis- 
cussion of  these  questions  it  may,  however,  be  well  to  set 
forth  briefly  the  aims  and    objects  of  the    Gaelic    League. 
Though  I  am  not  an  official  representative  of  the  League, 
though  I  am  merely  a  worker  in  the  cause  in  a  purely  private 
capacity,  yet,  because  of  my   intunate   connection   with   the 
Central  Branch  and  with  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
organization,  I  may  fairly  claim  to  be  an  authoritative  ex- 
ponent of  its  views  and  aims.     The  Gaelic  League  seeks  to 
preserve,  revive  and  perpetuate  the    ancient    language   of 
Ireland;  to  promote  its  cultivation;  to  arrest  its  decadence; 
rouse  public  opinion  in  its  favor,  and  change  the  present 
mistaken,  pernicious  and  degrading  fashion,  which  is  respon- 
sible more  than  anything  else  for  its  decay;  to  thoroughly 
secure  and  effectively  safeguard  its  position  where  it  is  still 
spoken  and  place  it  in  all  respects  on  a  secure,  satisfactory 
and  permanent  footing;  to  gradually  extend  the  area  of  its 
use  as  a  spoken  tongue-making  the  Irish-speaking  districts 
their  chief  base  of  operations,  and  working  from  these  dis- 
tricts outward-until  Irish  becomes  (side  by  side  with  Eng- 
lish, but  ever  receiving  the  preference  where  choice  is  pos- 
sible) the  daily  speech  of  the  entire  nation;  to  make  the  pri- 
mary education  of  the  country  in  the  Irish-speaking  districts 
thoroughly  and  unreser^^edly  bi-lingual ;  to  remove  the  pres- 
ent fatal  and  exasperating  restrictions  upon  the  teaching  of 
Irish  in  the  so-called  National  schools,  and  to  have  the  lan- 

727 


728  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

guage  taught  as  a  matter  of  course  and  as  a  subject  of  the 
first  importance  in  all  the  educational  institutions  of  the  land, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest;  in  fine,  to  turn  the  people  of 
the  country  back  upon  their  own  past,  upon  their  history 
and  their  ancient  literature;  to  induce  them  to  study  these 
things  until  they  know  them  and  love  them;  until  they  be- 
come part  and  parcel  of  themselves;  until  they  are  inter- 
woven with  the  very  texture  of  their  intellectual  nature  and 
twined  around  the  tendrils  of  their  hearts.  Such,  in  brief, 
is  the  programme  of  the  Gaelic  League;  such  are  its  aims 
and  objects. 

The  programme  is  a  vast  one,  and  as  glorious  and  inspir- 
ing as  it  is  vast.  But  there  are  those  who  think  it  is  an  im- 
possible programme.  I  do  not  at  all  share  that  view;  nor 
do  I  believe  that  it  is  held  by  anyone  who  has  carefully 
thought  the  matter  out.  I  do  not  for  a  moment  underrate 
the  difficulty  of  the  enterprise.  The  forces  arrayed  against 
us  are  many  and  formidable.  The  difficulties  to  be  overcome, 
the  obstacles  to  be  surmounted,  are  neither  few  nor  trifling. 
We  have  to  fight  against  false  fashion,  against  appalling  in- 
difference and  apathy,  against  prejudice  as  deep-rooted  and 
inveterate  as  it  is  unintelligible,  against  snobbery  of  the 
vilest  and  most  degrading  description,  against  officialism, 
high  and  low— educational,  judicial,  magisterial,  and  other- 
wise. The  odds  against  us  are  therefore  terrible,  but  they 
are  not  overwhelming.  The  difficulties  that  strew  our  path 
do  not  daunt  us  in  the  least.  We  know  full  well  that  we  labor 
in  a  noble  and  deserving  cause,  that  we  are  engaged  in  a 
work  of  the  highest  national  importance;  that  we  are  striv- 
ing for  the  perpetuation  not  only  of  our  national  language, 
but  of  our  national  distinctiveness  and  identity;  that  the  in- 
terests for  which  we  do  battle  are  high  and  even  holy. 

What  others  have  done,  why  may  we  not  do?  What  has 
been  done  in  Greece,  in  Hungary,  in  Bohemia,  in  Provence, 
in  Belgium,  in  Wales,  in  Finland,  is  assuredly  not  impossible 
in  Ireland.  What  is  being  done  successfully  at  the  present 
hour  in  Brittany  and  in  Highland  Scotland  we  surely  need 
not  pronounce  impossible,  nor  despair  of  accomplishing.  The 
difficulties  that  others  have  had  to  face  were  in  many  cases 
not  less  grave  than  those  with  which  we  are  confronted;  in 
some  cases,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  were  far  more  formida- 
ble   and    disheartening.    But    they    despised    difficulties, 


The  Gaelic  League  720 

brushed  aside  obstacles,  and  have  either  triumphed  all  along 
the  line  or  are  far  advanced  along  the  road  to  victory.  Why 
should  not  we  achieve  equal  success?  Shall  it  be  said  that 
Ireland  is  less  patriotic  than  Finhind  or  J3oheraia?  Are 
Irishmen  less  capable  of  unselfish  and  sustained  national  ef- 
fort and  enterprise?  Do  high  and  noble  and  inspiring  ideals 
appeal  with  less  force  to  us  than  to  those  who  inhabit  other 

lands? 

The  Irish  language,  we  hear  people  say,  is  dying  a  natural 
death.  Nothing  of  the  kind.  It  is  being  done  to  death ;  it 
is  being  strangled ;  everything  has  been  against  it,  and  every- 
body. There  has  been  an  all-round  conspiracy,  active  and 
passive,  to  crush  it.  We  must  insist  that  there  shall  be  an 
end  of  this.  The  language  of  our  race  must  have  fair  play, 
and  so  much  the  Gaelic  League  means  that  it  shall  have,  and 
its  members  are  numerous  now  and  are  becoming  more  nu- 
merous day  by  day.  The  fate  of  the  language  is,  therefore, 
in  our  own  hands. 

Let  us  examine  its  position  and  prospects  somewhat  in 
detail.  It  is  still  spoken  by  well  over  a  half  million  of  our 
people;  the  exact  number,  as  shown  by  the  last  census,  be- 
ing in  round  numbers,  760,000.  About  one-seventh  of  the 
population  of  the  country  is,  therefore,  Irish-speaking.  There 
is  scarcely  any  country  in  which  there  are  not  Irish  speak- 
ers, however  few  they  may  be  in  some  cases,  but  the  vast 
bulk  of  the  Irish-speaking  population  is  along  the  Atlantic 
seaboard,  from  Lough  Foyle  to  Waterford  Harbor-in  Done- 
gal, Mayo,  Galway,  Clare,  Kerry,  Cork,  and  Waterford.  This 
is  by  no  means  an  unimportant  factor  in  the  case.  ^  Surely, 
one-seventh  of  the  population,  thus  concentrated,  is  not  a 
bad  foundation  to  build  upon.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  are 
Eureopean  languages  which  are  not  spoken  by  so  many  peo- 
ple, and  which  are,  nevertheless,  in  a  most  flourishing  con- 
dition. 

If  all  who  speak  the  Irish  language  could  write  and  read 
it,  which  very  little  effort  would  soon  enable  them  to  do,  if 
it  came  before  them  weekly  in  their  newspapers,  if  they 
taught  their  children  to  speak  it-a  thing  they  should  hang 
their  heads  in  shame  for  not  doing;  if  they  insisted  upon 
having  their  children  taught  Irish  as  well  as  English  in  the 
schools;  if  they  prayed  in  it  in  their  homes  and  in  their 
churches ;  if  they  heard  the  word  of  God  announced  in  it  on 


730  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Sundays;  if  they  loved  it  as  they  should,  took  it  to  their 
hearts  and  cherished  it  there,  treasured  it  beyond  price,  as 
the  invaluable  national  heirloom  which  it  unquestionably  is 
—how  could  it  ever  die  out  where  it  is  spoken  at  present? 
It  were  utterly  impossible.  So  far  from  dying,  or  even  de- 
caying, it  would  flourish  once  more,  and  gradually  extend. 
The  Irish-speaking  area  would  rapidly  expand.  Along  the 
Irish-speaking  frontier  the  English-speaking  population, 
through  constant  intercourse  with  Irish  speakers,  would 
gradually  acquire  an  aptitude  in  speaking  their  own  language, 
and  so  would  the  Irish-speaking  frontier  keep  constantly 
moving  into  the  English-speaking  area.  Along  the  border 
the  long  proscribed  and  neglected  language  of  our  sires  would 
be  ever  making  new  conquests,  ever  annexing  new  territory, 
until  ultimately,  and,  I  believe  before  many  generations  should 
have  passed  awa)^,  the  exclusively  English-speaking  area 
would  disappear  altogether  and  the  Irish-speaking  border  be- 
come identical  with  the  Irish  coast  line. 

Here  it  may  be  well  not  to  overlook  another  important 
factor  in  the  situation.  The  rural  districts  are  constantly 
feeding  the  cities  and  large  towns.  The  cities  and  towns 
practically  renew  themselves  every  few  generations  by  ac- 
cessions from  the  country.  This  is  a  well-known  economic 
fact.  Think  of  the  possibilities  which  this  opens  up  for  the 
success,  under  favorable  conditions,  of  a  movement  like  ours. 
If  the  Irish  speakers  who  migrate  in  such  numbers  from  the 
country  to  the  towns  and  cities  had  the  proper  spirit,  the 
spirit  which  we  are  seeking  to  arouse;  if  they  assumed  the 
proper  attitude  toward  their  language,  the  attitude  which 
true  patriotism  suggests  and  demands ;  if  they  brought  with 
them,  deep  down  in  their  hearts,  an  undying  love  for  the 
language  of  their  fathers,  a  devotion  to  it  unchanging  and 
unchangeable;  if  they  spoke  it  on  every  possible  occasion  in 
preference  to  the  language  of  the  alien,  they  would  eventu- 
ally conquer  the  towns,  and  the  cities,  too,  and  make  them 
Irish-speaking  in  the  main. 

The  Gaelic  League  was  founded  to  strive  for  the  objects 
I  have  outlined,  and  to  strive  for  them  on  the  lines  I  have 
indicated.  Five  years  ago  it  had  its  beginning  in  Dublin, 
and  a  very  small  beginning  it  was.  Seven  men,  mostly  young 
and  all  of  them  unknown  and  without  influence,  assembled 
at  the  house  of  one  of  their  number  to  consider  the  position 


The  Gaelic  League  731 

of  the  national  language.  Apart  from  their  interest  in  the 
ancient  language  of  the  country,  they  had  scarcely  a  single 
interest  in  common.  The  result  of  their  conference  was  the 
establishment  of  a  society  to  work  on  go-ahead  and  thorough- 
ly practical  lines  for  the  preservation  of  our  native  tongue. 
The  society  thus  launched  was  called  the  Gaelic  League.  The 
programme  of  the  League  was  soon  before  the  public.  Its 
membership  rapidly  increased,  for  the  founders  meant  work, 
were  deadly  in  earnest,  and  threw  themselves  heart  and  soul 
into  the  enterprise.  For  a  short  time  the  operations  of  the 
League  were  confined  to  Dublin,  but  from  the  very  outset  the 
organization  of  the  provinces,  and  especially  of  the  Irish- 
speaking  districts,  constituted  the  principal  plank  in  its  pro- 
gramme. 

The  movement  thus  inaugurated  soon  began  to  extend. 
Branches  of  the  League  were  formed  in  various  places,  and 
were  duly  affiliated  to  the  parent  branch,  which  subsequently 
began  to  be  called  the  Central  Branch.  Everything  consid- 
ered, the  success  so  far  achieved  by  the  Gaelic  League  is 
simply  amazing.  During  the  short  period  of  its  existence  it 
has  considerably  impressed  the  mind  of  the  country,  and  is 
impressing  it  more  and  more  every  day.  The  movement 
which  it  directs  gains  force  and  momentum  as  it  advances. 
Its  progress  in  all  directions  last  year— a  year  consecrated  to 
such  heroic  and  patriotic  memories— was  greater  far  than 
the  progress  made  during  all  the  previous  years  of  its  ex- 
istence. Henceforward  still  greater  and  more  rapid  progress 
may  be  confidently  looked  for.  We  are  striving  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  branches  and  classes  in  all  our  cities,  towns  and 
villages,  and  we  believe  that  our  striving  will  not  be  in  vain. 
We  are  seeking  to  have  Irish  taught  in  all  our  colleges,  sem- 
inaries, and  schools,  and  to  have  the  present  vexatious  re- 
strictions upon  its  teaching  in  primary  schools  removed,  so 
that  all  our  young  people  may  have  every  facility  afforded 
to  learn  to  at  least  read  and  write  the  language  of  their 
fathers.  The  Irish-speaking  rural  districts,  however,  form 
the  chief  object  of  our  solicitude.  They  are  hardest  to  work 
and  organize,  while  at  the  same  time  they  merit  most  at- 
tention, and  should  be  the  most  promising  and  fruitful  field 
for  our  operations.  They  constitute,  undoubtedly,  the  strong- 
holds of  the  language.  There,  if  the  language  is  to  live,  its 
position  must  at  any  cost  be  secured. 


732  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

The  easiest  way  to  compass  this  would  be  to  have  educa- 
tion in  all  such  districts  made  bi-lingual  in  the  fullest  sense. 
To  effect  this  we  are  straining  every  nerve,  and  until  it  is 
an  accomplished  fact  we  shall  not  relax  our  efforts.  If  the 
country  made  a  united  demand  for  it,  our  views  would  soon 
prevail,  and  we  are  endeavoring  to  educate  public  opinion 
up  to  that  point.  Meanwhile,  however,  we  must  do  what  lies 
in  our  power  to  meet  the  needs  of  such  districts.  Something 
is  at  present  being  done.  We  have  inaugurated  an  Irish  Na- 
tional Language  Fund,  and  have  appealed  to  the  Irish  race 
for  subscriptions  to  it.  The  object  of  this  fund  is  to  enable 
us  to  send  into  the  Irish-speaking  rural  districts  traveling 
teachers,  who  will  also  act  as  organizers.  Their  work  will 
be  to  establish  branches  of  the  Gaelic  League  where  it  may 
be  possible  to  do  so;  to  organize  classes  and  to  teach  them;  to 
train  teachers  as  rapidly  as  possible  who  will  take  charge  of 
these  classes,  so  that  they  themselves  may  be  free  to  proceed 
elsewhere  to  continue  their  work;  to  organize  public  opinion 
in  favor  of  the  movement,  and  secure  for  it  as  much  influ- 
ential and  general  support  as  possible.  "VVe  have  sent  a 
teacher  already  into  Connaught,  and  we  are  about  to  send  one 
into  Munster,  and  very  soon  we  hope  to  send  a  third  into 
Ulster.  For  the  organization  of  Leinster,  in  which  province 
very  little  Irish  is  spoken  outside  of  Dublin,  we  must  rely, 
for  the  present  at  least,  on  the  establishment  and  working  of 
branches  of  the  League.  Were  it  in  our  power  we  should 
send  a  teacher— nay,  several  teachers— into  every  county  of 
the  thirty-two,  but  our  resources  do  not  yet,  at  all  events,  en- 
able us  to  do  more  than  I  have  stated,  and  we  must,  of  course, 
proceed  in  a  strictly  business-like  way. 

How  far  we  shall  enlarge  upon  our  present  plan  of  opera- 
tions depends  altogether  upon  the  amount  of  patronage  ex- 
tended to  the  Irish  Language  National  Fund.  But  whatever 
we  have  attempted  or  accomplished,  whatever  our  past  suc- 
cesses or  our  future  prospects,  certain  it  is  that  the  mission 
of  the  Gaelic  League  will  never  be  wholly  fulfilled,  nor  will 
the  need  of  such  an  organization  cease  until  every  man  and 
woman,  every  boy  and  girl  in  Ireland,  from  the  highest  grade 
in  the  social  scale  to  the  lowest,  reads  and  writes  the  lan- 
guage of  our  fathers,  the  language  of  our  saints,  the  language 
of  our  great  missionaries,  the  language  of  our  heroes  and 
sages;  the  language  of  Patrick,  Columbcille  and  Brigidj  the 


The  Gaklic  League  733 

language  of  Cormac  Mac  Art,  Brian  Boru  and  Cormac 
MacCullinan;  the  language  of  the  O'Neills  and  the  O'Don- 
nells;  the  language  of  the  Yellow  Ford,  of  Benburb  and  of 
Limerick's  walls;  the  language  of  the  Four  Masters  and  of 
Goeffrey  Keating;  the  language  of  Donnchadh  Ruadh, 
Taohg  Gaodhlach  and  the  other  Munster  bards,  than  whose 
melodious  strains  no  sweeter  music  ever  saluted  Irish  ears; 
the  language  which  holds  our  literature,  our  history  and  our 
traditions ;  the  language  which  shaped  our  thoughts  and  our 
ideals,  and  which  still  enshrines  and  so  marvelously  reflects 
them;  the  language  of  our  venerable  and  storied  past;  the 
language,  in  fine,  of  our  nation  and  of  our  race  for  full  two 
thousand  years  and  more. 

Should  not  our  ancestral  tongue,  then,  be  preserved  at 
any  cost  ?  Most  assuredly  it  should.  We  should  consider  no 
effort,  no  sacrifice  that  can  be  demanded  from  us  too  great 
to  attain  this  end— to  hand  on  to  those  who  come  after  us 
the  speech  of  those  who  during  the  vanished  centuries  dwelt 
before  us  in  this  ancient  land.  The  movement  for  the  pres- 
ervation, revival,  cultivation  and  perpetuation  of  our  native 
speech  is  of  immense  national,  intellectual,  religious  and 
moral  significance  and  importance.  Of  this  you  may  rest  as- 
sured. Credit  no  one  who  asserts,  and  would  seek  to  make 
you  believe,  the  contrary.  Treat  his  vaporings  with  the  con- 
tempt they  deserve: 

"Oh!  Irishmen,  be  Irish  still,  stand  by  the  dear  old  tongue, 
Which,  like  the  ivy  to  a  ruin,  to  your  native  land  hath  clung ; 
Oh!  snatch  this  relic  from  the  wreck,  the  only  and  the  last. 
And  cherish  in  your  heart  of  hearts  the  language  of  the  past." 

That  a  distinctive  language  is  the  most  powerful  bond 
of  nationality ;  its  most  manifest  and  impressive  symbol ;  the 
only  certain  and  indefeasible  guarantee  of  its  continuity  and 
permanence,  is  now  pretty  generally  acknowledged,  and  is 
beginning  to  be  acknowledged  more  and  more  every  day. 
The  idea  is  not  new.  How  slow  soever  we  may  be  to  realize 
and  admit  it  in  Ireland,  it  is  well  understood  in  other  lands. 

In  the  dawn  of  the  Christian  era  the  Roman  historian, 
Tacitus,  realized  its  truth,  for  he  wrote:  ''The  language  of 
the  conqueror  in  the  mouth  of  the  conquered  is  ever  the  lan- 
guage of  the  slave."    The  Dutch  realized  it,  for  one  of  their 


734 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


proverbs  runs  thus:  "No  language,  no  nation."  The  great 
German  scholar  and  critic,  Schlegel,  realized  it,  for  he  wrote: 
"The  care  of  the  national  language  is  a  sacred  trust."  The 
cultured  Archbishop  Trench,  an  Englishman  and  a  Protest- 
ant, realized  it,  for  he  wrote:  "A  nation  which  allows  her 
language  to  go  to  ruin  is  parting  with  the  best  half  of  her 
intellectual  independence,  and  testifies  to  her  willingness  to 
cease  to  exist."  More  than  half  a  century  ago  our  own  Davis 
realized  it,  for  he  wrote:  "The  language  of  a  nation's  youth 
is  the  only  easy  and  full  speech  for  its  manhood  and  its  age, 
and  when  the  language  of  its  cradle  dies,  itself  craves  a  tomb. 
.  .  .  A  people  without  a  language  of  its  own  is  only  half  a 
nation.  A  nation  should  guard  its  language  more  than  its 
territories— 'tis  a  surer  barrier,  and  more  important  frontier 
than  fortress  or  river." 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  INTELLECTUAL  REVIVAL  IN  IRELAND. 

By  Sir  Thomas  Grattan  Esmonde,  Bart. 
The  question  of  an  intellectual  revival  is  a  somewhat 
difficult  subject  to  deal  with— one  that  may  lend  itself  to 
numerous  conjectures,  or  else  may  raise  questions  affecting 
sharply  divergent  views.  On  this  question  we  will  admit  there 
is  a  difference  of  opinion.  Some  say  emphatically  that  there 
is  an  Intellectual  Revival;  others  with  equal  emphasis  that 
there  is  none  whatever.  In  my  opinion— I  give  it,  of  course, 
for  what  it  is  worth— there  is  an  Intellectual  Revival  in 
Ireland,  or  at  all  events  the  commencement  of  one.  I  will 
give  some  reasons  for  my  opinion. 

To  begin  with,  there  is  a  patriotic  effort  being  made  to 
revive,  or  rather  to  make  more  widely  known  and  to  develop 
our  Irish  music.  And  in  this  connection  we  can  never  forget 
the  debt  of  gratitude  this  country  owes  to  Thomas  Moore. 
Tom  Moore  has  been  variously  and  adversely  criticised.  Not 
that  this  is  an  unusual  circumstance  in  Ireland,  where  every- 
body is  criticised  more  or  less,  and  where  nearly  everybody 
seems  to  devote  a  fair  share  of  time  and  energy  to  criticising 
everybody  else.  Tom  Moore  has  been  criticised.  He  has  been 
called  all  sorts  of  names.  But  whatever  Tom  Moore  may  be 
said  to  have  been,  he  was  unquestionably  a  man  of  genius,  a 
man  of  whom  intelligent  and  educated  Irishmen  may  be  proud, 
and  to  whom,  and  his  associate,  Bunting,  we  should  be  ever- 
lastingly grateful  for  their  splendid  services  toward  saving  so 
many  of  our  national  melodies  from  oblivion. 

The  directors  of  this  musical  movement  have  also  been 
criticised.  I  take  it  that  this  circumstance  does  not  depress 
them  unduly.  It  is  easier  to  criticise  than  to  do.  They  have 
but  to  continue  doing,  or  trying  to  do,  and  eventually  we  may 
hope  for  a  recognized  Irish  opera,  as  the  outcome  of  their 
endeavors. 

Then  there  is  a  laudable  attempt  to  create  an  Irish  drama, 
the  first  systematic  effort  with  which  we  are  acquainted.  It 
may  be  said  that  no  striking  success  has  attended  this  attempt 
so  far,  and  that  in  some  respects  the  results  of  this  attempt 

735 


736  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

have  been  disappointing,  but  still  the  attempt  is  being  made, 
and  its  makers  deserve  recognition  and  thanks  for  making  it. 

We  have  made  an  unmistakable  advance  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Irish  literature.  Many  able  and  scientific  workers  are 
laboring  in  this  field.  The  works  of  pioneers  of  the  past 
generations  are  being  utilized.  Increased  and  increasing 
light  is  thrown  on  the  unexhaustible  sources  of  our  history, 
folk-lore  and  mythology.  So  that  now-a-days  no  one  can  say 
that  there  is  nothing  Irish  to  read.  At  no  time  has  there  been 
a  more  abundant  output  of  Irish  literary  work.  These  cir- 
cumstances alone  would  go  to  show  that  the  intellect  of  Ire- 
land is  developing  in  energy,  but  that  there  are  further  signs 
for  those  who  care  to  read  them. 

One  of  the  most  striking  of  these  is  the  movement  for  the 
encouragement  of  Irish  industry— a  most  practical  and  un- 
answerable proof  of  the  vitality  of  our  intellectual  revival. 
This  movement  is  of  immense  concern.  It  deserves  the  sup- 
port of  every  practical  Irishman,  but  always  in  the  condition 
that  Irish  products  are  equal  in  quality  and  in  price  to  the 
articles  supplied  by  the  foreigner. 

But  the  most  significant  sign  of  the  intellectual  revival 
in  Ireland  is  the  movement  for  the  revival  of  the  Irish 
language.  This  great  movement,  in  its  present  shape,  is  the 
work  of  the  Gaelic  Leagiie.  Long  may  it  prosper  in  its  work. 
The  language  movement  is  a  most  extraordinary  one,  when 
we  reflect  on  the  circumstances  of  Ireland,  and  the  conditions 
of  her  immediate  past.  Consider  how  the  Irish  language  was 
dead  to  all  outward  seeming.  Consider  how  the  people  of 
Ireland  had  abandoned  it.  How,  even  in  Irish-sj)eaking  dis- 
tricts, it  was  looked  ujDon  with  shame  if  not  with  contempt; 
and  the  explanation  of  all  this  was  very  weak  and  very  un- 
worthy. 

We  were  told,  and  we  know  it  to  be  true,  of  course,  that 
laws  were  passed  against  the  Irish  tongue.  Such  laws  were 
undoubtedly  passed,  but  they  were  passed  hundreds  of  years 
ago,  and  have  long  since  fallen  into  abeyance.  So  much  for 
the  law  and  for  the  excuse  the  law  afforded.  Then  it  was 
said,  and,  doubtless,  truly  said,  that  the  educational  authori- 
ties in  Ireland  were  opposing  the  Irish  language,  and  de- 
precated its  spread  among  the  people.  I  do  not  wish  to 
argue  that  point.  But  supposing  the  educational  authorities 
to  have  been  unfavorable  to  the  study  of  the  Irish  language, 


The  Gaelic  League  737 

how  was  it  that  for  years,  I  might  say  for  generations,  nobody 
protested  against  their  policy? 

We  had  not  to  contend  as  the  Hungarians,  for  instance, 
had  to  contend  against  the  Teutonic  power,  or  as  the  Finns 
and  Poles  have  even  now  to  contend  against  Russian  and 
German  autocracy;  or  as  Bretons  and  Basques  have  at  this 
moment  to  contend  against  the  systematic  policy  of  the  French 
Government,  as  directed  against  the  native  languages  of  these 
races.  And  yet  all  these  peoples  have  preserved  their  native 
languages,  and  even  in  our  time  they  have  many  of  them 
produced  great  men,  giants  of  literature,  speaking  and  writing 
in  their  proscribed  tongues.  Seinkiewicz,  the  Pole,  and  Jokai, 
the  Hungarian,  are  famous  all  the  world  over  where  men  read 
books.  "Were  it  known  all  the  difficulties  that  these  people 
fought  against  and  conquered,  our  difficulties,  such  as  they 
were,  would  vanish  like  smoke  in  comparison  to  theirs.  Yet 
we  deliberately  gave  up  the  Irish  language,  and  gave  it  up 
apparently  of  our  own  choice. 

Suddenly  a  miraculous  change  has  come  into  the  spirit  of 
this  nation.  Everywhere  people  are  interested  in  Gaelic. 
Everywhere  people  are  learning  Gaelic.  Danish  Dublin  and 
Norman  Wexford  are  as  eager  to  cherish  the  language  of 
Finn  and  Fergus,  of  Oisin  and  Deirdri,  as  Gaelic  Cork  or 
Kerry,  or  Galway,  or  Donegal.  In  fact,  the  non-Irish-speak- 
ing districts  of  Ireland  are,  if  anything,  more  eager  to  mas- 
ter the  undeniable  difficulties  of  the  language  than  those  more 
fortunate  places  where  it  has  still  lingered  in  the  homes  of 
the  people.  It  is  quite  within  the  region  of  probability  that 
one  of  these  days  Dublin  will  prove  one  of  the  most  Irish- 
speaking  parts  of  Ireland,  so  warmly  has  the  matter  been 
taken  up  there  by  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  let  me 
add,  of  women. 

This  is  an  extraordinary  state  of  things,  considering  the 
previous  circumstances  of  Ireland  and  the  conditions  of  her 
inmiediate  past.  By  and  by  it  will  be  chronicled  as  the  most 
surprising  development  of  later  Irish  history.  The  Gaelic 
League  has  indeed  worked  a  miracle,  and  if  this  miracle  be 
not  a  sign  of  a  revival  of  Irish  intellect  I  do  not  know  what 
else  it  is.  These  are  some  of  the  reasons  which  led  me  to 
think  that  there  is  really  the  beginning  of  an  intellectual 
revival  in  this  land  of  ours.  I  could  give  other  symptoms  of 
this  revival  but  space  will  not  allow. 


738  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

I  come  now  to  another  question  of  great  importance,  and 
one  in  which  I  regret  to  say  no  interest  is  taken  whatever. 
I  allude  to  the  question  of  the  publication  of  Irish  records. 
The  history  of  Ireland  since  the  ''Four  Masters"  has  yet 
to  be  written,  and  even  the  marvellous  work  of  the  ''Four 
Masters"  stands  in  great  need  of  development  and  elucida- 
tion. The  point  to  which  I  would  like  to  direct  the  attention 
of  intellectual  Ireland  is  the  necessity  for  the  publication  of 
our  Irish  records.  For  years  past  I  have  been  like  one  crying 
in  the  wilderness,  urging  on  the  government  the  publication 
of  Irish  records,  state  papers,  and  historical  manuscripts. 
No  one  in  this  country  apparently  thinks  the  matter  worth 
considering.  No  expression  of  public  opinion  has  made  itself 
audible  during  all  these  years  in  regard  to  it.  My  small 
efforts  have,  so  far,  been  rewarded  with  but  small  results. 
I  have,  however,  been  able,  after  an  infinity  of  trouble,  to 
induce  the  English  Historical  Manuscript  Commission  to 
publish  the  manuscripts  of  the  Irish  Franciscans,  a  unique 
and  most  valuable  historical  collection,  in  which  there  is  a 
considerable  element  of  Celtic  work,  and  some  Celtic  work 
of  immense  value. 

These  manuscripts  have  now  been  some  three  years  in  pro- 
cess of  publication,  and  have  not  yet  been  issued.  I  understand 
now  that  they  are  only  partially  to  be  published.  I  am  by  no 
means  confident  that  what  is  to  be  published  of  them  will  give 
much  satisfaction  to  the  Irish  historical  or  antiquarian  stu- 
dents, and  I  assert  that  it  is  most  unsatisfactory,  while  the 
Historical  Manuscript  Commission  and  the  Record  Commis- 
sion are  so  busily  engaged  in  publishing  English  state  papers, 
that  so  small  a  share  of  their  attention  should  be  devoted  to 
the  state  papers  and  the  records  of  Ireland,  and  that  when 
once  in  a  way  they  do  take  up  the  publication  of  Irish  records, 
the  occasion  is  not  utilized  to  better  purpose. 

It  is  of  the  greatest  possible  importance  that  the  history 
of  our  country  should  be  known  to  us,  that  our  ancient  legends 
and  mythology  should  be  preserved.  We  have  numbers  of 
able  men  in  Ireland  eminently  qualified  for  this  work,  while 
the  mass  of  material  is  perfectly  amazing.  The  illustrious 
0*Curry  tells  us  that  there  are  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  priceless  Irish  manuscripts  unpublished,  imread  in  the 
libraries  of  the  Irish  Academy  and  of  Trinity  College.  Our 
Irish  Record  Office  is  a  storehouse  of  historical  information. 


The  Gaelic  League  739 

Bermingliara  Tower,  in  Dublin  Castle,  is  crammed  with  it. 
The  British  Museum,  the  Bodlian  Library,  have  immense 
quantities  of  unpublished  manuscripts  relating  to  Ireland. 
All  over  the  Continent,  in  the  Low  Countries,  in  France,  in 
Switzerland,  in  Germany,  in  Spain,  and  last  but  not  least,  in 
the  wonderful  Vatican  Archives  there  are  innumerable  papers 
and  documents  relating  to  the  history  and  literature  of  Ire- 
land. 

All  these  sources  of  information  are  so  far  practically 
untapped.  It  is  time  that  something  should  be  done  to  make 
them  reveal  their  hidden  treasures.  We  must  remember  that, 
after  all,  our  time  is  short.  In  a  few  years  our  place  here 
will  know  us  no  more ;  and  while  the  precious  and  unredeem- 
able period  of  our  short  span  of  existence  is  fleeting  away  we 
are  standing  still  in  the  matter  of  historical  information. 

We  cannot  afford  to  stand  still.  We  cannot  afford  to  lose 
our  precious  time.  The  knowledge  of  our  own  history  and 
of  all  that  the  word  history  implies  is  essential  to  our  useful 
service  of  our  country;  that  history  which  has  been  so  beau- 
tifully described  as  ''That  ancient  and  lovely  history,  which 
has  the  romance  of  chivalry,  the  dignity  of  learning  and  piety, 
and  the  fragrance  of  a  far-off  fairy  tale."  Why  not  insist 
upon  obtaining  as  much  knowledge  of  this  history  as  we  can? 

The  history,  the  literature,  the  mythology,  and  the  tradi- 
tions of  Ireland  for  three  thousand  years  are  stored  in  the 
public  archives,  useless,  unknown.  Why  not  insist  on  a 
commencement  being  made  of  their  publication?  Why  should 
we  not  have  an  Irish  Record  Commission,  or  an  Irish  His- 
torical Manuscript  Commission,  to  make  a  beginning  of  the 
important  task  of  removing  the  obscurity  which  shrouds  the 
annals  of  Ireland?  The  existing  commissions  are  of  no  use 
to  us;  they  are  unsympathetic;  they  are  ignorant— I  use  not 
the  word  in  an  offensive  sense,  but  we  all  know  well  that  no 
Englishman  can  ever  know  anything  or  understand  anything 
about  Ireland.  We  can  have  no  satisfaction  without  a  Record 
Commission  of  our  own.  The  intellect  of  Ireland  should 
clamor  for  its  appointment,  and  should  enlist  the  support  of 
the  public  opinion  of  the  country  for  the  establishment  of  an 
Irish  Record  Commission,  a  reasonable  demand,  which  has 
been  made  for  so  long,  and  which  I,  for  one,  will  continue  to 
make  as  long  as  I  have  a  seat  in  the  English  Parliament. 

Another  question  to  which  we  should  direct  our  attention 


740  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

is  that  of  the  preservation  of  Irish  antiquities.  Any  intelli- 
gent and  patriotic  Irishman  who  travels  through  Ireland  must 
be  grieved  and  shocked  at  the  condition  of  the  antiquities  of 
the  country.  Everywhere  he  sees  marks  of  ruthless  destruc- 
tion. Infinitely  more  injury  has  been  done  the  antiquities 
of  Ireland  by  the  selfishness  and  the  cupidity  of  Irishmen 
themselves  than  by  all  the  storms  of  war  which  have  swept 
this  country  time  out  of  mind.  Any  one  who  has  taken  the 
trouble  to  look  over  so  recent  a  publication  as  an  ordnance 
map  will  realize  the  wholesale  obliteration  of  our  antiquarian 
monuments,  which  has  taken  place  even  within  the  past  few 
years.  Old  castles  pulled  down  to  build  piggeries;  chiselled 
stones  torn  out  of  our  ancient  churches  and  monasteries  to 
build  ditches  and  to  hang  gates  upon;  raths,  duns,  Druid 
stones,  scattered,  overthrown  for  so-called  utilitarian  pur- 
poses. 

The  situation  to  any  intelligent  man  is  simply  heart- 
rending. And  all  the  time  this  constant  destruction  in  our 
land  of  what  is,  in  one  sense,  the  most  priceless  possession 
of  any  country,  and  should  be  held  sacred  in  ours,  evokes  no 
condemnation  from  anybody.  It  is  regarded  at  all  hands  with 
equanimity  if  not  with  tacit  approval. 

I  repeat,  our  ancient  ruins  are  among  our  most  precious 
possessions.  They  should  be  held  holy  by  the  public  opinion 
of  the  country.  As  things  go,  there  is  nobody,  or  there  has 
been  nobody,  to  protect  them.  A  small  number  of  these  ruins 
have  been  placed  under  the  nominal  protection  of  the  Board 
of  Works,  but  in  this  respect  the  performance  of  the  Board 
of  Works  are  many  on  paper,  and  appear  mainly  in  the 
printed  statements  of  the  yearly  Civil  Service  estimates. 

The  duty  of  protecting  our  ancient  monuments,  as  well 
as  the  right,  which  implies  the  duty,  rests  with  the  people  of 
our  country;  and  enlightened  public  opinion  should  induce 
the  people  to  discharge  their  duty  with  zeal  as  well  as  with 
reverence.  Under  the  new  Local  Government  Act  certain 
powers  in  the  direction  of  the  preservation  of  our  ancient 
ruins  are  given  to  our  county  councils.  These  powers,  as 
small  as  they  are,  will,  I  hope,  be  eventually  utilized.  I 
repeat  again  for  the  third  time  that  our  ancient  monuments 
are  among  our  most  precious  national  possessions.  Their 
loss  is  irreparable.  Every  year  they  are  growing  less,  and 
if  something  be  not  shortly  done,  in  the  direction  I  indicate, 


The  Gaelic  League  741 

this  country  will  have  nothing  more  to  recommend  it  to  the 
historical  or  antiquarian  mind  than  the  newest  township  of 
the  newest  territory  of  the  newest  of  new  countries. 

I  would  respectfully  suggest  to  all  who  agree  with  me  that 
they  should  band  themselves  together  for  the  preservation 
of  the  monuments  of  old  Ireland.  They  should  join  the 
various  antiquarian  societies,  of  which  there  are  several  in 
this  country.  They  should  join  these  societies;  chey  should 
furnish  their  minds  with  the  history  of  the  local  antiquities, 
with  the  traditions  of  their  localities.  In  this  way  they  will 
not  merely  add  another  source  of  enjoyment  in  their  own 
lives,  but  they  will  confer  an  incalculable  boon  upon  the  Ire- 
land of  the  future. 

In  connection  with  the  antiquities  of  Ireland  I  would 
direct  your  attention  to  a  question  of  great  moment,  which 
has,  apparently,  aroused  no  interest  in  our  country  what- 
ever. I  allude  to  the  case  of  the  Irish  gold  ornaments,  which 
has  been  taken  out  of  Ireland  and  illegally  acquired  by  the 
British  Museum.  Some  few  of  us  have  been  making  a  long 
and  difficult  fight  to  obtain  their  restoration.  During  this 
fight  the  intellect  of  Ireland  appears  to  have  been  asleep. 
We  have  received  no  assistance  from  it,  and,  speaking  broad- 
ly, no  one  seems  to  care  two  straws  about  the  matter. 

The  story  of  the  abstraction  and  retention  of  these  orna- 
ments by  the  British  Museum  is  a  sorry  one— I  say  nothing 
about  it  for  the  present.  These  ornaments,  however,  belong 
to  Ireland  by  right  and  by  law.  It  is  only  by  the  gross 
remissness  of  those  whose  duty  it  was  to  guard  the  rights  of 
Ireland  in  this  particular  that  they  have  ever  departed  from 
our  shores.  I  will  content  myself  by  saying  that  they  are 
absolutely  essential  to  make  the  collection  of  Irish  gold  orna- 
ments in  the  Irish  National  Museum  perfect.  With  these 
gold  ornaments  the  collection  in  our  National  Museum  will 
be  far  and  away  the  finest  of  its  own  kind  in  the  world,  and 
will  compare  favorably,  merely  as  a  collection  of  gold  orna- 
ments, with  the  most  famous  collections  in  existence.  I  speak 
from  my  own  experience,  as  I  have  seen  most  of  the  great 
treasure  hoards  of  other  countries,  from  the  Aztec  collection 
in  the  National  Museum  of  Mexico  to  the  Mycoene  collection 
at  Athens. 

At  the  time  when  these  ornaments  were  taken  from  us, 
just  as  in  the  matter  of  our  language,  Ireland  remained  supine 


742  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

and  allowed  herself  to  be  robbed.  She  might  have  taken  a 
lesson  from  the  tactics  of  her  despoilers.  Time  after  time, 
since  the  struggle  for  the  restoration  of  these  ornaments  be- 
gan, the  British  Museum,  the  English  Archaeological  Societies, 
and  men  of  learning  in  the  English  antiquarian  world,  fully 
understanding  the  great  value  of  these  treasures,  have  pro- 
tested against  their  restoration  to  Ireland;  and  have  used, 
and  are  using,  every  effort  to  frustrate  our  attempts  to  regain 
them.  Only  the  other  day  a  petition  was  ordered  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  king  by  the  English  Antiquarian  Society,  pray- 
ing his  majesty  to  use  all  his  influence  to  prevent  the  restora- 
tion of  these  ornaments  to  Ireland.  Meanwhile  our  public 
boards,  our  antiquarian  societies,  do  nothing.  They  leave  the 
English  in  possession  of  the  field,  and  by  their  silence  they 
condone  this  latest  plunder  of  this  country. 

Notwithstanding  the  apathy  of  the  Irish  public,  we  have 
been  able  to  do  something  towards  bringing  the  British 
Museum  to  book,  and  I  am  glad  to  say  that,  at  long  last,  the 
English  Treasury  have  gone  to  law  with  the  Museum  to 
compel  them  to  give  up  these  ornaments.  In  a  yerj  short 
time  you  will  probably  see  the  action  of  the  English  courts 
on  this  matter.  The  English  courts  will,  no  doubt,  admin- 
ister the  law,  but  justice,  as  we  know,  is  blind,  and  I  am  not 
at  all  certain  that  the  voice  of  an  angry  Irish  people  might 
not  have  something  to  say  in  influencing  a  decision  in  favor 
of  Ireland's  rightful  claim  for  the  restoration  of  her  own 
property.  If  we  are  to  get  back  these  ornaments  we  must 
now  be  up  and  doing,  and  I  would  appeal  to  the  energy  of 
intellectual  Ireland  to  save  those  priceless  relics  to  the 
country.  (Since  the  foregoing  was  written  the  gold  ornaments 
have  been  restored.— Compilers.) 

Another  direction  in  which  we  might  direct  the  reviving 
or  the  revived  intelligence  of  Ireland  is  in  the  encouragement 
of  Irish  art.  Art  is  a  plant  of  very  slow  growth.  It  requires 
care.  It  requires  generous  treatment.  Ireland,  for  many 
reasons,  has  not  been  a  propitious  soil  for  the  cultivation  of 
the  fine  arts.  At  the  present  moment  Irish  art  is  only 
struggling  for  existence.  A  little  is  being  done  in  metal  work. 
Some  of  our  jewelers— notably  Messrs.  Johnson,  of  Dublin, 
whose  exhibit  elicited  so  much  praise  at  the  Paris  exhibition 
—are  doing  some  really  beautiful  work  in  reproduction  of 
ancient  metal  work  of  Ireland.    But  this  is  only   a   minor 


The  Gaelic  League  743 

branch  of  art,  and  it  is  being  carried  on  with  us  only  in  a 
small  way.  Ancient  Irish  metal  work  is  exquisitely  beau- 
tiful ;  old  Irish  silver  commands  the  highest  price  in  the  mar- 
ket. We  have  no  lack  of  models,  or  of  inspiration,  for  the 
development  of  this  branch  in  Ireland ;  all  that  is  wanted  is 
its  patronage  by  the  Irish  public.  When  we  buy  articles  of 
jewelry  or  of  plate  for  our  own  use  or  for  presents  for  our 
friends,  we  can  do  real  service  to  what  was  once  a  famed 
industry  in  Ireland,  by  buying  things  of  Irish  workmanship 
and  made  to  Irish  designs. 

In  the  other  branches  of  art  what  do  we  find?  Take 
architecture.  In  architecture  there  is  practically  nothing 
being  done.  In  other  lands  it  has  developed  into  wonderful 
things.  There  are  some  who  hold  that  the  Irish  monks  were 
the  originators  of  the  stately  Gothic  style.  There  is  certainly 
much  to  be  said  in  favor  of  this  theory.  However  this  may 
be,  specifically  Irish  architecture  has  not  developed.  There 
is  a  field  for  the  development  of  a  distinctly  Irish  school  of 
architecture  in  Ireland;  and  possibly,  if  judicious  steps  were 
taken  in  connection  with  the  erection  of  new  public  buildings 
in  this  country,  much  encouragement  could  be  given  to  our 
architects,  and  much  stimulus    to    an    Irish    Architectural 

School. 

We  have  in  our  ancient  ruins,  whether  Irish  or  Norman, 
examples  sufficient  to  lay  the  foundation  of  an  Irish  school— 
of  an  Irish  style.  I  do  not  suggest,  of  course,  that  we  should 
live  in  round  towers  or  in  fortified  houses,  or  that  ancient 
type  of  churches  would  be  found  suitable  to  the  requirements 
of  our  modern  congregations.  But  if  our  architects  pro- 
ceeded in  the  spirit  of  Irish  architecture  as  exemplified  in 
the  ruins  of  Ireland,  we  would  eventually  produce  an  Irish 
type,  as  distinctively  Irish  as  the  beautiful  English  country 
house  is  English,  or  the  Scotch  mansion  Scotch;  or  as  what 
is  known  as  the  Colonial  style  in  the  United  States  is  dis- 
tinctively American;  or  as  the  stately  churches  of  Italy  and 
Spain  reflect  the  spirit  and  characteristics  of  their  people. 

As  to  painting  and  sculpture,  the  outlook  is  less  hopeful. 
Both  these  branches  of  art  require  wealth  for  their  cultiva- 
tion and  development,  and  Ireland  is  a  poor  country.  The 
customary  patrons  of  painting  and  sculpture  in  other  lands 
from  time  immemorial  have  been  the  aristocracy  of  those 
countries.  We  have  no  landed  aristocracy  in  Ireland  now; 
they  have  disappeared  from  among  us.    Their  disappearance 


744  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

may  be  set  down  to  various  causes.  I  attribute  it  mainly  to 
two  causes— First,  the  overtaxation  of  the  country  through 
the  breach  of  the  treaty  of  the  Act  of  Union,  of  which  they 
had  become  the  supporters,  and  secondly,  to  their  fortunate 
inability  to  identify  themselves  with  the  Nationalist  aspira- 
tions of  their  countrymen.  Our  landed  aristocracy  has  dis- 
appeared, or  is  disappearing,  and  no  mercantile  aristocracy 
has  yet  arisen  to  take  their  place,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
men  mainly  associated  with  the  brewing  or  distillery  industry, 
of  whose  claims  to  be  considered  patrons  of  Irish  art  I  have 
yet  to  be  informed.  Consequently,  Irish  painters  and  sculp- 
tors have  no  immediate  prospect  in  their  own  country.  Their 
prospect,  however,  is  not  absolutely  hopeless. 

We  have  talent.  We  have  had  it,  at  any  rate.  We  have 
produced  sculptors  and  painters  of  no  mean  quality  within 
comparatively  recent  years.  It  is  true  that  these  men  have 
been  mainly  driven  to  utilize  their  talents  abroad.  But  Ire- 
land has  produced  them ;  and  Ireland  can  produce  them.  The 
difficulty  with  Ireland  in  her  present  circumstances  is  to  find 
her  artists'  opportunity. 

I  have  often  thought  that  possibly  a  scheme  could  be 
devised,  perhaps  through  the  medium  of  our  County  Coun- 
cils and  our  public  boards  for  the  encouragement  of  Irish  art. 
It  might  be  possible,  by  encouraging  our  artists  to  portray 
important  events  or  great  figures  in  Irish  history,  to  profit 
themselves,  as  the  results  of  their  labor  would  certainly  profit 
the  country.  These  are  some  of  the  questions  to  the  consid- 
eration of  which  the  intelligence  of  Ireland  may  profitably 
devote  itself.  There  are  many  other  questions  also;  but  I 
will  not  enlarge  upon  my  subject,  much  as  I  am  tempted  to 
do  so. 

Believing,  however,  as  I  do  in  the  immense  value  of  insti- 
tutions such  as  the  Gaelic  League,  in  their  power  of  influenc- 
ing the  minds  and  cultivating  the  intelligence  of  the  young 
men  of  Ireland,  and  so  fitting  them  for  the  better  discharge 
of  their  duty  as  citizens;  believing,  too,  in  the  poetry,  the 
enthusiasm,  the  patriotism,  of  the  rising  generation  of  Irish- 
men, in  the  love  of  Ireland,  and  in  their  reverence  for  her 
pathetic  past,  I  earnestly  invite  my  readers  to  reflect  on  the 
circumstances  of  our  Motherland  from  the  standpoint  I  have 
presented,  so  that  our  priceless  intellectual  heritage  may 
suffer  no  diminution  and  be  handed  down  strengthened,  beau- 
tiful and  increased. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

IRISH  MUSIC. 

By  Reverend  Richard  Henebry,  Ph.  D. 

Our  music  is  an  integral  part  of  our  civilization.  Our 
old  life  was  interwoven  with  golden  threads  of  music,  ever 
harmonious  with  the  color  scheme  of  the  fabric.  There  was 
no  feeling  of  the  heart,  thought  of  the  brain,  or  word  from 
the  lips  but  had  each  its  counterpart  in  song.  Where  expres- 
sion failed  music  became  its  complement  and  carried  the 
thought  home.  Every  action  and  occupation  of  a  lifetime 
had  its  accompanying  song.  If,  then,  our  language  enshrines 
our  nationality  and  must  be  preserved,  our  music,  that  cannot 
be  divorced  from  it,  must  be  preserved  also. 

As  in  the  case  of  our  language,  but  to  a  far  greater  extent, 
the  densest  ignorance  prevails  with  regard  to  the  real  nature 
of  Irish  music.  A  ''Feis  Ceoil"  organized  in  Dublin  for  its 
cultivation  has  utterly  jumped  the  track  and  now  devotes 
itself  to  the  study  and  imitation  of  classical  oratorios,  with 
what  success  I  have  not  heard.  I  doubt  if  a  single  member 
of  the  party  had  the  least  suspicion  of  the  true  nature  of  the 
object  they  had  set  themselves  to  study.  And  this  was  in 
Ireland. 

As  our  language  was  ousted  by  a  foreign  tongue  so,  also, 
a  foreign  music  ousted  ours.  There  is  some  difference  in 
the  operation,  however.  One  may  learn  our  own  and  the  for- 
eign language,  but  the  two  systems  of  music  are  totally 
irreconcilable. 

Of  reliable  sources  of  Information  concerning  Irish  music 
I  only  know  four  in  existence  now.    They  are: 

First.  The  mouths  of  the  people.  True  Irish  music  may 
still  be  heard  from  old  women  singing,  boys  whistling,  and 
girls  lilting  or  jigging,  as  we  call  it. 

Second.  The  music  of  the  Irish  bagpipe,  whereof  the 
chanter  still  retains,  probably  roughly,  the  Irish  scale;  also 
fiddlers  who  still  play  in  the  Irish  manner.  One  who  has  ever 
heard  it  can  tell  at  once  when  a  fiddle  speaks  with  the  Irish 
voice. 

745 


746  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Third.  The  valuable  introduction  to  0 'Curry's  '* Manners 
and  Customs,"  written  by  Dr.  0 'Sullivan,  late  professor  in 
the  Queen's  College,  Cork.  A  study  of  this  paper  will  soon 
convince  anyone  that  the  great  and  practically  the  only  dif- 
ference separating  Irish  and  modern  music  is  one  of  scale. 
But  this  is  a  fundamental  difference. 

Fourth.  The  introduction  to  Bunting's  collection  of  Irish 
music.  Bunting  was  a  person  who  instituted  a  contest  for 
Irish  harpers  in  Belfast  a  little  over  a  hundred  years  ago. 
He  proceeds  from  the  standpoint  of  modern  music  and  re- 
gards everything  not  in  conformity  with  it  as  ''imperfect." 

However,  through  his  teaching  we  can  reconstruct  the 
system  of  tuning  the  harp  and  glean  a  good  deal  of  valuable 
information  on  the  method  of  playing  besides.  Unfortunately 
this  book  is  now  excessively  rare.  It  seems  a  pity  when  so 
much  useless  matter  is  falling  from  the  press  every  day,  that 
somebody  does  not  give  us  the  valuable  portions  of  Bunting's 
book  in  a  magazine  or  newspaper  article.  It  has  been  used 
as  a  source  by  0 'Sullivan,  and  so  probably  the  whole  sub- 
stance of  it  may  be  consulted  at  any  ordinary  library. 

Outside  of  these  there  are  no  authorities  on  Irish  music. 
Moore's  melodies  and  all  published  collections  must  be  ex- 
cluded. Everybody  who  has  turned  his  attention  to  the  mat- 
ter must  notice  the  great  difference  in  a  tone-color  between 
the  rendering  of  an  Irish  air,  let  us  say  one  of  Moore's,  by 
a  modern  singer  to  piano  accompaniment  and  the  same  air 
rendered  by  an  old  woman  in  the  traditional  manner,  who  is 
utterly  ignorant  of  modern  music.  Also  the  fiddle  in  the 
hands  of  an  old,  untrained  performer,  at  home  speaks  Irish, 
whereas  all  the  art  and  skill  of  Herr  Joachim  could  not  take 
a  single  note  out  of  the  same  instrument.  The  reason  is  that 
the  two  musical  systems  differ  fundamentally  in  scale.  The 
intervals  into  which  the  octave  is  broken  to  constitute  a  scale 
are  not  coincident  and  there  rise  two  music  schemes  that  are 
entirely  incommensurable.  The  theory  put  forward  by 
O 'Sullivan  may  be  consulted  in  the  place  already  cited.  It 
is  too  technical  for  consideration  here. 

There  are  fundamental  differences  in  the  scale  and  in  the 
key  system.  The  differences  of  interval  are  minute  but 
subtle,  they  give  the  peculiar  color  and  character  to  Irish 
music.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  music  composed  on  one 
of  those  scales  cannot  be  played  on  the  other ;  in  other  words, 


The  Gaelic  League  747 

it  is  impossible  to  play  Irish  airs  on  the  modern  scale,  or 
upon  a  modern  instrument.  It  follows,  then,  that  all  collec- 
tions of  Irish  music  written  in  the  modern  notation  are  wrong, 
though  perfect  Irish  music  may  be  made  from  them  by  a 
bagpiper,  or  one  who  plays  the  fiddle  in  the  Irish  way.  For 
the  fiddle  has  a  fingerboard  that  will  give  infinitesimal  varia- 
tions in  tone,  according  to  the  stopping  position  of  the  finger 
on  the  string.  On  the  other  hand,  the  piano  has  fixed  notes, 
and  besides  its  scale  does  not  exactly  coincide  either  with  the 
Irish  or  the  modern  scale.  Hence,  if  one  attempts  an  Irish 
air  on  that  instrument  the  characteristic  tone-color  evap- 
orates immediately  and  the  result  is  by  no  means  Irish  music. 
This  fact  is  not  generally  known. 

Besides  those  enumerated  already  there  are  in  addition 
differences  in  phrasing,  feeling  and  technique,  or  execution. 
To  me  there  is  nothing  so  wholly  discomposing  as  listening  to 
an  Irish  air  sung  with  all  the  saccharine  expression  of  the 
vaudeville  stage  to  a  jangling  piano  accompaniment.  When 
I  compare  the  wrong  tone-scheme,  the  bad  phrasing,  the  pert, 
exaggerated,  hysterical  and  false  expression  with  the  tradi- 
tional version  of  the  same  air  as  sung  by  an  old  woman,  with 
its  full,  rich  intervals  and  simple  feeling,  the  veritable  Voice 
and  refrain  of  the  Gaelic  heart,  the  contrast  between  modern 
sham  and  Celtic  truth  becomes  too  poignant  for  my  equan- 
imity. 

To  preserve  Irish  music  the  modern  kind  must  be  rigidly 
excluded;  tin  whistles,  brass  bands,  concertinas,  but  espe- 
cially the  do,  re,  mi,  fa  of  the  school-mistress.  Let  the  boys 
be  taught  the  fiddle  from  traditional  players,  though  the 
technique  of  handling  that  instrument  might  be  borrowed 
from  the  modern  style.  Especially  the  Irish  bagjiipes,  which 
should  not  be  confounded  with  the  Highland  bagpipe,  must 
be  brought  into  fashion  again  and  children  must  be  diligently 
taught  to  play  them  according  to  the  pure  method.  It  is  a 
sample  of  the  virulent  ignorance  that  possessed  our  fathers 
concerning  things  that  some  time  ago  in  the  first  ecclesiastical 
seminary  which  I  entered  in  Ireland,  the  students  were  per- 
mitted the  exercise  of  every  musical  instrument  with  the  strict 
exception  of  the  Irish  bagpipes.  To  meet  the  call  for  instru- 
ments the  making  of  chanters  might  be  encouraged,  and  even 
flutes  and  fifes  could  be  holed  to  form  the  notes  of  the  scale, 
to  the  very  notable  profit  of  Irish  music.    Little  girls  should 


748  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

be  taught  to  sing  as  their  mothers  do,  and  every  boy  should 
be  able  to  whistle  correctly  quite  a  collection  of  Irish  tunes. 

In  another  direction  all  traditional  tunes  still  extant  must 
be  collected  as  soon  as  possible  from  the  people  so  that 
blunders  and  perversions  of  previous  collectors  may  be  cor- 
rected, especially  Moore's,  and  in  order  that  the  great  body 
of  unpublished  music  may  be  snatched  from  the  mouth  of  the 
grave.  Persons  with  a  good  knowledge  of  the  theory  of 
modern  music  and  a  scientific  grasp  of  accoustics  must  go 
amongst  the  people  and  collect  the  Irish  scale  or  scales,  in 
fact,  produce  a  scientific  treatise  on  our  music  system,  and 
devise  a  method  of  notation.  Then,  having  found  our  scale, 
our  own  do,  re,  mi,  fa,  can  be  taught  our  children.  Perhaps 
this  task  may  be  undertaken  by  Father  Bewerunge,  professor 
of  music  at  Maynooth  College. 

Lovers  of  Irish  music  generally  will  be  surprised  and 
delighted,  as  I  was,  to  discover  that  there  exists  in  Chicago 
a  lively  activity  in  this  matter,  and  in  the  right  direction. 
An  influential  and  numerous  body  of  experts  devote  their 
leisure  time  to  the  cultivation  of  traditional  Irish  music  in 
that  city.  The  happy  condition  is  due  to  the  interests  and 
efforts  of  Mr.  Francis  O'Neill,  general  superintendent  of 
police.  Mr.  O'Neill  is  himself  an  excellent  performer  on  the 
pipes,  and  has  devoted  a  lifetime  to  the  collection  of  Irish 
music.  It  mattered  not  the  source,  he  was  ever  alert,  and  can 
truly  give  testimony  that  he  has  rescued  many  a  melody  from 
lips  that  were  soon  afterwards  sealed  in  death. 

Amongst  the  most  prized  of  his  great  collection  is  a  parcel 
of  about  four  hundred  airs  that  his  mother  used  to  sing.  In 
thus  forestalling  the  undertaker  and  rescuing  those  priceless 
gems  from  oblivion,  Mr.  O'Neill  has  rendered  services  of 
incalculable  value  to  the  cause  of  Irish  nationhood.  For  in 
the  new  light  that  has  broken  upon  regenerated  Irishmen  they 
regard  one  shred  or  fragment  of  the  ''jewels  of  their  fathers" 
as  of  greater  worth  than  all  that  vile  trumpery  that  has  been 
imposed  upon  them  during  the  terrible  days  of  their  dark 
ages,  now,  thank  heaven,  passing  away. 

He  has  ever  been  a  stanch  friend  to  Irish  musicians,  and 
brought  to  light  many  an  unconsidered  custodian  of  our  music 
who  must  otherwise  lapse  into  silence  for  apathy  born  of  the 
untoward  conditions  by  which  they  found  themselves  sur- 
rounded.    He  promoted  informal  meetings    of   pipers    and 


The  Gaelic  League  749 

fiddlers  at  his  own  house,  and  encouraged  players  from  all 
IDarts  of  Ireland  by  his  generous  patronage,  and  taught  his 
children  to  play  Irish  music  in  the  Irish  way. 

A  foretaste  of  the  fruits  of  his  labors  was  given  at  the 
Auditorium  meeting,  during  the  Gaelic  League  convention  of 
1901,  where  3,000  people  were  moved  to  ecstasy  at  the 
thrill  of  their  own  music.  What  a  rebuke  to  those  of  our 
people  who  ignorantly  deem  Irish  music  vulgar  because  it  is 
not  fashionable.  But  a  full  fruition  of  the  pleasure  that 
Chicago  players  can  afford  was  accorded  me  by  the  privilege 
of  an  invitation  to  a  piper's  meeting  held  at  Mr.  O'Neill's. 
The  full  assemblage  was  present  and  almost  every  class  of 
music  was  performed  as  ever  before  in  Ireland.  I  was 
astonished  at  ^he  wonderful  proficiency  of  the  players  and  the 
inex'haustible  extent  of  their  repertoire.  All  the  reels,  the 
hornpipes  and  doubles  I  had  learned  to  fiddle  as  a  boy,  to- 
gether with  all  the  airs  I  had  learned  from  my  mother,  were 
there,  and  a  thousand  others. 

I  wish  to  say  that  I  know  nothing  in  art  so  grand,  so 
thrilling  as  the  irresistible  vigor  and  mighty  onrush  of  some 
reels  they  played,  filled  with  the  hurry  of  flight,  the  majesty 
of  battle-strife,  the  languishment  of  retreat,  the  sweep  of  a 
rallying  charge  with  a  laugh  at  fate,  though  yet  the  whole 
was  ever  still  accompanied  by  the  complaining  magic  of  a 
minor  tone  like  the  whisper  of  a  far-away  sorrow.  Truly,  a 
good  reel  records  the  heart  throbs  of  our  fathers  and  the  wind 
that  ruffled  those  dark  and  hidden  waters,  the  soul  of  the 
Gael.  And  some  of  the  older  song-airs  revealed  with  sob  and 
sigh  a  kind  of  secret  that  may  not  be  spoken  for  very  fear. 
And  those— the  untutored  Irish  account  vulgar! 

Then  Roger  O'Neill  and  Tom  Ennis,  two  little  boys,  played 
the  fiddle  in  the  Irish  manner.  This  affords  proof  that  Irish 
music  has  vigor,  has  enough  root  in  Chicago  to  propagate  it- 
self. I  have  heard  very  much  of  the  music  of  Ireland,  and 
heard  it  often,  but  never  yet  better  than  that  played  by  the 
Chicago  pipers  and  fiddlers  at  Mr.  O'Neill 's. 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  SURVEY  OF  CELTIC  PHILOLOGY. 

By  Professor  Kuno  Meyer,  Ph.  D. 

A  rapid  and  brief  survey  of  the  work  at  present  being  car- 
ried on  in  the  domain  of  Celtic  philology— philology  both  in 
its  English  and  continental  sense— will,  I  hope,  be  deemed 
sufficiently  interesting  to  engage  for  half  an  hour  or  so  the 
attention  of  my  readers.  It  will,  if  it  does  nothing  else,  show 
you  the  extent  of  the  field  of  research  and  the  number  and 
variety  of  workers.  My  chief  difficulty  in  treating  so  large 
a  subject  thus  briefly  is,  next  to  the  unavoidable  dryness  of 
enumeration,  one  of  limitation  and  selection,  and  I  shall  have 
to  confine  myself  to  an  account  of  works  quite  recently  pub- 
lished or  still  in  hand,  and  mainly,  though  not  exclusively, 
to  the  chief  representatives  of  the  Celtic  speech— Irish  and 
Welsh. 

What  my  sketch  thus  loses  in  breadth  and  fullness  it  will 
gain  in  ''actuality,"  to  borrow  a  French  word. 

In  the  language  of  our  mechanical  age  I  will  take  a  series 
of  snapshots  at  Celtic  scholars  all  the  world  over  as  I  find 
them  engaged  at  their  work. 

It  may  be  said  without  exaggeration  and  without  fear  of 
contradiction,  that  at  no  time  have  Celtic  studies  been  in  a 
more  flourishing  condition  than  they  are  at  the  present  mo- 
ment. The  number  of  students,  both  native  and  foreign,  has 
for  several  years  been  rapidly  and  constantly  increasing.  It 
is  easier  for  the  beginner  now  than  it  used  to  be,  to  get  a 
good  training  and  to  lay  a  thorough  foundation  for  inde- 
pendent research.  The  output  of  scholarly  works  in  all 
departments— much  of  it  of  first-rate  importance— has  grown 
so  much  that  already  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  keep  abreast  of 
the  latest  research. 

Students  of  Aryan  philology  are  finding  out  that  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  Celtic  languages  is  to  them  as  important  as  that 
of  the  other  great  branches  of  the  Indo-European  family. 

Lastly,  the  interest  of  the  general  public  in  Celtic  investi- 
gation and  its  results  is  widening  and  deepening.    It  may 

750 


The  Gaelic  League  751 

be  said  that  the  public  at  large  is  at  last  beginning  to  realize 
that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  large  and  ancient  and  im- 
portant literature  in  Irish  and  Welsh  of  which  a  mere  frac- 
tion only  has  hitherto  been  published;  that  there  is  here  a 
vast  field  of  research  waiting  for  workers,  that  for  the  his- 
tory of  mediaeval  literature,  for  the  history  of  these  islands, 
for  the  history  of  early  western  Christianity— that  literature 
is  of  the  utmost  value  and  importance,  that  indeed  such  his- 
tories cannot  be  written  until  all  the  material  that  this  litera- 
ture furnishes  are  before  them  in  critical  editions. 

It  is,  perhaps,  considerations  of  this  kind  that  have 
weighed  with  the  university  authorities  in  Prussia  in  their 
recent  decision  to  establish  at  Berlin  the  first  German  Chair 
of  Celtic  philology  and  literature.  This  is  a  step  forward 
which  all  Celtic  students  should  hail  with  acclamation,  all  the 
more  as  one  of  the  leading  scholars  of  Germany,  long  well- 
known  wherever  there  are  serious  Celtic  students,  has  been 
called  to  fill  it— Professor  H.  Zimmer,  hitherto  of  Grief s- 
wald. 

This  augurs  well  for  the  future  of  our  studies,  for  there 
is  no  more  active,  no  more  devoted  student  of  everything 
connected  with  the  Celt,  or  one  of  whom  his  pupils  speak 
with  greater  admiration,  than  Professor  Zimmer,  and  so  we 
may  soon  hope  to  see  a  flourishing  school  of  Celtic  philology 
rising  at  Berlin. 

Would  that  Ireland  were  to  follow  suit  by  establishing  at 
Trinity  College  or  at  the  new  Catholic  University,  soon,  I 
hope,  to  become  a  reality,  or  at  both,  a  Celtic  Chair  for  the 
encouragement  of  these  studies  among  professed  students. 

Another  welcome  sign  of  the  spread  of  Celtic  studies  has 
been  the  foundation  and  success  by  the  side  of  her  elder 
sister,  the  ''Revue  Celtique,"  of  a  second  continental  period- 
ical, entirely  devoted  to  Celtic  lore,  the  ''Zeitschrift  fur 
Celtische  Philologie."  It  was  the  intention  of  its  founders 
that  this  should  be  a  truly  international  periodical,  and  their 
expectations  have  been  amply  fulfilled.  Not  to  speak  of  the 
numbers  already  published,  I  may  mention,  in  order  to  show 
the  widely  representative  character  of  its  contributions  and 
contributors,  that  the  forthcoming  number  will  contain  among 
other  things  an  attempt  to  interpret  a  Gaulish  inscription 
by  a  young  Celtic  student  of  Christiania,  a  pupil  of  Professor 
Sophus  Bugge;  a  study  of  Welsh  metrics  and  the  laws  of 


752  Ireland's  Crow-nof  Thorns  and  Roses 

cynghanedd  by  Professor  Morris  Jones,  of  Bangor;  the 
phonetic  description  of  a  Scotch-Gaelic  dialect  by  a  native 
scholar,  Dr.  Henderson;  an  investigation  into  the  language 
of  the  old  Irish  glosses  of  Milan,  by  Professor  Strachan; 
Breton  etjTnologies,  by  Professor  Loth,  and  so  on. 

To  complete  my  survey  of  what  is  being  done  in  Germany 
at  present,  I  may  mention  that  Dr.  Holder  is  gradually  ap- 
proaching the  end  of  his  Thesaurus  of  the  Gaulish  and  early 
British  vocabulary;  that  Professor  Windisch  is  engaged  on 
a  second  edition  of  his  Irish  grammar;  a  comprehensive  edi- 
tion and  translation  of  that  most  important  Irish  historical 
tale,  the  Tain  Bo  Cuailgne,  which  will  appear  under  the 
auspices  and  at  the  expense  of  the  Royal  Saxon  Society  of 
Science;  that  Professor  Zimmer  has  just  published  a  short 
but  important  article  on  the  ancient  Celtic  church,  in  which 
he  deals  in  his  usual  clear  and  incisive  way  with  the  many 
difficult  problems  connected  with  that  subject,  the  first  coming 
of  Christianity  to  these  islands  and  its  early  history. 

He  states  once  more  his  well-known  views  as  to  St.  Patrick 
and  his  belief  that  he  and  Palladius  were  one  and  the  same 
person.  Zimmer  has  also  started  a  grammatical  discussion  of 
vital  importance  for  the  history  of  the  Irish  language,  a  dis- 
cussion centering  around  the  use  and  function  of  the  little 
verbal  participle  or  preposition  ro,  in  which  Professor  Thur- 
neyson,  of  Freiburg,  and  Professor  Strachan,  of  Manchester, 
have  taken  part. 

These  and  similar  investigations  will  ultimately  prove  of 
the  most  far-reaching  result,  as  they  will  enable  us  to  date 
more  accurately  the  remains  of  early  Irish  literature. 

Dr.  Finck,  of  Marburg,  the  well-known  author  of  a  gram- 
mar and  dictionary  of  the  Aran  dialect,  and  his  sister.  Miss 
Finck,  have  completed  an  exhaustive  glossary  to  the  eight- 
eenth century  classic,  ''Donlevy,"  which  under  the  name  of 
''Contributions  to  Irish  Lexicography,"  I  have  begun  a 
middle  and  Early-Irish  dictionary  which  is  now  advanced  to 
the  letter  C.  Both  these  works  are  appearing  in  a  periodical 
entirely  devoted  to  the  Celtic  lexicography. 

Professor  Stern,  of  Berlin,  continues  his  researches  into 
the  language  and  literature  of  his  two  favorite  branches  of 
Celtic  speech,  Welsh  and  Scotch-Gaelic,  or  Albano-Gaelic,  as 
he  prefers  to  call  it.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  for  want  of 
support  his  projected  new  edition  of  the  oldest  Scotch  col- 


The  CIaelic  League  753 

lection  of  poetry,  the  "Book  of  the  Dean  of  Lismore,"  will 
not,  I  am  afraid,  see  the  light  of  day. 

There  are  quite  a  number  of  young  scholars  in  Germany 
now  devoting  attention  to  Celtic  studies  and  advancing  them 
by  their  own  researches  mainly  on  philological  lines,  among 
whom  I  will  mention  Drs.  Zupitza,  Foy  and  Summer.  But 
what  is  perhaps  the  most  hopeful  sign  is  the  spread  of  Celtic 
studies  during  the  last  few  years  to  Scandinavia,  to  Den- 
mark, Sweden  and  Norway,  where  several  brilliant  young 
scholars  have  by  their  work  in  Irish  grammar  at  once  taken 
their  places  among  the  foremost  rank  of  Celtic  scholars.  I 
refer  to  Professor  Holger  Pedersen,  a  pupil  of  Zimmer's,  to 
Dr.  Sarauw,  of  Copenhagen,  and  Dr.  Liden,  of  Gotenburg. 
Though  by  the  general  reader  such  purely  grammatical  work 
can  hardly  be  appreciated,  it  is  work  like  theirs  that  really 
lays  the  foundation  for  much,  I  had  almost  said,  for  every- 
thing else. 

As  Whitley  Stokes  once  said:  "We  must  thresh  and 
winnow  before  we  reap,"  and  I  may  add  that  if  in  threshing 
our  flails  sometimes  hit  a  fellow-worker  somewhat  harshly 
and  make  him  cry  out,  that  is  part  of  the  game.  Each  one 
receives  and  deals  his  blows  in  turn. 

In  France,  as  is  natural,  the  attention  of  Celtic  scholars 
turns  mainly  on  the  investigation  of  Gaulish  remains  and 
the  language  and  literature  of  Brittany.  The  discovery  of 
the  inscription  of  Coligny  has  lately  set  many  pens  in  motion. 
Through  the  exertions  of  French  and  Breton  scholars  the 
dialects  of  Brittany  are  better  studied  and  more  fully  de- 
scribed than  any  other  branch  of  living  Celtic  speech. 

But  French  scholars  do  not  neglect  Irish  or  Welsh.  In- 
deed Professor  Loth,  of  Rennes,  has  lately  been  doing  work 
which  we  should  more  naturally  expect  from  native  Welsh 
scholars.  His  translations  of  the  Mabinogion  is  a  great 
advance  on  Lady  Guest's  bowdlerized  version,  his  book  on 
Welsh  metrics  is  a  comprehensive  treatment  of  a  very  dif- 
ficult subject,  but  will  be  largely  corrected  and  supplemented 
by  Professor  Morris  Jones,  himself  next  to  the  venerable 
Archdruid,  one  of  the  foremost  masters  of  cynghanedd  in 
Wales.  Lastly,  French  scholars  have  lately  been  very  active 
in  working  at  that  most  complicated  of  all  Celtic  problems, 
the  Arthurian  legend  and  its  probable  Celtic  origins,  an 
activity  which  is  mainly  due  to  the  impulse  given  to  these 


754  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

studies  by  Professor  Zimmer's  epocH-making  investigations. 

Among  the  ranks  of  native  Breton  scholars  the  death  of 
M.  de  la  Borderie  leaves  a  breach  not  easily  filled.  Fortu- 
nately, he  had  completed,  before  his  death,  the  third  volume 
of  his  great  history  of  Bretany,  which  brings  the  history  of 
that  country  down  to  the  fourteenth  century. 

I  must  not  leave  the  continent  without  referring  to  Italy's 
contributions  to  Celtic  research.  Count  Nigra  has  indeed 
never  followed  up  his  promising  early  work  on  the  Old  Irish 
glosses,  but  Professor  Ascoli  is  still  continuing  to  work  on  his 
monumental  edition  of  the  Milan  and  St.  Gall  glosses  and 
the  Old  Irish  glossary  accompanying  it. 

Passing  now  in  my  review  to  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  I 
rejoice  to  be  able  to  record  a  great  activity  on  almost  all 
sides.  In  Wales  and  Ireland  especially,  owing  no  doubt  to  the 
activity  of  the  various  societies  for  the  preservation  and 
cultivation  of  the  national  language,  the  number  of  well- 
equipped  students  is  steadily  increasing,  and  work,  surpass- 
ing in  many  respects  that  of  the  older  generation  of  native 
scholars  is  being  published. 

In  his  island  home  at  Cowes,  Wliitley  Stokes,  the  doyen 
of  Celtic  scholars,  continues  his  life's  work  indefatigably 
and  with  unabated  vigor.  Among  the  many  and  varied  works 
by  which  he  has  lately  enriched  our  knowledge  of  early  Irish 
literature  I  will  mention  his  edition  of  the  **  Annals  of  Tiger- 
nach,"  of  the  **Amra  Colum  Cille,*'  and  a  complete  edition 
of  the  largest  Fenian,  or  Ossianic  tale,  the  **Agallamh  na 
SenoracL."  His  edition  and  translation  of  the  **Brmden  Da 
Derga,"  now  publishing  in  the  Revue  Celtique,  next  to  his 
*  *  Death  of  Cuchulinn, ' '  is,  in  my  opinion,  the  finest  rendering 
of  an  ancient  Irish  tale  that  has  yet  been  achieved. 

In  conjunction  with  Professor  Strachan,  Dr.  Stokes  is 
also  engaged  on  a  Thesaurus  of  all  Old  Irish  glosses,  inter- 
linear versions  and  other  pieces  of  prose  and  poetry,  the  first 
volume  of  which  is  soon  to  be  published  by  the  Cambridge 
University  Press.  At  the  same  press,  Standish  Hayes 
0 'Grady,  most  learned  of  all  native  Irish  scholars,  will  soon, 
I  hope,  bring  out  his  long-promised  edition  of  the  * '  Cathreim 
Toirdhealbhaigh, "  and  of  that  curious  version  of  Lucan's 
Pharsalia  known  as  the  *'Cath  Cahtarda."  Would  that  he 
might  also  continue  the  catalogue  of  the  Irish  MSS.  in  the 
British  Museum,  the  first  part  of  which  I  am  glad  to  hear  can 


The  Gaelic  League  755 

now  be  bought.  It  is,  as  I  have  had  occasion  before  to  say, 
not  only  the  first  reliable  printed  catalogue  of  any  large  col- 
lection of  Irish  MSS.,  but  the  editor's  fine  translations  and 
curious  notes  make  it  one  of  the  most  important  as  well  as 
most  delightful  Irish  books  ever  published— nor  is  there  any 
scholar  living  now  who  can  interpret  for  us  the  style  and  the 
spirit  of  bardic  poetry  in  so  masterly  a  manner.  Speaking  of 
catalogues,  I  may  here  mention  a  rumor  which  I  hope  is  true, 
that  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party  is,  next  session,  going  to 
ask  the  government  for  a  grant  towards  cataloguing  Irish 
MSS.  If  the  result  of  such  action  would  be  anything  like  what 
has  lately  been  done  for  Welsh  MSS.  by  the  indefatigable 
labors  of  Gwenogfryn  Evans,  Irish  students  will  have  reason 
to  congratulate  themselves.  Dr.  Norman  Moore,  the  trans- 
lator of  Windisch's  grammar,  has  completed  his  gallery  of 
biographies  of  Irish  Saints  and  Kings  in  the  ''Dictionary  of 
National  Biography."  I  myself  have  lately  drawn  to  light  a 
number  of  Early  Irish  poems,  a  "Dirge  of  Niall  of  the  Nine 
Hostages,"  the  ''Song  of  the  Cailleach  Beirre,"  the  "Song 
of  the  Sea,"  wrongly  ascribed  to  the  celebrated  poet  Rumann; 
the  "Song  of  Caroll's  Sword,"  a  fine  specimen  of  court- 
poetry  and  a  spirited  nature-poem  which  I  call  "King  and 
Hermit."  Most  of  these  poems  have  come  down  to  us  in 
comparatively  late  MSS.  only,  but  on  the  evidence  of  the 
language  we  are  justified  in  assigning  to  them  a  far  earlier 
origin.  Professors  Atkinson  and  Bernard  have  brought  out 
a  new  edition  of  the  "Liber  Hymnorum."  From  the  former, 
the  fifth  volume  of  the  Brehon  Laws,  now  considerably  over- 
due, is  eagerly  awaited.  The  Irish  Texts  Society  has  added 
a  third  volume  to  its  series  in  the  poems  of  Egan  O'Rahilly, 
admirably  edited  by  the  Rev.  P.  S.  Dineen,  from  whom,  I  hear, 
we  may  soon  expect  an  edition  of  the  poetry  of  Owen  Roe 
0 'Sullivan. 

The  Gaelic  League  has  also  started  an  Irish  Text  Series, 
beginning  with  a  volume  of  "Keating's  Poems,"  edited  by 
Rev.  J.  C.  McErlean,  which  I  hope  they  will  soon  follow  up 
with  collections  of  the  works  of  other  bards. 

Prom  Mr.  John  McNeill  we  are  soon,  I  hear,  to  have  an 
edition  of  the  so-called  "Duanaire  Finn,"  a  collection  of 
Ossianic  poems. 

Since  Professor  Zimmer  redirected  attention  to  the  im- 
portant part  played  by  the  Norse  invaders  in  the  history. 


756  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

language  and  literature  of  Ireland,  contributions  to  our 
knowledge  of  this  period  have  come  from  various  quarters.  I 
refer  to  the  study  of  Irish-Norse  relations,  by  Professor 
Sophus  Bugge,  Dr.  Craigie,  of  Oxford,  and  Miss  Faraday, 
and  may  be  allowed  to  mention  that  Dr.  Alexander  Bugge  has 
come  to  Dublin  to  further  work  this  field  at  the  record  office, 
and  in  the  Royal  Irish  Academy,  where  he  is  sure  to  find 
much  unpublished  material.  It  gives  me  particular  pleasure 
to  announce  that  a  pupil  of  mine,  Richard  0 'Donovan,  a 
son  of  the  late  Dr.  John  0 'Donovan,  is  going  to  supplement 
his  father's  edition  of  the  ''Annals  of  the  Four  Masters"  by 
a  much-needed  Index  Rerum. 

Mr.  Gwynne  has  boldly  tackled  the  difficult  ''Dinsenchas'* 
poems,  which  he  has  chosen  for  his  subject.  From  his  father, 
Profesor  Gwynne,  we  may  expect  an  edition  of  the  ''Book  of 
Annagh. ' ' 

Mr.  Douglas  Hyde  has  been  the  first  since  the  days  of 
O'Reilly  to  attempt  a  literary  history  of  Ireland,  and  he 
continues  his  series  of  ursgeula  of  which  the  third  part  has 
lately  appeared.  Dr.  Hogan  has  brought  out  a  most  useful 
Irish  herbal  under  the  title  of  "Luibhleabhran,"  and  is,  I 
hear,  engaged  on  an  Irish  Onomartican,  or  "Thesaurus  of 
Place-names,"  which  will  be  a  great  boon  to  students. 

In  the  United  States,  Celtic  studies  are  beginning  to  take 
root.  The  Rev.  Professor  Henebry  has  begun  printing  and 
translating  O'Donnell's  "Life  of  St.  Colum  Cille."  Pro- 
fessor Robinson,  of  Harvard,  has  collected  the  Early  Irish 
sagas  and  poems,  bearing  on  Chaucer's  tale  of  the  "Wife  of 
Bath,"  which  he  will  publish  in  the  Grimm  Library.  The 
same  scholar  is  engaged  on  an  edition  of  the  Middle-Irish 
versions  of  the  "Sir  Bevis  of  Hampton." 

Of  all  Celtic  countries,  Scotland,  for  some  reason,  con- 
tributes least  to  Celtic  research.  The  valuable  collection  of 
Gaelic  MSS.  at  the  Advocate's  Library  still  remains  uncat- 
alogued  and  unpublished. 

If  it  were  not  for  that  indefatigable  worker.  Dr.  Alexander 
Macbain,  and  the  Gaelic  Society  of  Inverness,  very  little 
progress  would  have  to  be  recorded,  and  yet  there  is  nowhere 
apparently  so  much  general  interest  taken  in  all  questions 
bearing  on  the  early  history  of  that  country  as  in  Scotland. 
Macbain 's  *' Gaelic  Etymological  Dictionary"  is  already  out 
of  print,  and  a  new  improved  and  enlarged  edition  may  be 


The  Gaelic  League  757 

expected;  meanwhile,  the  only  valuable  contribution  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  literature  of  Gaelic  Scotland  which  has 
lately  ai)peared  is  Mr.  Carmichael's  ''Carmina  Gadelica,"  a 
large  collection  of  native  folk-lore  of  the  most  varied  and 
surprising  interest,  of  which  not  only  Celtic  students,  but 
Teutonic  also  will  have  to  take  account.  Where  there  was  so 
much,  is  sure  to  be  much  more,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
these  dying  traditions  will  be  rescued  before  it  is  too  late. 

The  smallest  Celtic  land,  the  Isle  of  Man,  puts  Scotland 
to  shame  by  the  activity  of  its  scholars.  To  mention  only  the 
chief  event  of  the  year,  Mr.  A.  W.  Moore  has  brought  out  a 
comprehensive  history  of  the  island,  from  which  it  appears 
that  the  pre-Norse  history  of  the  island  has  not  yet  been 
worked  out  from  Irish  sources,  which  still  contain  a  good  deal 
of  unpublished  material  on  early  events  in  that  island. 

Mr.  Kermore  may,  I  hear,  be  soon  exjiected  to  publish  a 
revised  and  enlarged  edition  of  his  ''Manx  Runic  and  Ogam 
Inscriptions. ' ' 

In  Wales,  the  self-inflicted  death  of  Charles  Ashton,  the 
literary  policeman  of  Dinas  Mawddwy,  has  been  a  severe  blow 
to  Welsh  scholarship.  His  ''History  of  AVelsh  Literature'* 
and  his  edition  of  the  works  of  lolo  Goch  remain  as  a  re- 
markable monument  to  the  erudition  of  a  man  who  was 
entirely  self-taught. 

Professor  Lewis  Jones,  of  Bangor,  under  the  title  of 
Canadian  Cymru,  has  published  an  anthology  of  Welsh 
poetry  of  the  last  two  centuries,  from  "Haw  Morus"  to 
"Ceiriog  Hughes,"  while  his  colleague  and  namesake,  Morris 
Jones,  has  produced  a  fine  edition  of  Ellis  Wynne's  "Bardd 
Cwsg."  Professor  Anwji,  of  Aberystwyth,  has  published  the 
most  scholarly  "Grammar  of  Welsh,"  and  continues  his  re- 
searches into  the  origin  and  structure  of  the  Mabinogion. 
A  society  has  been  formed  in  Cardiff,  under  the  name  of 
Cymdeithas  Lien  Cjiuru,  for  the  publication  of  the  works  of 
less-known  poets.  Two  little  volumes,  daintily  got  up,  have 
already  appeared.  Canon  Silvan  Evans,  the  veteran  of  the 
Welsh  phololog\%  in  spite  of  his  eighty-five  years,  continues 
to  work  at  his  "Welsh-English  Dictionary,"  of  which  we  may 
soon  expect  a  new  installment.  Professor  Rhys,  in  co-opera- 
tion with  Mr.  Brynmor  Jones,  under  the  title  of  the  "Welsh 
People,"  has  brought  out  a  volume  full  of  the  most  varied 
information,  but  one  regrets  to  find  it  in  a  paper  by  Morri 


758  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Jones,  on  linguistic  relations  between  the  Welsh  and  certain 
North  African  peoples.  Professor  Rhys  has  also  collected 
his  scattered  articles  on  Welsh  folk-lore  into  two  large  vol- 
umes. It  is  surprising  to  see  how  little  folk-lore  there  is  left 
in  Wales. 

I  am  now  at  the  end  of  my  rapid  sketch.  Having  given 
you,  I  hope,  a  picture  of  a  remarkable  display  of  activity  all 
along  the  line,  I  should  now  like  to  point  out  that  two  great 
needs  in  Irish  studies  still  remain  unsupplied— a  Dictionary 
and  a  Reader.  There  are,  or  were,  rumors  of  a  forthcoming 
dictionary  from  more  than  one  side,  but  there  seems  no  imme- 
diate prospect  of  their  realization. 

Let  me  entreat  those  who  have  made  lexicographical  col- 
lections of  whatever  kind  to  follow  my  example,  and  publish 
them  boldly,  incomplete  or  incoherent  as  they  may  be.  In 
lexicographical  work  nothing  that  adds  the  least  to  our  knowl- 
edge can  come  amiss. 

It  has  been  one  of  the  curses  of  Celtic  studies  that  so  much 
valuable  work  of  this  kind  has  been  lost,  and  has  to  be  done 
over  again  by  another  generation,  perhaps  not  so  well 
equipped  for  the  task.  There  are,  e.  g.,  to  mention  only  one 
deplorable  fact,  at  Maynooth,  two  huge  folio  volumes,  the 
MSS.  dictionary  of  0 'Curry,  inaccessible  to  almost  all  Irish 
students,  which,  if  it  had  been  printed,  like  0 'Donovan's  well- 
known  supplement  to  O'Reilly,  would  have  proved  an  incal- 
culable boon,  and  would  have  materially  advanced  our  studies. 

The  compilation  of  an  Irish  dictionary  on  the  scale  of  the 
great  standard  dictionaries  of  other  more  fortunate  languages 
is  a  task  beyond  the  powers  of  this  generation.  That  cannot 
be  undertaken  till  the  great  bulk  of  Irish  literature  is  avail- 
able in  trustworthy  edition. 

As  regards  the  Reader,  such  a  work  might  far  more  easily 
be  undertaken  now,  and  the  benefit  it  would  convey  on  the 
beginner  would  be  very  great. 

It  should  contain  a  well-chosen  series  of  ancient  and  mod- 
ern texts  in  normalized  spelling,  so  as  not  to  deter  the  begin- 
ner by  the  infinite  vagaries  of  the  scribes,  and  it  should  be 
accompanied  by  a  glossary. 

In  Welsh,  too,  a  publication  of  this  kind  would  be  most 
desirable.  Nothing  would  so  much  popularize  Celtic  studies 
as  the  appearance  of  such  books.  Meanwhile  the  ''Gaelic 
Journal"  and  the  "An  Claidheamh  Solius"  might  do  much 


The  Gaelic  League  759 

by  giving  us  still  more  modern  texts  from  such  collections  as 
that  at  Maynooth,  where  on  a  cursory  inspection,  I  was 
astonished  to  find  volume  after  volume  of  the  most  excellent 
modern  or  comparatively  modern  prose,  such  as  one  of  the 
''Gesta  llomanorum,"  etc. 

I  cannot  conclude  without  casting  a  glance  into  the  future. 
I  am  convinced  that  the  present  is  but  the  beginning  of  an 
era  of  still  greater  activity  in  all  departments  of  Celtic 
studies.     Everything  points  to  that. 

The  more  reliable  textbooks  and  handbooks  will  be  pub- 
lished, the  greater  will  be  the  numbers  of  those  taking  up 
Celtic  studies.  As  the  fields  of  other  more  ancient  and  more 
recognized  studies  become  exhausted,  there  will  come  a  rush 
of  students  on  to  the  fresh,  and  often,  almost  virgin  soil  of 
Celtic  research,  to  study  the  great  Celtic  civilization  at  its 
source,  to  collect  the  last  lingering  remnants  of  a  mighty 

tradition. 

Again  and  again  it  has  happened  during  recent  years  that 
workers  in  other  subjects  have  in  their  researches  finally  been 
led  on  to  Celtic  soil,  where  lie  the  roots  of  much  mediaeval  lore, 
of  many  institutions,  of  important  phases  of  thought. 

And  another  thing,  too,  I  will  foretell.  The  rediscovery, 
as  it  were,  of  ancient  Celtic  literature  will  not  only  arouse 
abroad  a  greater  interest  in  the  Celtic  nations,  but  it  will  lead 
to  beneficial  results  among  those  nations  themselves.  All  that 
is  needed  is  to  overcome  indifference  and  ignorance. 

I  have  never  yet  known  the  Irishman  or  Irishwoman  who 
were  not  in  heart  of  hearts  proud  of  their  beautiful  native 
land,  and  loved  it  with  a  far-brought  love,  a  love  out  of  the 
storied  past;  who  were  not  proud  of  their  men  and  women; 
who  did  not  think  of  them  as  every  patriot  ought  the  best 
and  noblest  and  fairest  in  the  world.  From  that  love  will 
spring  a  wider  and  a  greater  Ireland,  than  an  Ireland  of  party 
and  faction.  I  do  not  despair  that  even  Professor  Mahaffy, 
whose  brilliant  wit  and  ready  satire  too  often  give  the  lie  to 
his  true  Irish  heart,  will  be  a  contented  citizen  of  that  greater 
Ireland,  and  that  a  tune  will  come  when  he  and  men  like  him 
will  be  proud  of  that  precious  inheritance  of  their  nation,  their 
great  and  noble  literature,  which  is  the  envy  of  other  nations, 
and  in  which,  with  its  history,  its  poetry  and  all  its  associa- 
tions, a  basis  of  union  will  be  found  for  all  Irishmen  of  what- 
ever race  and  creed. 


760 


Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 


It  has  been  so  in  Scotland,  where  Walter  Scott,  and  Burns ; 
aye,  and  the  much-abused  Macpherson,  and  the  songs  of  the 
Highlands,  the  ballads  of  the  Lowlands,  coupled  with  the  love 
of  the  native  land,  have  been  more  potent  to  bring  about  a 
reconciliation  and  a  union  of  hearts  and  hands  than  the  heavy 
and  multiplex  and  blundering  apparatus  of  politics.  And  to 
a  similar  union,  based  on  an  ideal  and  lasting  sentiment,  we 
may  confidently  look  forward  for  Ireland,  who  shall  then  once 
more  take  that  proud  and  honored  place  among  the  nations 
of  the  world  which  is  hers  by  right,  and  of  which  blind,  cruel 
and  unreasoning  fate  has  so  long  deprived  her. 


Composed  from'.Book  of  Kells. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

IRISH    MANUSCRIPT   LITERATURE. 

Bij  T.  O'Neil  Hu.ssell. 

The  fact  of  the  general  interest  awakened  by  Irish,  or,  to 
speak  more  correctly,  Gaelic  literature  is  a  hopeful  sign  for 
the  Irish  race  at  home  and  abroad.  This  interest  has  been 
steadily  growing  for  more  than  forty  years,  and  owes  its 
origin  in  a  great  measure  to  the  talent,  research  and  unceas- 
ing labors  of  Dr.  John  0 'Donovan. 

Before  his  time  nothing,  or  next  to  nothing,  was  known 
about  the  contents  of  the  massive  tomes  and  musty,  leathern- 
looking  rolls  of  manuscript  that  were  thrust  into  out-of-the- 
way  nooks  in  the  libraries  of  Trinity  College,  the  Royal  Irish 
Academy  and  many  other  places.  The  writer  remembers  the 
feelings  of  surprise,  mingled  with  a  good  deal  of  incredulity, 
with  which  the  first  of  Mr.  0 'Donovan's  translations  was 
received  by  the  public. 

It  appeared  in  the  Dublin  Penny  Journal,  and  was  sup- 
posed, with  very  good  show  of  probability,  to  have  been  the 
composition  of  Cormac,  Chief  King  of  Ireland  in  the  third 
century.  It  was  entitled  ''Advice  to  a  Prince."  It  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  and  curious  pieces  that  has  yet  been 
translated  from  Gaelic;  indeed,  it  is  so  excellent,  and  shows 
such  a  high  morality  and  culture  on  the  part  of  its  author, 
that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  readers  of  the  Dublin 
Penny  Journal  unhesitatingly  set  it  down  as  a  forgery,  and 
classed  it  in  the  same  category  as  MacPherson's  ''Ossian." 
There  were  so  few  then  alive  who  knew  anything  about  Old 
Gaelic  that  it  was  next  to  impossible  to  prove  whether  0 'Don- 
ovan's translation  was  correct  or  not,  although  he  gave  the 
name  of  the  manuscript  from  which  it  was  taken.  0 'Donovan, 
however,  was  not  a  man  to  be  discouraged  by  the  remarks 
of  prejudiced  or  ignorant  people.  He  went  on  making  trans- 
lations, and  although  the  masses  took  little  or  no  interest  in 
them,  some  of  the  learned  were  impressed  with  their  beauty. 

Never  had  any  kind  of  literature  to  make  its  way  to  public 
esteem  through  such  difficulties  as  the  books  translated  by 

761 


762  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

0 'Donovan.  Very  few  Irishmen  took  any  interest  in  them, 
and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  Englishman  had  any  regard  for 
them  whatever. 

The  reviews  and  criticisms  of  the  Athenaeum  and  the 
Saturday  Revieiv,  and  such  of  the  English  press  as  deigned  to 
notice  them,  were  the  most  curious  compounds  of  ignorance, 
bad  taste  and  prejudice  possible  to  conceive.  Here  were 
translations  from  the  oldest  class  of  manuscripts  in  Europe, 
and  one  would  suj^pose  that  great  cosmopolitan  literary  Lon- 
don would  have  gone  half  wild  with  delight  over  the  quaint- 
ness,  originality,  and  unmistakable  antiquity  of  such  curious 
and  beautiful  pieces  as  the  "Book  of  Rights,"  the  "Battle 
of  Magh  Rath,"  the  "Circuit  of  Ireland,"  by  Muirceartarch 
MacNeill;  the  "Topographical  Poems  of  O'Heerin  and 
O'Dugan,"  "St.  Patrick's  Hymn  at  Tara,"  etc. 

Had  translations  of  equal  merit  been  made  from  any  other 
language  under  heaven,  had  the  treasures  of  any  other  litera- 
ture that  had  lain  hidden  for  a  thousand  years,  suddenly  been 
poured  on  the  London  literary  world,  as  0 'Donovan's  transla- 
tions were,  the  whole  tribe  of  scribblers  would  have  set  to  work 
to  write  reviews  and  treatises  on  them,  and  the  translator 
would  have  made  a  pile  of  money.  But  the  fact  was  that  the 
translations  fell  dead  from  the  press ;  the  Irish  public  did  not 
buy  them,  and  English  re\iewers  and  litterateurs  sneered  at 
them  and  0  'Donovan  made  no  money  except  the  small  pittance 
allowed  him  by  the  Royal  Irish  Academy. 

By  degrees,  however,  slowly  but  surely,  a  widespread  and 
general  interest  began  to  be  awakened  about  Irish  literature. 
In  one  quarter  it  began  to  be  thoroughly  appreciated,  and 
that  was  in  Germany.  Very  soon  the  learned  of  that  country, 
free,  as  a  class,  from  political  prejudices  as  they  undoubtedly 
are,  turned  their  attention  to  the  study  of  the  ancient  lan- 
guage and  lore  of  Erin.  Zeuss  was  first  amongst  the  Germans 
to  go  seriously  to  work  to  study  Celtic.  Stimulated  by  the 
great  achievements  of  0  'Donovan,  and  having  plenty  of  Irish 
manuscripts  of  great  antiquity  in  the  libraries  of  his  own  and 
adjoining  countries,  he,  after  thirteen  years'  hard  work,  pro- 
duced the  celebrated  "Grammatica  Celtica,"  which  treats  of 
the  kindred  languages  to  Gaelic  as  well  as  of  Gaelic  itself; 
that  is,  it  contains  a  grammar  of  Welsh,  Breton  and  the  dead 
dialect  of  Cornwall. 

The  example  shown  by  Zeuss  was  followed  by  many  in 


The  Gaelic  League  763 

Germany,  and  a  host  of  Celtic  scholars  sprung  up  in  that 
country;  amongst  whom  the  names  of  Bopp,  Ebel,  Griimn, 
Zimmer,  Windisch,  and  Zimmennan  are  best  known.  France, 
too,  contributed  some  excellent  Celtic  savants,  foremost  among 
them  we  may  mention  the  name  of  H.  D'Arbois  de  Jubain- 
ville,  editor  of  the  Revue  Celtique. 

With  the  single  exception  of  Dr.  Atkinson,  professor  of 
Sanskrit  in  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  England  has  not  up  to 
this  time  produced  a  single  Celtic  scholar.  Dr.  Atkinson's 
training  in  Celtic  is  from  Ireland.  The  only  English  author 
that  has  taken  any  notice  whatever  of  Gaelic  literature  is 
Matthew  Arnold.  His  noble  w^ork,  '' Celtic  Literature," 
stamps  him  not  only  as  a  scholar,  but  the  most  un-English 
of  Englishmen,  inasmuch  as  he  is  not  prejudiced,  and  is 
ready  to  acknowledge  merit  wherever  he  finds  it,  even  though 
it  be  in  the  ancient  literature  of  Ireland. 

There  are,  however,  within  the  borders  of  England  at  the 
present  time  some  of  the  best,  if  not  the  best,  Celtic  scholars 
in  the  world.  Foremost  we  will  mention  Dr.  Whitley  Stokes, 
of  London ;  Dr.  Standish  Hayes  0  'Grady  and  Professor  Kuno 
Meyer.  Dr.  Meyer  is  connected  with  the  University  College, 
Liverpool,  and  although  a  German,  is  a  most  distinguished 
Celtic  scholar. 

Amidst  all  the  gloom  and  discouragement  which  sur- 
rounded the  early  labors  of  0 'Donovan  and  his  fellow  worker 
0 'Curry,  in  spite  of  the  lamentable  fact  that  even  their  own 
countrymen  did  not  fully  appreciate  their  labors,  there  is  one 
thing  connected  with  the  revival  of  Irish  literature  for  which 
Irishmen  have  just  reason  to  feel  proud.  There  is  one  insti- 
tution in  Ireland  without  which  the  early  literature  of  our 
country  would  jorobably  be  as  little  known  to-day  as  it  was  a 
hundred  years  ago.  That  institution  is  the  Royal  Irish 
Academy,  Dublin. 

It  was  mostly  from  its  slender  funds  that  0 'Donovan  was 
remunerated  for  his  gigantic  labors;  it  is  there  most  of  the 
priceless  treasures  of  the  art  and  literature  of  Ireland's 
ancient  days  of  freedom  and  culture  have  found  a  safe  and 
honored  resting-place.  It  is  the  most  hallowed  spot  on  Irish 
soil.  Its  Museum  of  Antiquities  is  the  most  unique,  the  most 
interesting,  and,  for  its  size,  the  most  valuable  in  the  world. 

There  are  to  be  seen  treasures  in  gold  ornamentation,  of 
.workmanship  infinitely  superior  to  anything  at  the  present 


764  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

day.  Among  them  the  Tara  Brooch,  the  ' '  Chalice  of  Ardagh ' ' 
and  the  ''Cross  of  Cong"  are  the  most  remarkable.  It  is 
there  also  that  the  most  noted  and  ancient  manuscripts  are 
deposited.  ' '  The  Book  of  Armagh, ' '  the  * '  Book  of  Leinster, ' ' 
the  "Book  of  Lecain,"  the  ''Speckled  Book,"  the  "Book  of 
Fermoy,"  and  many  other  priceless  tomes  are  all  in  the  keep- 
ing of  this  institution.  Too  great  praise  cannot  be  given  the 
members  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy  for  their  genuine  zeal, 
patriotism  and  liberalitj^ 

The  institution  was  founded  by  Protestant  gentlemen  over 
a  hundred  years  ago,  but  it  never  in  the  slightest  degree  par- 
took of  a  sectarian  character.  Catholic  members  were  will- 
ingly received,  and  now  fully  half  its  members  are  Catholics. 
It  was,  in  fact,  solely  through  the  means  of  the  Irish  Academy 
that  the  treasures  of  ancient  Irish  literature  were  brought 
under  the  notice  of  the  world.  0 'Donovan  might  have  been 
a  genius,  but  if  there  were  no  institution  to  take  advantage  of 
his  genius,  or  set  it  to  work,  and,  above  all,  to  pay  for  it, 
Celtic  manuscripts  would  probably  be  as  little  known  or  cared 
about  to-day  as  they  were  when  the  institution  was  founded. 

The  Royal  Irish  Academy  has  performed  one  most  im- 
portant work,  and  that  is  the  copying  or  making  fac-similes 
of  some  of  the  most  ancient  and  valuable  Irish  manuscripts. 
The  "Leabhar  na  h-Uidhre,"  or  "Book  of  the  Dun  Cow," 
the  "Book  of  Ballymote,"  the  "Book  of  Leinster,"  the 
"Leabhar  Breac"  and  the  "Book  of  Lecain"— some  of  these 
tomes  contain  more  matter  than  the  Bible.  Several  hundred 
copies  of  each  have  been  printed  off,  and  they  are  so  faithful 
copies  that  even  the  mistakes  of  the  originals  are  reproduced. 
The  work  of  copying  is  one  that  requires  great  skill,  time  and 
patience. 

The  importance  of  this  work  can  hardly  be  overestimated, 
as  the  slightest  accident  from  fire  might  at  any  time  cause 
the  loss  of  these  treasures  of  ancient  Irish  learning. 

When  we  consider  the  quantity  of  ancient  Irish  manu- 
scripts that  yet  exists,  and  the  immense  number  that  must 
have  been  destroyed  by  Danes,  Normans  and  Cromwellians, 
we  feel  astonished  at  the  literary  activity  of  ancient  Ireland. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  are  more  untranslated  Irish  manu- 
scripts of  the  Middle  Ages  yet  extant  than  there  are  in  all 
the  other  European  languages  put  together. 

There  are  over  one  thousand  volumes    of    untranslated 


The  Oaelic  League  7fi5 

matter  in  Dublin,  some  of  them  as  old  as  tlie  eighth  and  ninth 
centuries;  tliere  are  many  hundred  volumes  in  the  different 
libraries  in  England;  the  quantity  on  the  Continent  is  very 
large,  the  exact  number  is  not  known ;  Irish  manuscripts  are 
known  to  exist  in  many  of  the  old  towns  of  France,  Germany, 
the  Low  Countries,  Italy,  and  perhaps  also  Spain;  in  fact, 
in  most  places  on  the  Continent  where  monastic  institutions 
existed  in  the  middle  ages. 

It  is  a  great  pity  that  some  steps  are  not  taken  to  collect, 
and,  if  possible,  to  purchase  those  venerable  relics  of  the  past. 
The  British  Government  is  in  duty  bound  to  do  it.  If  Ireland 
were  mistress  of  her  own  destinies  there  is  no  doubt  but  it 
would  be  done. 

England  has  undertaken  the  government  of  Ireland,  has 
put  herself  in  the  place  of  Ireland,  and  is  in  duty  bound  to 
do  her  best  to  preserve  the  ancient  records  and  literature  of 
the  country  she  has  conquered.  Besides,  the  treasures  of  the 
past  are  in  a  great  measure  the  property  of  humanity.  Eng- 
lishmen, Frenclmien  and  Germans  are  alike  interested  in  pre- 
serving the  antiquities  of  Greece,  Eg>^pt  and  Assyria,  and 
why  should  not  the  antiquities  of  Ireland  be  equally  precious? 

If  Saxon  manuscripts  were  known  to  exist  in  the  same 
abundance  in  Continental  libraries  as  Irish  manuscripts, 
England  would  spend  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pounds  in 
purchasing  them.  Private  enterprise  can  never  accomplish 
such  a  work,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  expense  would 
be  too  great.  The  Royal  Irish  Academy  would  undoubtedly 
have  taken  some  steps  ere  now  to  purchase  as  many  as  pos- 
sible of  the  Irish  manuscripts  on  the  Continent  if  its  funds 
were  large  enough.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  something  will  soon 
be  done  in  this  matter,  either  by  public  or  private  enter- 
prise. 

Unfortunate  as  Ireland  has  been  politically,  she  has  been 
still  more  unfortunate  in  respect  to  her  literature  and  lan- 
guage. The  wars  of  the  seventeenth  century  were  more  de- 
structive to  her  literature  than  to  her  liberty,  for  fire  and 
sword  are  powerless  against  the  one,  but  potent  against  the 
other.  The  spirit  of  liberty  may  laugh  at  the  incendiary  sol- 
dier, but  the  books  he  burns  are  lost  forever. 

The  early  and  mediaeval  literature  of  Ireland  sustained 
more  losses  through  wars  and  burnings  than  the  literature  of 
any  other  nation  in  the  world.    What  the  Danes  spared  the 


766  Ireland's  Crovv'n  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Normans  destroyed,  and  what  escaped  them  were  burned  by 
the  Cromwellians.  Even  the  eighteenth  century,  compara- 
tively peaceful  as  it  was  for  Ireland,  was  the  time  when  as 
cruel  a  blow  as  ever  was  dealt  fell  on  Celtic  literature,  and 
was  dealt  by  James  Macpherson  and  his  coadjutors. 

The  publication  of  the  so-called  poems  of  Ossian,  in  spite 
of  the  temporary  excitement  they  created,  invested  everything 
Celtic  with  a  stigma  of  forgery  and  falsity.  The  people  who 
had  been  deceived  by  Macpherson  determined  never  to  be 
deceived  again  by  anything  Celtic. 

Here  we  have  the  principal  cause  of  the  indifference  and 
coldness  with  which  0 'Donovan's  translations  were  received 
by  the  public.  But  Macpherson  and  his  coadjutors  were 
guilty  of  a  still  greater  crime  than  forgery  of  historical  char- 
acters and  distortion  of  historical  facts;  they  went  further 
than  any  literary  charlatans  ever  went  before,  for  they  forged 
a  language. 

It  is  now  well  known  that  the  language  of  modern  Scotch 
Gaelic  first  appeared  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century; 
previous  to  that  time  whatever  books  or  manuscripts  existed 
in  Gaelic  in  Scotland,  whether  written  in  old  Gaelic  characters 
or  in  Roman,  agreed  with  the  language  of  Ireland  in  or- 
thography and  syntax.  It  may  be  admitted  that  the  High- 
landers had  some  peculiarities  of  pronunciation  that  differed 
from  those  of  Ireland,  but  the  written  language  was  the  same 
as  ours. 

This  is  abundantly  proved  by  ''CarswelPs  Liturgy,"  and 
many  other  existing  books  of  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries.  To  this  day  the  language  of  the  poorest 
and  least  educated  Highlander  is  more  like  Irish  than  the 
jargon  into  which  the  Bible  has  been  translated  for  him.  It 
can  be  easily  understood  how  much  Gaelic  literature  has  suf- 
fered by  having  the  Scotch  cut  themselves  off  from  the  Irish 
in  the  manner  described.  Had  the  Gaelic  language  been 
preserved  in  its  purity  in  Scotland  the  probability  is  that 
Celtic  would  be  to-day  a  well  known  and  fashionable  speech, 
for  the  literary  activity  of  Scotland  would  have  brought  it 
prominently  under  the  notice  of  the  world.  Scotland  could 
have  done  this  better  than  Ireland,  for  Ireland  was,  all 
through  the  eighteenth  century,  in  a  state  of  political  and 
religious  turmoil  that  rendered  literary  effort  of  any  kind 
impossible. 


The  Gaelic  League  -  7()7 

Another  cause  of  the  ignorance  and  coldness  about  Irish 
literature  is  the  unfortunate  fact  that  the  editors  and  writers 
of  Irish  newspapers  are,  and  have  been  as  a  class,  utterly 
ignorant  about  the  ancient  language  and  literature  of  their 
country.  They  would  find  room  for  the  worthless  utterance 
of  some  demagogue,  when  they  would  grudge  a  short  para- 
graph on  one  of  O 'Donovan's  or  0 'Curry's  wonderful  trans- 
lations. I  can  think  of  but  one  man  connected  with  a  paper 
or  periodical  in  Ireland  imtil  within  ten  or  twelve  years  that 
published  even  one  column  of  original  matter  in  the  language 
of  our  country.  This  is  enough  to  make  any  one  with  the 
smallest  pretensions  to  patriotism  blush  alike  for  his  country 
and  countrymen. 

Whether  the  present  widespread  desire  amongst  the  Irish 
at  home  and  abroad  to  become  familiar  with  their  native  lan- 
guage and  literature  will  continue  or  not  is  hard  to  say,  but 
if  it  lasts  only  a  few  years  longer  it  will  have  accomplished 
enough  to  insure  the  language  a  lengthened  existence,  for  in  a 
short  time  there  will  be  enough  people  able  to  read  it  to 
insure  a  remunerative  sale  for  a  current  literature  in  Irish. 
Five  years  from  now,  with  the  language  taught  in  the  national 
schools,  there  will  be  such  a  general  knowledge  of  it  that  we 
may  see  newspapers  and  periodicals  printed  entirely  in  Gaelic 
instead  of  partially  as  at  present. 


SECTION  VIII. 


GREAT  SPEECHES  ON  GREAT 
OCCASIONS 

SPARKLING  GEMS  FROM  THE  JEWEL  HOUSE 
OF  IRELAND'S  UNRIVALED  ORATORY 


ROBERT  EMMET,  THOMAS  FRANCIS  MEAGHER,  A.  M.  SULLIVAN, 

CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL,  THOAUS  SEXTON,  REV. 

DR.  CHARLES  O'REILLY,  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN, 

JOHN  F.  FINERTY. 


'69 


GREAT  SPEECHES  ON  GREAT 
OCCASIONS 


emmet's  speech  in  the  dock  SEPTEMBER  19th,  1803. 

**My  Lords:— I  am  asked  what  have  I  to  say  why  sentence  of 
death  should  not  be  pronounced  on  me,  according  to  law.  I  have 
nothing  to  say  that  can  alter  your  predetermination,  nor  that  it  will 
become  me  to  say,  with  any  view  to  the  mitigation  of  that  sentence 
which  you  are  to  pronounce,  and  by  which  I  must  abide.  But  I  have 
that  to  say  which  interests  me  more  than  life,  and  which  you  have  la- 
bored to  destroy.  I  have  much  to  say  why  my  reputation  should  be  res- 
cued from  the  load  of  false  accusation  and  calumny  which  has  been  cast 
upon  it.  I  do  not  imagine  that,  seated  where  you  are,  your  minds 
can  be  so  free  from  prejudice  as  to  receive  the  least  impression  from 
what  I  am  going  to  utter.  I  have  no  hopes  that  I  can  anchor  my 
character  in  the  breast  of  a  court  constituted  and  trammelled  as 
this  is.  I  only  wish,  and  that  is  the  utmost  that  I  expect,  that  your 
lordships  may  suffer  it  to  float  down  your  memories  untainted  by 
the  foul  breath  of  prejudice,  until  it  finds  some  more  hospitable 
harbor  to  shelter  it  from  the  storms  by  which  it  is  at  present  buffeted. 
Were  I  only  to  suffer  death,  after  being  adjudged  guilty  by  your  tribu- 
nal, I  should  bow  in  silence  and  meet  the  fate  that  awaits  me  without  a 
murmur;  but  the  sentence  of  the  law  which  delivers  my  body  to  the 
executioner  will,  through  the  ministry  of  the  law,  labor  for  its  o^yn 
vindication,  to  consign  my  character  to  obloquy;  for  there  must  be 
guilt  somewhere,  whether  in  the  sentence  of  the  court  or  in  the 
catastrophe,  time  must  determine.  A  man  in  my  situation  has  not 
only  to  encounter  the  difficulties  of  fortune,  and  the  force  of  power 
over  minds  which  it  has  corrupted  or  subjugated,  but  the  difficultieg 
of  established  prejudice.  The  man  dies,  but  his  memory  lives. 
That  mine  may  not  perish,  that  it  may  live  in  the  respect  ot  my 
countrymen,  I  seize  upon  this  opportunity  to  vindicate  myselt  trora 
some  of  the  charges  alleged  against  me.  When  my  spirit  sha  1  be 
wafted  to  a  more  friendly  port— when  my  shade  shall  have  joined  the 
bands  of  those  martyred  heroes  who  have  shed  their  blood  on  the 
scaffold  and  in  the  field  in  defense  of  their  country,  and  ot  virtue— 
this  my  hope— I  wish  that  my  memory  and  name  may  animate  those 
who  survive  me,  while  I  look  down  with  complacency  on  the  destruc- 
tion of  that  perfidious  government  which  upholds  its  domination  by 
blasphemy  of  the  IMost  High-which  displays  its  power  over  man, 
as  over  the  beasts  of  the  forest-which  sets  man  upon  his  brother 
and  lifts  his  hand  in  the  name  of  God,  against  the  throat  of  lis 
fellow  who  believes  or  doubts  a  little  fl^l^^^^^l^^^^^^f^^  *^^^^^ 
government  standard-a  government  which  is  steeled  to  barbaiity  by 
the  cries  of  the  orphans,  and  the  tears  of  the  widows  it  has  macle. 
(At  this  point  Mr.  Emmett  was  interrupted  by  Lord  Norbury, 

771 


772  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

who  said  ''That  the  mean  and  wicked  enthusiasts  who  felt  as  he  did 
were  not  equal  to  the  accomplishment  of  their  wild  designs.") 

' '  I  appeal  to  the  immaculate  God — I  swear  by  the  throne  of  Heav- 
en before  which  I  must  shortly  appear — by  the  blood  of  the  murdered 
patriots  who  have  gone  before  me— that  my  conduct  has  been,  through 
all  this  peril,  and  through  all  my  purposes,  governed  only  by  the 
conviction  which  I  have  uttered,  and  by  no  other  view  than  that 
of  the  emancipation  of  my  country  from  the  superinhuman  oppres- 
sion under  which  she  has  so  long  and  too  patiently  travailed;  and 
I  confidently  hope  that,  wild  and  chimerical  as  it  may  appear,  there 
is  still  union  and  strength  in  Ireland  to  accomplish  this  noblest  of 
enterprises.  Of  this  I  speak  with  the  confidence  of  intimate  knowl- 
edge and  with  the  consolation  that  appertains  to  that  confidence. 
Think  not,  my  lords,  I  say  this  for  the  petty  gratification  of  giving 
you  a  transitory  uneasiness.  A  man  who  never  yet  raised  his  voice 
to  assert  a  lie  will  not  hazard  his  character  with  posterity  by  assert- 
ing a  falsehood  on  a  subject  so  important  to  his  country,  and  on  an 
occasion  like  this.  Yes,  my  lords,  a  man  who  does  not  wish  to  have 
his  epitaph  written  until  his  country  is  liberated  will  not  leave 
a  weapon  in  the  power  of  envy,  or  a  pretence  to  impeach  the  probity 
which  he  means  to  preserve,  even  in  the  grave  to  which  tyranny  con- 
signs him." 

(Here  he  was  again  interrupted  by  the  court.) 

"Again,  I  say,  that  what  I  have  spoken  was  not  intended  for  your 
lordship,  whose  situation  I  commiserate  rather  than  envy — my  ex- 
pressions "were  for  my  countrymen.  If  there  is  a  true  Irishman 
present,  let  my  last  words  cheer  him  in  the  hour  of  his  affliction." 

(Here  he  was  again  interrupted.  Lord  Norbury  said  he  did  not 
sit  there  to  hear  treason.) 

"I  have  always  understood  it  to  be  the  duty  of  a  judge,  when  a 
prisoner  has  been  convicted,  to  pronounce  the- sentence  of  the  law. 
I  have  also  understood  that  judges  sometimes  think  it  their  duty 
to  hear  with  patience  and  to  speak  with  humanity,  to  exhort  the  vic- 
tim of  the  laws,  and  to  offer  with  tender  benignity  their  opinions 
of  the  motives  by  which  he  was  actuated  in  the  crime  of  which  he  was 
adjudged  guilty.  That  a  judge  has  thought  it  his  duty  so  to  have 
done  I  have  no  doubt;  but  where  is  the  boasted  freedom  of  your  in- 
stitutions— where  is  the  vaunted  impartiality,  clemency,  and  mild- 
ness of  your  courts  of  justice,  if  an  unfortunate  prisoner,  whom 
your  policy  and  not  justice  is  about  to  deliver  into  the  hands  of  the 
executioner,  is  not  suffered  to  explain  his  motives  sincerely  and  truly, 
and  to  vindicate  the  principles  by  which  he  was  actuated?  My 
lords,  it  may  be  part  of  the  system  of  angry  justice  to  bow  a  man's 
mind  by  humiliation  to  the  proposed  ignominy  of  the  scaffold;  but 
worse  to  me  than  the  purposed  shame  of  the  scaffold's  terrors  would 
be  the  shame  of  such  foul  and  unfounded  imputations  as  have  been 
made  against  me  in  this  court.  You,  my  lord,  are  a  judge;  I  am 
the  supposed  culprit.  I  am  a  man;  you  are  a  man,  also.  By  a  rev- 
olution of  power  we  might  change  places,  though  we  never  could 
change  characters.  If  I  stand  at  the  bar  of  this  court  and  dare 
not  vindicate  my  character,  what  a  farce  is  your  justice!  If  T. 
stand  at  this  bar,  and  dare  not  vindicate  my  character,  how  dare 
you  calujjiniate  it?  Does  the  sentence  of  death,  which 
your  unhallowed  policy  inflicts  on  my  body,  condemn 
my     tongue     to     silence    and    my    reputation    to    reproach?     Your 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  773 

executioners  may  abridge  the  period  of  my  existence;  but  while  I 
exist  I  shall  not  forbear  to  vindicate  my  character  and  motives  from 
your  aspersions;  and  as  a  man,  to  whom  fame  is  dearer  than  life,  I 
will  make  the  last  use  of  that  life  in  doing  justice  to  that  reputation 
which  is  to  live  after  me,  and  which  is  the  only  legacy  I  can  leave 
to  those  I  honor  and  love,  and  for  whom  I  am  proud  to  perish.  As 
men,  my  lords,  we  must  appear  on  the  great  day  at  one  common 
tribunal;  and  it  will  then  remain  for  the  Searcher  of  all  hearts  to 
show  a  collective  universe,  Avho  was  engaged  in  the  most  virtuous 
actions,  or  swayed  by  the  purest  motives — my  country's  oppressors 
or" — (Here  he  was  interrupted  and  told  of  the  sentence  of  the 
law.) 

"My  lords,  will  a  dying  man  be  denied  the  legal  privilege  of  ex- 
culpating himself  in  the  eyes  of  the  community  from  an  undeserved 
reproach,  thrown  upon  him  during  his  trial,  by  charging  him  with 
ambition  and  attempting  to  cast  away  for  a  paltry  consideration  the 
liberties  of  his  country?  Why  did  your  lordships  insult  me?  Or, 
rather,  why  insult  justice  in  demanding  of  me  why  sentence  of  death 
should  not  be  pronounced  against  me  ?  I  know,  my  lords,  that  form 
prescribes  that  yon  should  ask  the  question.  The  form  also  pre- 
sents the  right  of  answering.  This,  no  doubt,  may  be  dispensed  with, 
and  so  might  the  whole  ceremony  of  the  trial,  since  sentence  was 
already  pronounced  at  the  Castle  before  the  jury  was  impanelled. 
Your  lordships  are  but  the  priests  of  the  oracle,  and  I  insist  on  the 
w^hole  of  the  forms." 

(Here  Mr.  Emmet  paused,  and  the  court  desired  him  to  proceed.) 
"I  am  charged  with  being  an  emissary  of  France.  'An  emissary 
of  France!  And  for  what  end?  It  is  alleged  that  I  wished  to  sell 
the  independence  of  my  country ;  and  for  what  end  ?  Was  this  the 
object  of  my  ambition?  And  is  this  the  mode  by  which  a  tribunal 
of  justice  reconciles  contradiction?  No;  I  am  no  emissary;  and  my 
ambition  was  to  hold  a  place  among  the  deliverers  of  my  country, 
not  in  power,  nor  in  profit,  but  in  the  glory  of  the  achievement.  Sell 
my  country's  independence  to  France!  and  for  what?  Was  it  a 
change  of  masters?  No,  but  for  my  ambition.  Oh,  my  country, 
was  It  personal  ambition  that  could  influence  me?  Had  it  been 
the  soul  of  my  actions,  could  I  not,  by  my  education  and  fortune,  by 
the  rank  and  consideration  of  my  family,  have  placed  myself  amongst 
the  proudest  of  your  oppressors?  My  country  was  my  idol,  lo  it 
I  sacrificed  every  selfish,  every  endearing  sentiment;  and  for  it  1 
now  offer  myself,  O  God!  No,  my  lords,  I  acted  as  an  Irishman 
determined  on  delivering  my  country  from  the  yoke  of  a  foreign  and 
unrelenting  tyranny,  and  the  more  galling  yoke  of  a  domestic  tac- 
tion, which  is"  its  joint  partner  and  perpetrator  in  the  patricide,  trom 
the  ignominy  existing  with  an  exterior  of  splendor  and  a  consciousness 
of  depravity.  It  was  the  wish  of  my  heart  to  extricate  my  cmintry 
from  this  doubly-riveted  despotism-I  wished  to  place  her  indepen- 
dence beyond  the  reach  of  any  power  on  earth.  I  wished  to  exalt 
her  to  that  proud  station  in  the  world.  Connection  with  I  ranee  was 
indeed  intended,  but  only  as  far  as  mutual  interest  wouid  sanction 
or  require.  Were  the  French  to  assume  any  authority  incon.sistent 
with  the  purest  independence,  it  would  be  the  signal  for  their  destruc- 
tion. We  sought  their  aid-and  we  sought  it  as  we  had  assurance 
Ave  should  obtain  it-as  auxiliaries  in  war,  allies  in  p.^iee.  Were  the 
French  to  come  m  invaders  or  enemies,  uninvited  by  the  wishes  of 


774  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  people,  I  should  oppose  them  to  the  utmost  of  my  strength.  Yes ! 
my  countrymen,  I  should  advise  you  to  meet  them  upon  the  beach  with 
a  sword  in  one  hand  and  a  torch  in  the  other.  I  would  meet  them 
with  all  the  destructive  fury  of  war.  I  would  animate  my  country- 
men to  immolate  them  in  their  boats,  before  they  had  contaminated 
the  soil  of  my  country.  If  they  succeeded  in  landing,  and  if  forced 
to  retire  before  superior  discipline,  I  would  dispute  every  inch  of 
ground,  burn  every  blade  of  grass,  and  the  last  entrenchment  of  lib- 
erty should  be  my  grave.  "What  I  could  not  do  myself,  if  I  should 
fall,  I  should  leave  as  a  last  charge  to  my  countrymen  to  accomplish ; 
because  I  should  feel  conscious  that  life,  any  more  than  death,  is  un- 
profitable when  a  foreign  nation  holds  my  country  in  subjection. 
But  it  was  not  as  an  enemy  that  the  succors  of  France  were  to  land. 
I  looked,  indeed,  for  the  assistance  of  France ;  but  I  wished  to  prove 
to  France  and  to  the  world  that  Irishmen  deserved  to  be  assisted — 
that  they  were  indignant  at  slavery;  I  wished  to  procure  for  my 
country  the  guarantee  which  Washington  procured  for  America — 
to  procure  an  aid  which,  by  its  example,  would  be  as  important  as  its 
A^alor;  disciplined,  gallant,  pregnant  with  science  and  experience; 
that  of  a  people  who  would  perceive  the  good  and  polish  the  rough 
points  of  our  character.  They  would  come  to  us  as  strangers  and 
leave  us  as  friends,  after  sharing  our  perils  and  elevating  our  des- 
tiny. These  were  my  objects;  not  to  receive  new  taskmasters,  but 
to  expel  old  tyrants.  It  was  for  these  ends  I  sought  aid  from  France, 
because  France,  as  an  enemy,  could  not  be  more  implacable  than  the 
enemy  already  in  the  bosom  of  my  country." 

(Here  he  was  interrupted  by  the  court.) 

"I  have  been  charged  with  that  importance  in  the  emancipation 
of  my  countrj'^  as  to  be  considered  the  keystone  of  the  combination 
of  Irishmen;  or,  as  your  lordship  expressed  it,  'the  life  and  blood 
of  the  conspiracy.'  You  do  me  honor  over  much;  you  have  given 
to  the  subaltern  all  the  credit  of  a  superior.  There  are  men  engaged 
in  this  conspiracy  Avho  are  not  only  superior  to  me,  but  even  to  your 
own  conceptions  of  yourself,  my  lord — men  before  the  splendor  of 
v/hose  genius  and  virtues  I  should  bow  with  respectful  deference,  and 
who  v/ould  think  themselves  disgraced  by  shaking  your  blood-stained 
hand." 

(Here  he  was  interrupted.) 

"What,  my  lord,  ^shall  you  tell  me,  on  the  passage  to  the  scaf- 
fold, which  that  tryranny  (of  which  you  arc  only  the  intermediary 
executioner)  has  erected  for  my  murder,  that  I  am  accountable  for 
all  the  blood  that  has  and  will  be  shed  in  this  struggle  of  the  op- 
pressed against  the  oppressor — shall  you  tell  me  this,  and  must  I 
be  so  very  a  slave  as  not  to  repel  it?  I  do  not  fear  to  approach  the 
Omnipotent  Judge  to  answer  for  the  conduct  of  my  whole  life ;  and 
am  I  to  be  appalled  and  falsified  by  a  mere  remnant  of  mortality 
here?  By  you,  too,  although  if  it  were  possible  to  collect  all  the  in- 
nocent blood  that  you  have  shed  in  your  unhallowed  ministry  in  one 
great  reservoir  your  lordship  might  swim  in  it. ' ' 

(Here  the  judge  interfered.) 

"Let  no  man  dare,  when  I  am  dead,  to  charge  me  with  dishonor; 
let  no  man  attaint  my  memory  by  believing  that  I  could  have  engaged 
in  any  cause  but  that  of  my  country's  liberty  and  independence;  or 
that  I  could  have  become  the  pliant  minion  of  power  in  the  oppres- 
sion and  misery  of  my  country.     The  proclamation  of  the  Provisional 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  775 

Government  speaks  for  my  views;  no  inference  can  be  tortured  from 
it  to  countenance  barbarity  or  debasement  at  home,  or  subjection, 
humiliation,  or  treachery  from  abroad.  I  would  not  have  submitted 
to  a  foreign  oppressor,  for  the  same  reason  that  I  would  resist  the 
domestic  tyrant.  In  the  dignity  of  freedom  I  would  have 
fought  upon  the  threshold  of  my  country,  and  its  enemy  should 
enter  only  by  passing  over  my  lifeless  corpse.  And  am  I,  who  lived 
but  for  my  country,  and  who  have  subjected  myself  to  the  dangers 
of  the  jealous  and  watchful  oppressor,  and  the  bondage  of  the  grave, 
only  to  give  my  countrymen  their  rights,  and  my  country  her  inde- 
pendence, am  I  to  be  loaded  with  calumny  and  not  suffered  to  resent 
it?     No;  God  forbid!" 

(Here  Lord  Norbury  told  Mr.  Emmet  that  his  sentiments  and 
language  disgraced  his  family  and  his  education,  but  more  particu- 
larly his  father.  Dr.  Emmet,  who  was  a  man,  if  alive,  that  would 
not  countenance  such  opinions.     To  which  Mr.  Emmet  replied)  : 

"If  the  spirits  of  the  illustrious  dead  participate  in  the  concerns 
and  cares  of  those  who  wore  dear  to  them  in  this  transitory  life,  oh, 
ever  dear  and  venerated  shade  of  my  departed  father,  look  down  with 
scrutiny  upon  the  conduct  of  your  suffering  son,  and  see  if  I  have, 
even  for  a  moment  deviated  from  those  principles  of  morality  and 
patriotism  which  it  was  your  care  to  instill  into  my  youthful  mind, 
and  for  which  I  am  now  about  to  offer  my  life.  My  lords,  you  are 
impatient  for  the  sacrifice.  The  blood  which  you  seek  is  not  con- 
gealed by  the  artificial  terrors  which  surround  your  victim — it  cir- 
culates warmly  and  unruffled  through  the  channels  which  God  cre- 
ated for  noble  purposes,  but  which  you  are  now  bent  upon  destroying 
for  purposes  so  grievous  that  they  cry  to  heaven.  Be  yet  patient !  I 
have  but  a  few  more  words  to  say — I  am  going  to  my  cold  and  silent 
grave — my  lamp  of  life  is  nearly  extinguished — my  race  is  run — 
the  grave  opens  to  receive  me,  and  I  sink  in  its  bosom.  I  have  but 
one  request  to  ask  at  my  departure  from  this  world,  it  is — THE 
CHARITY  OF  ITS  SILENCE.  Let  no  man  write  my  epitaph, 
for  as  no  man  who  knows  my  motives  dares  now  vindicate  them,  let 
not  prejudice  or  ignorance  asperse  them.  Let  them  and  me  rest  in 
obscurity  and  peace,  and  my  tomb  remain  uninscribed  and  my  mem- 
ory in  oblivion,  until  other  times  and  other  men  can  do  justice  to 
my  character.  When  my  country  takes  her  place  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  then  and  7iot  till  then,  let  my  epitaph  be  written.  I 
have  done." 


THE  FAMOUS   " SWORD   SPEECH"   OF   THOMAS   FRANCIS    MEAGHER,   DELIV- 
ERED IN   CONCILIATION   HALL,  DUBLIN,   THE  LORD   MAYOR 
OF    THE    CITY    IN    THE    CHAIR. 

"My  Lord — I  am  not  ungrateful  to  the  man  who  stnick  the  fet- 
ters off  my  limbs  while  I  was  yet  a  child,  and  by  whose  iniauence 
my  father,  the  first  Catholic  that  did  so  for  two  hundred  years,  sat 
for  the  last  two  years  in  the  civic  chair  of  my  native  city.  But, 
my  lord,  the  same  God  who  gave  to  that  great  man  the  power  to 
strike  down  one  odious  ascendancy  in  this  country,  and  who  enabled 
him  to  institute  in  this  land  the  laws  of  religious  equality — the  same 


776  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

God  gave  to  me  a  mind  that  is  my  own,  a  mind  that  I  was  to  use  and 
not  to  surrender. 

"The  soldier  is  proof  against  an  argument — but  he  is  not  proof 
against  a  bullet.  The  man  that  will  listen  to  reason — let  him  be 
reasoned  with.  But  it  is  the  weaponed  arm  of  the  patriot  that  can 
alone  prevail  against  battalioned  despotism. 

''Then,  my  lord,  I  do  not  condemn  the  use  of  arms  as  immoral, 
nor  do  I  conceive  it  profane  to  say  that  the  King  of  Heaven — the 
Lord  of  Hosts!  the  God  of  Battles — bestows  His  benediction  upon 
those  who  unsheath  the  sword  in  the  hour  of  a  nation's  peril.  From 
that  evening  on  which  in  the  valley  of  Bethulia  he  nerved  the  arm 
of  the  Jewish  girl  to  smite  the  drunken  tyrant  in  his  tent,  down  to 
this,  our  day,  in  which  he  has  blessed  the  insurgent  chivalry  of  the 
Belgian  priest.  His  Almighty  hand  has  ever  been  stretched  forth 
from  his  throne  of  Light  to  consecrate  the  flag  of  freedom — to  bless 
the  patriot  sword !  Be  it  in  the  defence,  or  be  it  in  the  assertion  of 
a  people's  liberty,  I  hail  the  sword  as  a  sacred  weapon;  and  if,  my 
lord,  it  had  sometimes  taken  the  shape  of  the  serpent  and  reddened 
the  shroud  of  the  oppressor  with  too  deep  a  dye,  like  the  annointed  rod 
of  the  High  Priest,  it  has  at  other  times,  and  as  often,  blossomed  into 
celestial  flowers  to  deck  the  freeman's  brow. 

"Abhor  the  sword — stigmatize  the  sword?  No,  my  lord,  for  in  the 
passes  of  the  Tj^rol  it  cut  to  pieces  the  banner  of  the  Bavarian,  and, 
through  those  cragged  passes,  struck  a  path  to  fame  for  the  peasant 
insurrectionists  of  Inspruck !  Abhor  the  sword — stigmatize  the  sword  ? 
No,  my  lord,  for  at  its  blow  a  giant  nation  started  from  the  waters 
of  the  Atlantic,  and  by  its  redeeming  magic  and  in  the  quivering 
of  its  crimsoned  light  the  crippled  colony  sprang  into  the  attitude  of 
a  proud  Republic — prosperous,  limitless,  and  invincible !  Abhor  the 
sword — stigmatize  the  sword?  No,  my  lord,  for  it  swept  the  Dutch 
marauders  out  of  the  fine  old  towns  of  Belgium — scourged  them  back 
to  their  own  phlegmatic  swamps — and  knocked  their  flag  and  sceptre, 
their  laws  and  bayonets,  into  the  sluggish  waters  of  the  Scheldt. 

"My  lord,  I  learned  that  it  was  the  right  of  a  nation  to  govern 
itself,  not  in  this  hall,  but  on  the  ramparts  of  Antwerp ;  I  learned 
the  first  article  of  a  nation's  creed  upon  those  ramparts,  where  free- 
dom was  justly  estimated,  and  where  the  possession  of  the  precious 
gift  was  purchased  by  the  effusion  of  generous  blood.  My  lord,  I 
honor  the  Belgians  for  their  courage  and  their  daring,  and  I  will 
not  stigmatize  the  means  by  which  they  obtained  a  citizen-king,  a 
chamber  of  deputies." 


A.    M.    SULLIVAN    ON    THE   MANCHESTER    MARTYRS. 

Arraigned  in  the  Dock  in  Green  Street  Court  House,  Dublin, 
February,  1868,  for  defending  the  motives  of  the  "Martyred  Three" 
in  his  newspaper,  the  late  A.  M.  Sullivan  spoke  as  follows : 

"  Gentlemen— The  present  prosecution  arises  directly  out  of  what 
is  known  as  the  Manchester  tragedy.  The  Solicitor-General  gave  you 
his  version,  his  fanciful  sketch  of  that  said  affair;  but  it  will  be  my 
duty  to  give  you  the  true  facts,  which  differ  considerably  from  the 
Crown  story.  The  Solicitor-General  began  with  telling  us  about 
'the  broad  summer's  sun  of  the  18th  of  September.'     (Laughter.) 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  777 

Gentlemen,  it  seems  very  clear  that  the  summer  j^'oes  far  into  the 
year  for  those  who  enjoy  the  sweets  of  office;  nay,  I  am  sure  it  is 
summer  'all  the  year  round'  with  the  Solicitor-Cieneral,  while  the 
present  ministry  remain  in.  A  goodly  golden  harvest  he  and  his  col- 
leagues ai'e  making  in  this  summer  of  prosecutions;  and  they  seem 
very  well  inclined  to  get  up  enough  of  them,  (Laught<'r)  Well, 
gentlemen,  I  am  not  complaining  of  that,  but  I  Avill  tell  you  who  com- 
plain loudly — the  outs,  with  whom  it  is  midwinter,  while  the  So- 
licitor-General and  his  friends  are  enjoying  this  summer.  (Renewed 
laughter.)  Well,  gentlemen,  some  time  last  September  two  promi- 
nent leaders  of  the  Fenian  movement — alleged  to  be  so,  at  least — 
named  Kelly  and  Deasey,  were  arrested  in  Manchester.  In  j\Ian- 
chester  there  is  a  considerable  Irish  population,  and  amongst  them 
it  was  known  those  men  had  sympathizers.  They  were  brought  up 
at  the  poliee  court — and  now,  gentlemen,  pray,  attentively  mark  this. 
The  Irish  executive  that  morning  telegraphed  to  the  Manchester  au- 
thorities a  strong  warning  of  an  attempted  rescue.  The  ^Manchester 
police  had  full  notice — how  did  they  treat  the  timely  warning  sent 
from  Dublin,  a  warning  which,  if  heeded,  would  have  averted  all 
this  sad  and  terrible  business  which  followed  upon  that  day?  Gen- 
tlemen, the  INIanchester  police  authorities  scoffed  at  the  warning. 
They  derided  it  as  a  'Hirish'  alarm.  What!  The  idea  of  low 
'Hirish'  hodmen  or  laborers  rescuing  prisoners  from  them,  the  val- 
iant and  the  brave!  Why,  gentlemen,  the  Seth  Bromleys  of  the 
'force'  in  Manchester  waxed  hilarious  and  derisive  over  the  idea. 
They  would  not  even  ask  a  truncheon  to  put  to  flight  even  a  thousand 
of  those  despised  'Hirish';  and  so,  despite  specific  warning  from  Dub- 
lin, the  van  containing  the  two  Fenian  leaders,  guarded  by 
eleven  police  officers,  set  out  from  the  police  office  to  the  gaol.  Now, 
gentlemen,  I  charge  on  the  stolid  vain-gloriousuess  in  the  first  in- 
stance, and  the  contemptible  pusillanimity  in  the  second  instance,  of 
the  Manchester  police — the  valiant  Seth  Bromleys — all  that  followed. 
On  the  skirts  of  the  city  the  van  was  attacked  by  some  eighteen  Irish 
youths  having  three  revolvers — three  revolvers,  gentlemen,  and  no 
more — amongst  them.  The  valor  of  the  jManchester  eleven  vanished 
at  the  sight  of  those  three  revolvers — some  of  them,  it  seems,  loaded 
with  blank  cartridges.  The  Seth  Bromleys  took  to  their  heels.  They 
abandoned  the  van.  Now,  gentlemen,  do  not  understand  me  to  call 
those  policemen  cowards.  It  is  hard  to  blame  an  unarmed  man  who 
runs  away  from  a  pointed  revolver,  which,  whether  loaded  or  un- 
loaded, is  a  powerful  persuasion  to — depart.  But  I  do  say  that  I 
believe  in  my  soul  that  if  that  had  occurred  here  in  Dublin,  eleven 
men  of  our  metropolitan  police  would  have  taken  those  three  re- 
volvers or  perished  in  the  attempt.  (Applause.)  Oh,  if  eleven  Irish 
policemen  had  run  away  like  that  from  a  few  poor  English  lads  with 
barely  three  revolvers,  how  the  press  of  England  would  yell  in  fierce 
denunciation !  Why,  they  would  trample  to  scorn  the  name  of  Irish- 
men— "  (Applause  in  the  court,  which  the  officials  vainly  tried  to 
silence.) 

Mr.  Justice  Fitzgerald — "If  these  interruptions  continue  the  par- 
ties so  offending  must  be  removed." 

Mr.  Sullivan — "I  am  sorry,  my  lord,  for  the  interruption;  though 
not  sorry  the  people  should  indorse  my  estimate  of  the  police.  Well, 
gentlemen,  the  van  was  abandoned  by  its  valiant  guard,  but  there  re- 
mained inside  one  brave  and  faithful  fellow,  Brett,  by  name.     I  am 


778  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

now  giving  yon  the  facts  as  I  in  my  conscience  and  soul  believe  they 
occurred — and  as  millions  of  my  countrymen — aye,  and  thousands 
of  Englishmen,  too — solemnly  believe  them  to  have  occurred,  though 
they  differ  in  one  item  widely  from  the  Crown  version.  Brett  re- 
fused to  give  up  the  key  of  the  van,  which  he  held,  and  the  attack- 
ing party  commenced  various  endeavors  to  break  it  open.  At  length 
one  of  them  called  out  to  fire  a  pistol  into  the  lock,  and  thus  burst 
it  open.  The  unfortunate  Brett  at  that  moment  was  looking  through 
the  keyhole,  endeavoring  to  get  a  view  of  the  inexplicable  scene  out- 
side, when  he  received  the  bullet  and  fell  dead.  Gentlemen,  that  may 
be  true,  or  it  may  be  the  mistaken  version.  But  even  suppose  your 
view  differs  sincerely  from  mine,  will  you,  can  you,  hold  that  I,  thus 
conscientiously  persuaded,  sympathize  with  murder,  because  I  sym- 
pahize  with  men  hanged  for  that  which  I  contend  was  accident,  and 
not  murder?  That  is  exactly  the  issue  in  this  case.  Well,  the  res- 
cued Fenian  leaders  got  away,  and  then,  when  all  was  over — when 
the  danger  was  passed — valor  tremendous  returned  to  the  fleet-of- 
foot  Manchester  police.  Oh,  but  they  wreaked  their  vengeance  that 
night  on  the  houses  of  the  poor  Irish  in  Manchester!  By  razzia 
they  soon  filled  the  jails  with  our  poor  countrymen,  seized  on  suspi- 
cion. And  then  broke  forth  all  over  England  that  shout  of  anger 
and  passion  which  none  of  us  will  ever  forget.  The  national  pride 
had  been  sorely  wounded;  the  national  power  had  been  openly  de- 
fied; the  national  fury  was  aroused.  On  all  sides  resounded  the 
hoarse  shout  for  vengeance,  swift  and  strong.  Then  was  seen  a 
sight,  the  most  shameful  of  its  kind  that  this  century  has  exhibited — 
a  sight  at  thought  of  which  Englishmen  will  yet  hang  their  heads 
for  shame,  and  which  the  English  historian  will  chronicle  with  red- 
dened cheek — those  poor  and  humble  Irish  youths  led  into  the  Man- 
chester dock  in  chains!  In  chains!  For  what  were  those  chains 
put  on  untried  prisoners?  Gentlemen,  it  was  at  this  point  exactly 
that  Irish  sympathy  came  to  the  side  of  those  prisoners.  It  was 
when  we  saw  them  thus  used  and  saw  that,  innocent  or  guilty,  they 
would  be  immolated — sacrificed  to  glut  the  passion  of  the  hour — that 
our  feelings  rose  high  and  strong  in  their  behalf.  Even  in  Eng- 
land there  were  men — noble-hearted  Englishmen,  for  England  is 
never  without  such  men — who  saw  that  if  tried  in  the  midst  of  this 
national  frenzy  those  victims  would  be  sacrificed;  and  accordingly 
ett'orts  were  made  for  a  postponement  of  the  trial.  But  the  roar 
of  passion  carried  its  way.  Not  even  till  the  ordinary  assizes  would 
the  trial  be  postponed.  A  special  commission  Avas  sped  to  do  the 
work  while  Manchester  jurors  were  in  a  white  heat  of  panic,  indig- 
nation, and  fury.  Then  came  the  trial,  which  was  just  what  might 
be  expected.  "Witnesses  swore  ahead  without  compunction,  and  ju- 
rors believed  them  without  hesitation.  Five  men  arraigned  together 
as  principals — Allen,  Larkin,  O'Brien,  Shore,  and  Maguire — were 
found  guilty,  and,  the  judge  concurring  in  the  verdict,  were  sen- 
tenced to  death.  Five  men — not  three  men,  gentlemen — five  men  in 
one  verdict,  not  five  separate  verdicts.  Five  men  by  the  same  evi- 
dence and  the  same  jury  in  the  same  verdict.  "Was  that  a  just  ver- 
dict? The  case  of  the  crown  here  to-day  is  that  it  was — that  it  is 
'sedition'  to  impeach  that  verdict.  .  .  .  The  very  evening  those 
men  Avere  sentenced  thirty  newspaper  reporters  sent  the  Home  Sec- 
retary a  petition  protesting  that — the  evidence  of  the  Avitnesses  and 
the  verdict  of  the  jury  notwithstanding — there  Avas  at  least  one  in-' 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  779 

nocent  man  thus  marked  for  oxeciition.  The  government  folt  that 
the  reporters  were  right,  and  the  jurors  wrong.  They  pardoned 
Maguire  as  an  innocent  man — that  same  Maguire  whose  legal  con- 
viction is  here  put  in  as  evidence  that  he  and  four  others  were  truly 
murderers,  to  sympathize  with  whom  is  to  commit  sedition — nay,  to 
glorify  the  cause  of  murder. 

But  now  arose  in  redoubled  fury  the  savage  cry  ff)r  blood.     In 
vain  good  men,  noble  and  humane  men,  in  England  tried  to  save  the 
national  honor  by  breasting  this  horril)le  outburst  of  passion.     Th^y 
v>ere  overborne.     Petitioners  for  mercy  were  mobbed  and  hooted  in 
the  streets.     We  saw  all  this — we  saw  all  this;  and  think  you  it  did 
not  sink  into  our  hearts?     Fancy  if  you  can  our  feelings  when  we 
heard  that  yet  another  man  out  of  five  was  respited — ah,  he  was  an 
American,  gentlemen — an  American,  not  an  Irishman — but  that  the 
three  Irishmen,  Allen,   Larkin  and   O'Brien,  were  to  die — were  to 
be  put  to  death  on  a  verdict  and  on  evidence  that  would  not  hang 
a  dog  in  England!     We  refused  to  the  last  to  credit  it;  and  thus 
incredulous,  deemed  it  idle  to  make  any  effort  to  save  their  lives. 
But  it  was  true;   it  was   deadly  true.     And  then,   gentlemen,   the 
doomed  three  appeared  in  a  new  character.     Then  they  rose  into 
the   dignity  and  heroism  of  nuirtyrs.     The  manner  in  which  thr-y 
bore  themselves  through  the  dreadful  ordeal  ennobled  them  forever. 
It  vras  then  we  all  learned  to  love  and  revere  them  as  patriots  and 
Christians.     Yes,  in  that  hour  they  told  us  they  were  innocent,  but 
were  ready  to  die;  and  we  believed  them.     We  believe  them  still. 
Aye,  do  we!     They  did  not  go  to  meet  their  God  with  falsehood  on 
their  lips.     On  that  night  before  their  execution,  oh,  what  a  scene! 
What  a  picture  did  England  present  at  the  foot  of  the  ^ilanchester 
scaffold !     The  brutal  populace  thronged  thither  in  tens  of  thousands. 
They  danced,  they  sang,  they  blasphemed,  they  chorused  'Rule  Brit- 
tannia'  and  'God"^  Save"  the  Queen'  by  way  of  taunt  and  defiance  of 
the  men  whose  death  agonies  they  had  come  to  see!     Their  shouts 
and  brutal  cries  disturbed  the  doomed  victims  inside  the  prison,  as 
in  their  cells  they  prepared  in  prayer  and  meditation  to  meet  their 
creator  and  their  God.     Twice  the  police  had  to  remove  the  crowd 
from  around  that  wing  of  the  prison,  so  that  our  poor  brothei-s  might 
in  peace  go  through  their  preparations  for  eternity  undisturbed  by 
the  yells  of  the  multitude  outside.     Oh,  gentlemen,  gentlemen— that 
scene!  that  scene  in  the  grey,  cold  morning,  when  those  innocent  men 
were  led  out  to  die — to  die  an  ignominious  death  before  that  wolfish 
mob,  with  blood  on  fire— with  bui-sting  hearts— we  read  the  dreadful 
story  here  in  Ireland.     We  knew  that  these  men  Avould  never  have 
been  thus  sacrificed  had  not  their  offence  been  political,  and  had  it 
not  been  that  in  their  own  way  they  represented  the  old  struggle  of 
the  Irish  race.     All  this  we  felt,  yet  we  were  silent  till  we  heard  the 
press  that  had  hounded  those  men  to  death  falsely  declarmg  that 
our  silence  was   acquiescence   in  the  deed  that  consigned   thom   to 
murderers'  graves.     Of  this  I  have  personal  knowledge,  that,  here 
in  Dublin  at  least,  nothing  was  done  or  intended  until  the  Evening 
Mail  declared  that  popular  feeling,  which  had  ample  time  to  de- 
clare itself,  if  it  felt  otherwise,  quite  recognized  the  .iustice  of  the 
execution.  '  Then  we  resolved  to  make  answer.     Then  Ireland  made 
answer.     For  what  monarch,  the  loftiest  in  the  world,  would  such 
demonstrations  be  made,  tV.e  voluntary  offerings  of  a  people's  grief? 
Think  you  it  was  'sympathy  for  murder'  called  us  forth  or  caused 


780  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  priests  of  the  Catholic  Church  to  drape  their  churches?  It  is 
a  libel  to  utter  the  base  charge.  No,  no.  With  the  acts  of  those 
men  at  that  rescue  we  had  naught  to  say.  Of  their  innocence  of 
murder  we  were  convinced.  Their  patriotic  feelings,  their  religious 
devotion,  we  saw  proved  in  the  noble,  edifying  manner  of  their  death. 
We  believed  them  to  have  been  unjustly  sacrificed  in  a  moment  of 
national  passion;  and  we  resolved  to  rescue  their  memory  from  the 
foul  stains  of  their  maligners,  and  make  it  a  proud  one  forever  with 
Irishmen.  Sympathy  with  murder  indeed!  What  I  am  about  to 
say  will  be  believed,  for  I  think  I  have  shown  no  fear  of  consequences 
in  standing  by  my  acts  and  principles.  I  say  for  myself,  and  for 
the  priests  and  people  of  Ireland  who  are  affected  by  this  case,  that 
sooner  would  we  burn  our  right  hands  to  cinders  than  to  express, 
directly  or  indirectly,  sympathy  with  murder;  and  that  our  sym- 
pathy for  Allen,  Larkin  and  O'Brien  is  based  upon  the  conviction 
that  they  were  innocent  of  any  such  crime. 

"Now,  gentlemen,  judge  ye  me  on  this  whole  case,  for  I  have 
done.  I  have  spoken  at  great  length,  but  I  plead  not  merely  for 
my  own  cause,  but  the  cause  of  my  country.  For  myself  I  care 
little.  I  stand  before  you  here  with  the  manacles,  I  might  say,  on 
my  hands.  Already  a  prison  cell  awaits  me  in  Kilmainham.  My 
doom,  in  any  event,  is  sealed.  Already  a  conviction  has  been  ob- 
tained against  me  for  my  opinions.  Sedition,  in  a  rightly  ordered 
community,  is  indeed  a  crime.  But  who  is  it  that  challenges  me? 
Who  is  it  that  demands  my  loyalty  1  Who  is  it  that  calls  out  to  me, 
'Oh,  ingrate  son,  where  is  the  filial  affection,  the  respect,  the  obe- 
dience, the  support,  that  is  my  due?  Unnatural,  seditious  and  re- 
bellious child,  a  dungeon  shall  punish  your  crime ! '  I  look  in  the 
face  of  my  accuser,  who  thus  holds  me  to  the  duty  of  a  son.  I  turn 
to  see  if  there  I  can  recognize  the  features  of  that  mother  whom  in- 
deed I  love,  my  own  dear  Ireland.  I  look  into  that  accusing  face,  and 
there  I  see  a  scowl,  and  not  a  smile.  I  miss  the  soft,  fond  voice,  the 
tender  clasp,  the  loving  word.  I  look  upon  the  hands  reached  out 
to  grasp  me — to  punish  me ;  and  lo,  great  stains,  blood-red,  upon  those 
hands;  and  my  sad  heart  tells  me  it  is  the  blood  of  my  widov/ed 
mother,  Ireland.  Then  I  answer  to  my  accusers,  'You  have  no  claim 
on  me — on  my  love,  my  duty,  my  allegiance.  You  are  not  my  mother. 
You  sit  indeed  in  the  place  where  she  should  reign.  You  wear  the 
regal  garments  torn  from  her  limbs,  while  she  now  sits  in  the  dust, 
uncrowned  and  overthrown,  and  bleeding  from  many  a  wound.  But 
my  heart  is  with  her  still.  Her  claim  alone  is  recognized  by  me. 
She  still  commands  my  love,  my  duty,  my  allegiance;  and  whatever 
the  penalty  may  be,  be  it  prison  chains,  be  it  exile  or  death,  to  her 
I  will  be  true.'  But,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  what  is  that  Irish  nation 
to  which  my  allegiance  turns?  Do  I  thereby  mean  a  party,  or  a 
class,  or  a  creed?  Do  I  mean  only  those  who  think  and  feel  as  I 
do  on  public  questions?  Oh,  no!  It  is  the  whole  people  of  this 
land — the  nobles,  the  peasants,  the  clergy,  the  merchants,  the  gentry, 
the  traders,  the  professions — the  Catholic,  the  Protestant,  the  dis- 
senter. Yes;  I  am  loyal  to  all  that  a  good  and  patriotic  citizen  should 
be  loyal  to;  I  am  ready,  not  merely  to  obey,  but  to  support  with 
heartfelt  allegiance,  the  constitution  of  my  own  country — the  Queen 
as  Qneen  of  Ireland,  and  the  free  Parliament  of  Ireland  once  more 
constituted  in  our  national  senate-house  in  College  Green.  And  re- 
constituted once  more  it  will  be.     In  that  hour  the  laws  will  again 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  781 

be  reconeilc'd  with  national  lV*eling  and  popular  reverence.  In  that 
hour  there  will  be  no  more  disesteern,  or  hatred,  or  contempt  for  the 
laws;  for,  howsoever  a  people  may  dislike  and  resent  laws  imposed 
upon  them  against  their  will  by  a  subjugating  power,  no  nation  dis- 
esteems  the  laws  of  its  own  making.  That  day,  that  blessed  day,  of 
peace  and  reconciliation,  and  joy,  and  liberty,  I  hope  to  see.  And 
when  it  comes,  as  come  it  will,  in  that  liour  it  Will  be  remembered  for 
me,  that  I  stood  here  to  face  the  trying  ordeal,  ready  to  suffer  for 
my  country — walking  with  bared  feet  over  red-hot  plowshares,  like 
the  victims  of  old.  Yes;  in  that  day  it  will  be  remembered  for  me, 
though  a  prison  awaits  me  now,  that  I  was  one  of  tliose  journalists 
of  the  people  who,  through  constant  sacrifice  and  self-immolation, 
fought  the  battle  of  the  people,  and  won  every  vestige  of  liberty  re- 
maining in  the  land." 


DEFIANCE  TO  GLADSTONE. 

SPEECH    delivered   BY   CHARLES   STEWART   PARNELL   AT    WEXFORD,   OCTO- 
BER 9th,  1881. 

Fellow  Countrymen: — 

You  have  gained  something  by  your  exertions  during  the  last 
twelve  months,  but  I  am  here  to-day  to  tell  you  that  you  have  gained 
but  a  fraction  of  that  to  which  you  are  entitled.  And  the  Irish- 
man who  thinks  that  he  can  throw  away  his  arms,  just  as  Grattan 
disbanded  the  volunteers  in  1783,  will  find  to  his  sorrow  and  destruc- 
tion, when  too  late,  that  he  has  placed  himself  in  the  power  of  the 
perfidious  and  cruel  and  relentless  English  enemy.  (Then,  turning 
to  Mr,  Gladstone's  speech,  he  continued)  : 

It  is  a  good  sign  that  the  masquerading  knight-errant,  this  pre- 
tending champion  of  the  rights  of  every  other  nation  except  those 
of  the  Irish  nation,  should  be  obliged  to  throw  off  the  mask  to-day 
and  stand  revealed  as  the  man  who,  by  his  own  utterances,  is  pre- 
pared to  carry  fire  and  sword  into  your  homesteads,  unless  you  hum- 
bly abase  yourselves  before  him  and  before  the  landlords  of  the 
country.  But  I  have  forgotten.  I  said  that  he  maligned  everybody. 
Oh,  no.  He  has  a  good  word  for  one  or  two  people.  He  says  the 
late  Isaac  Butt  was  a  most  estimable  man  and  a  true  patriot.  When 
we  in  Ireland  were  following  Isaac  Butt  into  the  lobbies,  endeavor- 
ing to  obtain  the  very  Act  which  "William  Ewart  Gladstone,  having 
stolen  the  idea  from  Isaac  Butt,  passed  last  session.  William  Ewart 
Gladstone  and  his  ex-Government  officials  were  following  Sir  Staf- 
ford Northcote  and  Benjamin  Disraeli  into  the  other  lobby.  No 
man  in  Ireland  is  great  until  he  is  dead  and  unable  to  do  anjlhing 
more  for  his  country. 

In  the  opinion  of  an  English  statesman,  no  man  is  good  in  Ireland 
until  he  is  dead  and  buried  and  unable  to  strike  a  bloAV  for  Ireland. 
Perhaps  the  day  may  come  when  I  may  get  a  good  word  from  Eng- 
lish statesmen  as  being  a  moderate  man,  after  I  am  dead  and  buried. 
When  people  talk  of  "public  plunder"  they  should  ask  themselves 
who  were  the  first  plunderers  in  Ireland.  The  land  of  Ireland  has 
been  confiscated  three  times  over  by  the  men  whose  descendants  :Mr. 
Gladstone  is  supporting  in  the  enjojmient  of  the  fruits  of  their  plun- 
der by  his  bayonets  and  his  buckshot.     And  when  we  are  spoken  to 


782  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

about  plunder  we  are  entitled  to  ask  who  were  the  first  and  biggest 
plunderers.  This  doctrine  of  public  plunder  is  only  a  question  of 
degree. 

In  one  last  despairing  wail  Mr.  Gladstone  says,  "And  the  Gov- 
ernment is  expected  to  preserve  peace  with  no  moral  force  behind 
it,"  The  Government  has  no  moral  force  behind  them  in  Ireland; 
the  whole  Irish  people  are  against  them.  They  have  to  depend  for 
their  support  upon  a  self-interested  and  a  very  small  minority  of 
the  people  of  this  country,  and  therefore  they  have  no  moral  force 
behind  them,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  in  those  few  short  words  admits  that 
English  government  has  failed  in  Ireland. 

He  admits  the  contention  that  Grattan  and  the  volunteers  of 
1782  fought  for;  he  admits  the  contention  that  the  men  of  '98  died 
for;  he  admits  the  contention  that  O'Connell  argued  for;  he  ad- 
mits the  contention  that  the  men  of  '48  staked  their  all  for;  he  ad- 
mits that  the  men  of  '67,  after  a  long  period  of  depression  and 
apparent  death  of  national  life  in  Ireland,  cheerfully  faced  the  dun- 
geons and  horrors  of  penal  servitude  for;  and  he  admits  the  con- 
tention that  to-day  you,  in  your  overpowering  multitudes,  have  es- 
tablished, and,  please  God,  will  bring  to  a  successful  issue — namely, 
that  England's  mission  in  Ireland  has  been  a  failure,  and  that  Irish- 
men have  established  their  right  to  govern  Ireland  by  laws  made  for 
themselves  on  Irish  soil.  I  say  it  is  not  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  power 
to  trample  on  the  aspirations  and  rights  of  the  Irish  nation  with  no 
moral  force  behind  him.     .     .     . 

These  are  brave  words  that  he  uses,  but  it  strikes  me  that  they 
have  a  ring  about  them  like  the  whistle  of  a  schoolboy  on  his  way 
home  through  a  churchyard  at  night  to  keep  up  his  courage.  Ho 
would  have  you  believe  that  he  is  not  afraid  of  you  because  he  has 
disarmed  you,  because  he  has  attempted  to  disorganize  you,  because 
he  knows  that  the  Irish  nation  is  to-day  disarmed  as  far  as  physical 
weapons  go.  But  he  does  not  hold  this  kind  of  language  with  the 
Boers.  At  the  beginning  of  this  session  he  said  something  of  this 
kind  with  regard  to  the  Boers.  He  said  that  he  was  going  to  put 
them  down,  and  as  soon  as  he  had  discovered  that  they  were  able  to 
shoot  straighter  than  his  own  soldiers  he  allowed  these  few  men  to 
put  him  and  his  Government  dowTi. 

I  trust  as  the  result  of  this  great  movement  we  shall  see  that,  just 
as  Gladstone  by  the  Act  of  1881  has  eaten  all  his  own  words,  has 
departed  from  all  his  formerly  declared  principles,  now  we  shall 
see  that  these  brave  words  of  the  English  Prime  Minister  will  be 
scattered  like  chaff  before  the  united  and  advancing  determination  of 
the  Irish  people  to  regain  for  themselves  their  lost  land  and  their 
legislative  independence. 


STATE  OF  IRELAND  IN  1882 — LAND  LEAGUE  DAYS — SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN 

THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS,  ENGLAND,  FEBRUARY   14tH,   1882, 

BY   HONORABLE   THOMAS  SEXTON,    M.    P. 

_  Mr.  Sexton,  resuming  the  adjourned  debate  on  the  Queen's  speech, 
said  he  arose  to  support  the  amendment  which  his  honorable  friend, 
the  member  for  the  County  of  Longford,  brought  before  the  house. 
That  amendment  had  been  described  as  a  long  indictment  of  the 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  783 

GovernnK^nt.  It  was  a  long'  in(ll(^imcnt,  but  it  did  not  contain  a 
single  superfluous  word.  Every  clause  in  it  expressed  a  crime  against 
public  right,  and  every  crime  stood  verified,  not  by  reasonable  sus- 
picion, but  by  absolute  and  widespread  public  knowledge.  This  de- 
bate, while  it  was  ostensibly  occupied  with  large  questions  of  public 
policy,  had  resolved  itself  into  a  deliberate,  sustained  and  venomous 
attack  upon  his  honorable  friend,  the  member  for  the  City  of  Cork 
(Mr.  Parnell).  He  was  an  absent  man.  They  had  heard  the  pa- 
thetic account  of  the  struggle  between  the  infant  Hercules  and  the 
serpent ;  but  so  far  as  the  conflict  in  this  debate  had  lain  between  the 
Treasury  Bench  and  the  honorable  meml)er  for  the  City  of  -Cork,  it 
had  lain  between  a  dozen  freemen  and  one  man,  whom  before  the  con- 
flict began  they  had  carefully  manacled  and  gagged.  (Cheers) 
There  were  two  classes  of  speecli  in  this  debate  which  invited  brief 
attention.  In  one  class  they  who  were  concerned  with  the  Land 
League  had  cause  of  complaint  for  being  sought  to  be  made  morally 
responsible  for  the  most  serious  and  the  most  atrocious  of  crimes; 
and  he  experienced  anew  upon  this  occasion  what  he  had  noted  more 
than  once  before,  that  the  most  solemn  and  the  most  exalted  refer- 
ence to  public  morality  came  from  the  gentlemen  who  were  talking 
out  of  their  briefs.  (Cheers.)  The  Solicitor-General  for  Ireland, 
fresh  from  the  breezy  and  moral  atmosphere  of  the  four  courts 
(laughter),  fresh  from  the  elevating  experience  of  the  Derry  elec- 
tion, had  taken  it  upon  himself  to  lecture  honorable  members  of  the 
house  on  the  subject  of  public  morality  (laughter  and  cheers).  He 
spoke  of  the  height  of  soul  and  the  elevation  of  idea,  but  he  (^Ir. 
Sexton)  would  not  delaj'  the  house  to  inquire  how  far  height  of  soul 
and  elevation  of  idea  were  evidenced  at  the  Derry  election ;  nor  would 
he  delay  to  incjuire  how  far  they  ought  to  be  lectured  upon  the  ethics  of 
rent  by  a  gentleman  who,  if  he  might  borrow  a  metaphor  from  an 
humble  but  a  useful  class  of  trade,  appeared  before  the  public  at 
the  Derry  election  as  the  "cheap  jack"  of  the  Liberal  Party. 

To  another  class  of  speeches  he  had  also  briefly  to  allude.  They 
were  those  of  the  advocate  and  spokesmen  of  the  landlord  party  in 
the  house.  The  position  of  the  landlord  party  upon  this  discussion 
was  one  extremely  simple.  They  resented  any  attempts,  the  slight- 
est, the  most  partial  interference,  with  their  historic  right  and  priv- 
ilege of  arbitrarily  plundering  their  tenants.     (Cheers.) 

That  was  precisely  the  state  of  the  case.  Their  class  found  an 
adequate  spokesman  in  the  person  of  the  honorable  member  for  Lei- 
trim  County.  That  honorable  and  gallant  member  proceeded  to  in- 
terest the  house  in  the  beautiful  spectacle  afforded  by  3,000  land- 
lords in  Dublin,  who  were  quite  unanimous  in  the  question  to  dip 
their  hands  into  somebody  else's  pockets.  (Cries  of  "No.")  Well, 
yes,  either  the  pockets  of  the  tenants  or  of  the  State.  It  matters 
nothing  to  the  landlords,  so  long  as  it  was  a  pocket  and  so  long  as  it 
had  something  in  it.     (Cheers.) 

The  Honorable  Gentleman  was  horrified  by  the  theory  that  a 
live  and  thrive  policy  was  to  prevail  in  reference  to  the  Irish  ten- 
ants. They  could  well  understand  the  opposition  of  the  honorable 
and  gallant  member  to  such  a  motion,  because  they  had  good  reason 
to  believe  that  upon  his  property  in  the  County  Leitrim  every  form 
of  ingenuous  despotism  and  every  kind  of  mean  exaction  prevailed. 
He  (Mr,  Sexton)  happened  to  know  that  the  charitably  disposed  in 


784  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

other  parts  of  Ireland  were  sending  clothes  to  cover  the  naked  bodies 
of  his  evicted  tenantry. 

That  debate  had  resolved  itself  in  a  great  measure,  as  he  had 
said,  into  an  attack  upon  the  honorable  member  for  Cork  (Mr.  Par- 
nell) — and  he  might  say  that  attacks  upon  Mr.  Parnell  were  synono- 
mous  with  attacks  upon  the  Land  League.  They  had  been  told  that 
the  Land  League  was  an  organization,  the  object  of  which  was  plun- 
der, and  that  the  means  by  which  it  proposed  to  attain  its  object 
was  by  outrage  and  intimidation;  and  he  held  that  some  right  hon- 
orable and  honoi'able  gentlemen  had  even  said  by  murder.  It  was 
difficult  for  a  man  of  any  sensibility  or  of  any  moral  sense  to  rise 
in  that  house  and  undertake  the  task  of  defending  an  organization  on 
behalf  of  which  the  fiercest  prejudices  of  a  people  ignorant  of  Ire- 
land had  been  excited  by  the  most  ingenuous  statesman  and  the 
greatest  master  of  oratorical  art.  (Cheers.)  He  undertook  to  say 
that  he  could  speedily  prove  to  the  house  that  their  description  of 
the  Land  League  had  been  violently  and  wantonly  removed  from 
truth.  What,  as  a  general  rule,  was  the  description  of  the  class 
of  Irish  landlords?  It  was  a  familiar  fact  that  they  were  planted 
upon  the  soil  of  Ireland  by  confiscation,  and  it  was  a  fact  equally 
familiar  that  in  the  centuries  which  had  since  elapsed  they  had  never 
in  any  sense  allied  themselves  to  the  people;  that  they  had  never 
ceased  to  be  an  alien  class,  never  interested  themselves  in  the  wel- 
fare of  their  tenants,  and  had  merely  performed  the  functions  of 
rent-warners,  and  stood  to-day  as  a  class  as  alien  to  the  interests 
of  Ireland  as  they  were  the  first  day  that  confiscation  planted  them 
there.  (Cheers.)  They  were  as  a  body  an  embarrassed,  a  deeply 
involved  body  of  men;  and  even  in  the  case  of  some  of  them  who 
may  have  been  unwilling  to  act  harshly,  they  had  been  by  a  compul- 
sion derived  from  the  evil  days  of  their  forefathers  forced  to  be  so. 
He  had  recently  become  acquainted  with  some  facts  that  would  ex- 
plain his  meaning  to  the  house.  For  the  eight  years  succeeding  the 
passing  of  the  Encumbered  Estates  Court  Act  the  area  of  Irish  land 
sold  in  the  courts  was  three  million  five  hundred  thousand  acres, 
the  rental  of  which  was  one  million  and  a  quarter  pounds  sterling, 
whilst  the  scheduled  incumbrances  upon  them  amounted  to  thirty- 
six  million  pounds  sterling.  Thus  it  would  be  seen  that  the  land- 
lords of  these  estates,  with  a  rental  of  one  million  and  a  quarter,  were 
liable  for  the  interest  on  incumbrances  which  amounted  to  two  mil- 
lions per  annum.  Any  thoughtful  man  would  see  that  the  existence 
of  the  tenants  of  these  men  must  have  been  a  lifelong  agony. 

One  of  the  advantages  which  was  expected  from  the  Landed 
Estates  Court  was  that  it  would  do  away  with  the  rollicking,  spend- 
thrift landlord  and  replace  him  by  a  man  of  more  commercial  prin- 
ciples ;  but  instead  of  that  it  had  added  a  new  curse,  for  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  "Ebenezer  Scrooge,"  who  had  made  his  money  over 
the  counter,  and  who  went  into  the  business  of  landlord  with  a 
gaming  spirit,  as  a  commercial  speculation,  and  determined  to  ex- 
tort the  last  penny  the  soil  could  afford.  To  what  did  the  Land 
League  owe  its  origin?  The  House  was  aware  that  for  three  years 
before  1879  the  harvests  of  Ireland  had  been  bad  beyond  the  memory 
of  man.  The  bulk  of  the  tenants  were  driven,  in  an  effort  to  pay 
their  back  rents,  to  borrow  large  sums  of  money.  In  this  extreme 
crisis  the  Inudlords  showed  no  disposition  to  give  help  to  the  people. 
Evictions  were  carried  out  and  notices  to  quit — they  were  familiar 


Cheat  Spkeches  on  Great  Occasions  785 

with  the  pliraf5e— fell  like  snowflakes  on  the  land.  The  landlord  class, 
and  they  alone,  abstained  from  any  works  of  mercy,  and  seemed  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  loans  oflcred  by  the  State,  and  those  who 
did  get  any  money  had  the  cynicism  and  shamclessncss  not  to  spend 
it  for  the  purposes  for  whicii  it  was  obtained.  What  were  the  ob- 
jects and  what  are  the  objects  of  the  Land  Leaj,'ue?  He  said,  what 
are  they?  because  the  Land  League,  although  proclaimed  as  an  illegal 
assembly,  had  not  morally  ceased  to  exist  (Irish  cheers),  and  would 
one  day  resume  its  active  existence.  Its  objects  were  two-fold  and 
were  plainly  stated  upon  its  card  of  membership.  The  first  was  to 
put  down  raekrenting,  eviction  and  landlord  oppression.  The  Prime 
Minister  (Mr.  Gladstone)  professed  to  have  attained  that  object  by 
the  Land  Act.  He  (Mr.  Sexton)  was  one  of  those  who  believed  that 
the  Land  Act  would  not  carry  out  the  profession. 

The  second  object  of  the  Land  League  was  to  enable  the  tiller  of 
the  soil  to  become,  on  fair  terms,  the  owner  of  his  holding.  They 
had  that  styled  plunder,  rapine,  revolution;  and  he  should  confess 
that  he  was  not  only  amused,  but  bewildered,  when  he  heard  states- 
men of  experience,  who  nnist  be  aware  of  the  exact  cause  and  prog- 
ress of  agrarian  reform  in  every  country,  express  themselves  in  these 
terms  concerning  propositions  which  were  not  only  feasible,  but 
had  recently  actually  been  carried  out  in  practice  in  that  country, 
in  Europe,  even  in  Prussia,  which  was  the  most  peaceful,  the  most 
successful  and  the  most  powerful  on  the  continent.  The  time 
would  come,  and  it  was  not  far  distant,  when  the  Government  would 
recognize  the  necessity  of  carrying  out  the  Land  League's  object,  and 
if  a  statesman  was  not  found  on  the  other  side  of  the  house  to  do 
it,  he  certainly  would  be  found  on  that;  for  landlords,  who  were 
not  so  dull  as  they  were  obstinate,  have  discovered  that  the  no-rent 
manifesto  means  a  great  deal  and  that  the  only  hopeful  prospect 
for  them  is  not  to  be  found  in  propositions  for  fixing  fair  rents,  but 
in  fulfillment  of  the  objects  of  the  Land  League,  whicli  proposed  to 
sever  the  landlord  from  the  soil  by  the  adoption  of  etjuitable  terms 
of  purchase.  The  objects  of  the  Land  League  remained  absolutely 
the  same  in  every  title  as  they  were  at  first.  An  effort  had  been 
made  to  identify  the  Land  League  with  outrage.  It  did  not  require 
nnich  knowledge  of  history  to  know  that  when  any  men  became  trou- 
blesome to  a  strong  Government,  when  they  had  set  themselves  to 
the  remedying  of  abuses  involving  strongly  established  vested  in- 
terests, they  must  expect  to  be  maligned  and  to  be  traduced ;  to  have 
their  every  action  misconstrued,  and  to  have  their  every  word  coupled 
with  accusations  of  crime.  It  included  the  principal  agriculturists 
in  the  home  counties,  and  the  principal  professional  men  in  the  vari- 
ous towns  in  Ireland.  Anybody  looking  over  the  roll  of  members 
of  the  Land  League  must  recognize  at  once  that  the  accusation  which 
coupled  these  names  with  outrage  and  crime  was  farcical  and  wan- 
ton in  the  extreme.  How  were  the  local  branches  constituted  ?  The 
parish  priest  was  generally  the  president  and  his  assistant  clergy 
were  associated  with  him  in  the  work  of  the  branch.  The  managing 
committees  were  composed,  in  the  towns,  of  substantial  merchants, 
and  in  the  rural  parishes  of  the  most  substantial  and  respectable 
farmers.  He  had  personal  knowledge  of  the  members  of  the  Land 
League  in  nearly  every  town  in  Ireland ;  and  he  assured  the  House, 
upon  his  honor,  that*  what  he  stated  was  the  exact  truth.  How 
could  he  think  that  men  like  the-e  would  identify  themselves  with 


786  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

acts  of  outrage?  And  yet  these  were  the  very  men  (whom  the  right 
lionorable  gentlemen  under  an  act  which  was  intended  for  the  midnight 
prowlers  and  dissolute  ruffians)  arrested  and  cast  into  the  prisons 
of  the  country.  They  heard  about  boycotting.  Boycotting  was  not 
an  article  of  the  Land  League.  It  had  existed  in  Ireland  before 
now,  and  it  existed  in  other  countries  also.  It  was  not  confined  to 
any  social  grade.  They  understood  it  in  Pall-Mall  quite  as  well 
as  in  Mayo.  There  was  an  irresistible  instinct  in  the  human  mind 
which  drove  men  suffering  under  a  sense  of  wrong  to  resort  to  that 
method  of  expressing  their  feelings.  And  among  the  rules  of  the 
Land  League  there  were  two  on  which  it  mainly  depended  for  suc- 
cor. One  was  that  no  tenant  should  act  singly  on  the  question  of 
rent,  but  that  as  the  despotic  power  of  the  landlord  had  always 
sprung  out  of  the  fact  that  he  took  the  tenants  one  by  one  and  iso- 
lated them,  the  tenants,  to  paralyze  this  power,  should  band  them- 
selves together  and  offer  him  what  the  needy  times  in  which  they 
lived  enabled  them  to  afford,  and  the  other  rule  was  that  no  tenant 
should  take  a  farm  from  which  another  had  been  evicted.  The  pivot 
upon  which  the  old  system  of  tyranny  turned,  and  on  which  the 
landlord  power  in  Ireland  rested,  arose  from  the  fierce  and  hungry 
competition  for  land  which  existed  in  the  country.  Whenever  a  farm 
fell  vacant,  no  matter  through  what  injustice,  no  matter  what  was 
the  rent  asked  for  it,  some  miserable  tenant,  driven  to  his  wits  ends 
for  the  means  of  living,  was  willing  to  come  forward  and  in  compe- 
tition with  others  of  his  class  to  otter,  or  at  least  to  promise,  what- 
ever rent  the  landlord  asked.  So  long  as  that  system  was  allowed 
to  continue  the  landlords  had  the  matter  entirely  in  their  own  hands, 
while  on  the  other  side  of  the  question  there  was  a  body  of  tenants, 
hard  worked,  without  requital  for  their  labor,  miserable,  oppressed, 
anxious,  and  discontented.  The  Land  League  established  a  rule 
based  upon  voluntary  action.  The  tenants  should  not  isolate  them- 
selves on  the  question  of  rent,  but  should  act  together,  and  that  no 
tenant  should  take  a  farm  from  which  another  had  been  unjustly 
evicted.  It  was  in  reference  to  the  last  rule  that  the  device  of  boy- 
cotting came  into  force,  because  there  were  still  men  who  would 
persist  in  acting  against  the  interests  of  the  tenants,  and  the  tenants 
concurred,  and  he  conceived  and  should  always  assert  it  that  the 
tenants  were  perfectly  justified.  When  any  man  acted  against  their 
interest  and  preferred  his  own  selfish  ends  to  the  public  good  they 
were,  he  repeated,  justified  in  socially  discountenancing  such  a  man; 
they  were  justified  in  refusing  to  hold  intercourse  with  him,  and, 
he  would  add,  they  were  justified  in  refusing  to  work  for  him,  be- 
cause, owing  to  his  own  selfish  interest,  he  had  proclaimed  himself 
a  public  enemy.     (Cheers.) 

If  the  people  of  Ireland  had  any  rational  method  of  expressing 
their  wishes  and  preserving  and  guarding  their  interests  by  laws 
made  by  themselves,  he  should  be  very  slow  to  say  that  any  indi- 
vidual man  in  such  a  community  should  be  subjected  to  anything 
which  might  be  called  persecution,  but  when  the  Irish  people  had 
no  such  right,  when  they  were  represented  simply  by  a  few  men  in 
that  House  who  could  be  voted  down  at  any  moment,  that  when  they 
had  practically  no  effective  existence  within  the  bounds  of  the  con- 
stitution, what  were  they  to  do?  Were  they  to  suffer  sneaks  and 
traitors  of  that  kind  to  do  what  they  pleased  and  to  perpetuate  a 
bad  and  tyrannical  system  which  made  every  tenant  the  slave  and 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  787 

serf  of  tlio  landlord.  No;  the  boyf-oltiiiK  systr-in,  so  lonf?  a??  it  was 
confinod  to  social  discountmaiu-iri*^  und  to  ii('j^ativ(;  action,  was  a 
rule  not  only  necessary  for  success  of  the  jiioveiiient,  l)ut  thor- 
ou^dily  justilied  on  jirounds  of  expediency  and  even  morals,  lie 
claimed  that  on  the  authority  of  the  Land  Lea^nic  and  by  the  sanc- 
tion of  its  i)rominent  members  boycottin<^  could  never  Ije  a<lvance(l 
an  inch  beyond  the  sphere  of  nef^ative  action,  and  the  Land  League 
had  as  little  to  do  with  lioyeottinj;,  which  included  outrage  anil 
crime,  as  it  had  to  do  with  the  transit  of  Venus.  The  Land  Ijeague 
never  required  for  the  success  of  its  movement  the  universal  obedi- 
ence of  Ireland.  There  was  plenty  of  room  for  dissensions.  They 
should  desire  that  there  should  be  complete  liberty  of  action,  and  if 
the  honorable  member  for  Galway  looked  through  his  speeches  he 
would  find  strewn  through  them  broadcast  adjurations  to  the  people 
to  confine  themselves  to  the  wise  and  sufficient  rules  of  the  Land 
League.  He  did  that  because  he  desired  to  keep  the  movement 
within  the  recognized  bounds  of  morals,  and  also  because  he  felt  the 
people  would  be  injuring  their  own  movement  if  they  concerned 
themselves  with  any  acts  of  outrage.  It  was  essential  for  the  suc- 
cess and  progress  of  the  movement  that  it  should  not  be  embarrassed 
by  coercion,  and  every  man  in  Ireland  knew  that  a  long  succession 
of  outrage  would  inevitably  produce  coercion,  wiiich  would  embarrass 
and  hamper  the  movement.  Wliat  would  have  happened  in  Ireland 
had  there  been  no  Land  League?  In  the  first  place,  if  there  had 
been  no  Land  League  there  would  have  been  no  Land  Act.  (Irish 
cheers.)  Did  anybody  doubt  it?  The  honorable  member  for  Gal- 
way seemed  to  be  alone  in  his  belief  that  there  would.  But  why 
if  there  had  been  no  Land  League  would  there  have  been  no  Land 
Act?  Firstly,  because  the  Prime  IMinister  in  his  address  to  the 
electors  of  the  country  two  years  ago  outlined  a  great  many  sub- 
jects of  legislation,  and  certainly  the  Irish  land  question  was  not 
one  of  these.  In  the  first  session  of  the  present  Parliament  they  in- 
troduced a  small  bill  of  respite,  which  might  save  a  certain  class 
of  miserable  Irish  tenants  for  a  time  from  the  ruin  and  the  doom 
of  eviction.  The  right  honorable  gentleman  passed  it  through  that 
House  after  much  ado  and  much  compulsion,  and,  he  might  say,  at 
the  point  of  the  bayonet  presented  at  hira  by  the  Irish  landlords. 
But  when  the  bill  was  thrown  out  in  another  place  the  right  honor- 
able gentleman  meekly  assented  to  that  mode  of  dealing  with  it  and 
neither  he  nor  his  government  showed  any  intention  of  dealing  with 
the  Irish  Land  Question.  They  would  not  have  dealt  with  it  but 
for  the  existence  of  the  Land  League,  and  their  position  now,  there- 
fore, was  that,  whereas  up  to  the  month  of  October  last  they  looked 
on  with  complacency,  if  not  with  pleasure,  at  the  agitation  sustained 
by  the  Land  League,  an  agitation  necessary  for  the  furtherance  and 
completion  of  their  legislative  design. 

The  moment  their  infant  Hercules  found  his  way  into  the  world 
and  that  it  became  necessary  to  advance  him  in  life,  that  moment 
their  parental  fondness  asserted  itself,  and  the  Land  League,  which 
up  to  that  was  useful,  was  declared  an  enemy.  Why?  They  had 
been  told  that  it  sometimes  happened  that  the  leading  advocates  of 
reform  became  the  enemies  of  reform  when  it  was  granted.  They 
were  not  the  enemies  of  reform.  They  were  willing  and  anxious 
to  take  out  of  the  Land  Act  whatever  benefit  it  contained,  but  their 
crime  in  the  eyes  of  the  Government  was  that  they  did  not  choose 


788  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

to  bend  the  knee  betore  Ca3sar.  They  did  not  accept  the  fruit  of 
the  Prime  Minister's  intellect  as  a  final  settlement  of  the  Irish  Land 
Question;  they  rather  strove  for  that  object  declared  in  1879 — the 
abolition  of  landlordism  in  Ireland.  It  was  for  that  object  they 
had  been  proclaimed,  denounced,  imprisoned  and  maligned  in  that 
House  and  in  every  part  of  the  country.  One  entertaining  feature 
in  the  speech  of  the  right  honorable  gentleman  was  his  references  to 
America.  America  was  a  very  favorite  topic  with  the  right  hon- 
orable gentleman  on  the  front  of  the  Treasury  benches  when  speak- 
ing about  the  Land  League.  They  seemed  to  think  it  a  strange  and 
melancholy  dispensation  of  fate  that  there  should  be  another  Ire- 
land in  America.  Because  the  governments  which  in  succession  had 
sat  upon  the  Treasury  benches  had  been  participators  in  the  crim- 
inal and  wicked  course  by  which  the  Irish  landlords  denied  the 
Irish  people  a  home  in  their  own  land.  For  many  a  year  and  many  a 
generation  the  Irish  people  had  seen  the  roof-tree  overturned  by  the 
crowbar,  and  had  been  driven  out  on  the  roadside  and  away  on  the 
emigrant  ship ;  had  been  driven,  penniless,  wretched  and  desperate,  to 
find  a  home  and  a  living  at  the  ends  of  the  earth.  They  had  gone 
forth  with  two  feelings  strong  in  their  hearts:  despairing  love  of 
their  country,  that  they  never  again  would  see,  and  a  fierce,  eternal 
hate  of  the  Government  of  England  (Irish  cheers),  and  the  right 
honorable  gentleman  wonders  that  these  men  should  have  gone  forth 
cursing  the  Irish  landlords  and  the  English  Government,  and  that 
they,  when  a  movement  is  on  foot  in  Ireland  to  emancipate  those 
whom  they  left  behind  to  suffer  from  the  system  which  exiled  them 
should  now  send  their  contributions  to  Ireland.  The  right  honorable 
gentleman  said  he  must  count  upon  the  contributions  of  those  exiles 
as  a  factor  in  the  Irish  movement.  He  must  digest  the  venom  of 
this  gall  though  it  should  split  him.  The  right  honorable  gentle- 
man held  them  responsible  for  the  writings  of  the  "Irish  World." 
Well,  the  "Irish  World"  had  undoubtedly  sent  some  portion  of 
the  funds  which  had  maintained  the  Irish  Land  League,  but  the 
"Irish  World"  was  not  the  sole  contributor  to  the  funds.  Contri- 
butions had  poured  in  from  various  parts  of  America,  and  through 
various  channels,  and  if  the  right  honorable  gentleman  took  suf- 
ficient interest  in  the  Land  League  to  observe  the  subscriptions  for 
the  past  month  he  might  have  seen  that  they  amounted  to  over 
twenty  thousand  pounds  sterling,  the  largest  amount  ever  yet  sub- 
scribed in  a  single  month;  and  he  would  have  seen  that  by  far  the 
largest  portion  of  that  amount  came  from  other  sources  than  the 
"Irish  World."  He  was  not  responsible,  neither  was  the  honorable 
member  for  Cork  (Mr.  Parnell),  nor  was  even  the  Land  League 
responsible  for  anything  written  by  the  "Irish  World"  or  by  any 
other  American  newspaper.  They  were  responsible  for  the  written 
and  avowed  principles  of  the  Land  League,  and  for  nothing  else. 
(Irish  cheers.)  The  right  honorable  gentleman  said  that  the  Gov- 
ernment was  driven  into  the  course  which  they  had  adopted  against 
the  Irish  Land  League.  They  believed  that  otherwise  the  law  would 
have  become  powerless,  that  industry  would  be  impossible  in  Ire- 
land, and  that  liberty  could  not  have  existed.  But  in  the  latter 
part  of  his  speech  the  right  honorable  gentleman  answered  himself 
laecause  he  said  that  the  state  of  the  relations  between  landlord  and 
tenant  in  Ireland  and  the  system  of  land  tenure  was  such  that  quiet 
was  impossible,  that  industry  could  not  thrive,  and  that  reform  could 


GiiEAT  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  789 

not  1)0  attained.  It  was  rather  too  soon  for  tlu^  rijrht  honorable  gen- 
tleman to  presume  upon  the  adequacy  of  the  infant  Hercules  to  cope 
with  the  evils  of  such  a  system,  especially  when  there  was  every  rea- 
son to  believe  that  this  infant  was  in  a  ^^^llopiug  consumption. 

(Some  honorable  members  and  the  House  were  pcrhajis  aware 
that  on  the  arrest  of  his  honorable  friend,  .Mr.  Dillon,  in  th^  month 
of  April,  he  assumed  the  direction  of  the  Land  Leaj^'uc,  and  as  he 
was  one  of  those  who  had  been  charj^ed  by  the  ri;,dit  honorable  gentle- 
man with  moral  responsibility  for  crimes  of  various  degrees  of  enor- 
mity, up  even  to  the  highest  crime,  he  thought  it  might  be  well  if 
he  asked  the  House  to  attend  for  a  few  moments  while  be  exhibited, 
a  few  brief  extracts  from  his  published  speeches  to  show  the  spirit 
in  which  the  Land  League  was  conducted  during  the  final  months  of 
its  career.  Addressing  the  meeting  of  the  League  on  the  17th  of 
IMay,  he  said:  "Our  marvelous  success  is  strong  from  the  fact  that 
our  principles  have  been  sound,  our  statements  accurate,  our  objects 
laudable  and  necessary  for  the  public  good,  and  that  the  means 
which  we  have  put  forward  for  the  attainment  of  those  objects  were 
such  as  neither  in  justice  nor  in  morality  can  be  questioned."  Again 
on  the  31st  of  May,  addressing  the  League,  he  said:  "The  Oov- 
ernment  thought  this  organization  sprung  into  existence  because  of 
an  imperative  necessity.  They  know  it  also  asks  nothing  but  what 
public  necessity  demands,  and  they  know  it  proposes  no  means  for 
the  furtherance  of  its  objects  but  the  means  that  religion  and  con- 
science and  morality  approve  of."  Then  referring  to  the  arrest  of 
his  friend,  John  O'Connor,  he  said:  "I  will  say  that  there  was 
no  man  in  the  community  who  by  nature  and  by  training,  by  convic- 
tion and  by  the  habit  of  his  life,  was  so  truly  the  friend  of  public 
peace  or  a  more  sincere  champion  of  public  order,"  and  then  went 
on  to  urge  the  people  to  be  prudent  and  to  express  his  confident  re- 
liance on  the  constitutional  character  of  the  Land  League,  which 
they  were  determined  to  maintain  to  the  end. 

On  the  7th  of  June  the  Rev.  ]\Iortimer  O'Connor,  Parish  Priest 
of  Ballybunion,  in  the  County  of  Kerry,  occupied  the  chair  at  the 
meeting  of  the  League,  and  said:  "I  established  a  branch  of  the 
Land  League  in  my  parish  and  became  its  president.  Every  house- 
holder in  the  parish,  farmer,  laborer,  and  tradesman,  joined  it,  with 
the  result  that  the  most  perfect  tranquillity  prevails  and  serious 
crime  is  altogether  unknown.  The  restraining  influence  of  the 
League  was  clearly  visible.  The  same  is  the  tone  of  the  surround- 
ing parishes.  It  also  applies  in  a  greater  or  less  extent  to  ^lunster. 
Should  the  Government  suppress  this  organization,  which  walks  open- 
ly in  the  light  of  day  and  hides  nothing,  the  populace  will  be  brought 
face  to  face  w^ith  the  armed  forces  of  the  realm."  Perhaps  that 
was  what  the  right  honorable  gentleman  desired.  (Irish  cheers.) 
"Without  restraining  or  controlling  influences  in  their  struggle  for 
existence,  our  sufTering  fellow-countrj-men  will  be  driven  into  a 
course  which  reason  and  religion  alike  condemns.  On  the  same  day 
he  (Mr.  Sexton)  addressed  the  League  and  said:  "There  was  a 
duty  now  devolving  every  man  who  had  any  influence  ^vith  the  peo- 
ple to  advise  them  to  self-control,  and  that  every  man  should  feel 
it  his  sacred  duty  to  act  as  if  the  safety  and  welfare  of  the  people 
depended  upon  his  labor."  And  yet  he  was  told  that  the  League  was 
an  organization  which  depended  upon  intimidation  and  outrage.     On 


790  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  14th  of  June  Mr.  John  Ferguson,  of  Glasgow,  occupied  the  chair 
at  the  meeting  of  the  League,  and  he  said: 

"They  intended  to  work  this  movement  out  on  the  lines  of  con- 
stitutional agitation,  by  brain  and  tongue  and  what  had  never  been 
tried  in  Ireland  before,  the  powers  which  the  trades  union  organ- 
ization gave  them."  It  might  be  interesting  to  the  house  to  know 
that  at  the  end  of  July  the  League,  on  his  motion,  so  strongly  did 
it  feel  an  interest  in  the  preservation  of  social  order  in  Ireland, 
passed  a  resolution  adjuring  the  Catholics  of  Ulster  not  to  inter- 
fere with  the  Orangemen  on  the  occasion  of  the  Orange  anniv^sary. 
The  Catholics  of  Ulster  obeyed  that  request,  and,  as  a  result,  for  the 
first  time  in  many  years  there  was  no  breach  of  the  peace  in  the 
Province  of  Ulster  on  that  Orange  anniversary.  (Irish  cheers.)  He 
had  not  heard  that  the  economy  of  public  finance  thus  procured  by 
the  League  had  been  acknowledged  by  the  Government.  On  the  28th" 
of  June  he  said  at  a  meeting  of  the  League:  "We  will  use  every 
power  within  the  boundary  of  admitted  right,  and  we  will  use  it 
firmly,  in  the  assertion  of  our  rights  to  live  in  our  own  native  land. ' ' 
On  the  5th  of  July  he  said :  "I  am  proud  to  be  able  to  claim  for  the 
Land  League  that,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Ireland  it  has 
effectually  interfered  between  these  two  sections  of  the  people  in  the 
North  of  Ireland  who  had  been  kept  apart  by  class  prejudice  and 
hate."  On  the  same  day  he  further  said,  alluding  to  an  arrest  that 
had  been  made:  "He  was  not  only  a  leader  of  the  people  in  the 
South,  but  applies  a  thoughtful  nature  and  powerful  intellect  to  the 
repression,  of  the  passions  of  the  people,  which  might  lead  to  vio- 
lence and  crime."  The  Government  knew  this  well,  and  knew  also 
that  in  his  speeches  he  conveyed  that  the  peaceful  objects  of  the 
League  were  sufficient.  The  Government,  feeling  it  was  not  within 
the  scope  of  possibility  to  arrest  my  friend  on  a  charge  of  inciting  to 
outrage,  availed  themselves  of  a  clause,  the  cowardly  purpose  of 
which  was  apparent  to  the  Irish  members  while  the  bill  was  passing 
through  the  House,  and  arrested  him  for  treasonable  practices.  The 
Government,  he  would  now  add,  exercised  that  clause  in  a  far  more 
conspicuous  cause.  The  Right  Honorable,  the  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  Home  Department,  had  immediately  before  this  date  made 
a  speech  in  which  he  had  endeavored,  now  by  hints  and  shrugs,  and 
anonymous  placards,  and  bits  out  of  newspapers,  to  associate  the  Land 
League  with  outrage,  and  this  was  his  (Mr.  Sexton's)  reply. 

Sir  William  Vernon  Harcourt  has  condemned  the  League.  He 
has  endeavored  to  give  it  a  character  which  might  prove  most  suita- 
ble for  any  purpose  of  expression  which  might  be  entertained  by 
the  Government.  But  how  had  he  arrived  at  this  conclusion?  Had 
he  judged  the  Land  League  by  its  articles  and  associations,  or  by  its 
published  rules'?  Had  he  judged  it  by  the  modes  of  action  it  had 
urged  upon  the  people?  Had  he  judged  it  by  the  speeches  of  its 
responsible  members,  or  by  the  course  of  the  movement,  carried  on 
as  it  had  been  in  the  face  of  Heaven  and  the  world  ?  No.  But  he  had 
gone  about  like  a  political  scavenger,  even  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
sweeping  up  here  a  sentence  from  one  speech,  and  there  a  sentence 
from  some  newspaper.  The  most  inconsiderable  trifle  was  welcome 
if  it  could  only  contribute  to  increase  the  heap  of  rubbish.  At  the 
last  meeting  of  the  League,  which  he  attended  immediately  before 
his  illness,  he  defined  in  a  few  words  what  he  conceived  to  be  the 
foundation  of  these  test  cases,  which  had  come  into  violent  denunci- 


Great  Speeches  ox  Great  Occasions  791 

ation  so  much  of  lato.    He  said:    ''The  object  of  the  Leajrue  was 
to  select  those  test  cases,  which,  upon  a  view  of  the  condition  of  th(! 
country  and  of  the  state  of  the  various  classes  of  tenants,  will  put  the 
question  before  the  Court  in  the  form  best  calculated  to  serve  the 
country,  and   to  nuike   known  the  real   point  and   meaning?  of  the 
act.     At  the  last  meeting,'  of  the  Lea<;ue  ever  held,  the  raeetini:,'  at 
which  the  manif(\sto  was  read,  that  was  on  the  19th  of  October,  the 
chair  was  taken  by  an  ecclesiastic  as  eminent,  as  able  and  as  virtu- 
ous as  any  of  whom  Ireland  could  boast,  the  Rev.  James  Cantwell, 
the  Administrator  of  the  Archdiocese  of  Cashel    (cheers),  and  here 
they  had  the  last  words  ever  spoken  on  the  platform  of  the  Ijeague. 
He  said:     "I  appeal  and  exhort  each  one  of  you,  in  conclusion,  that 
you,  yourselves,  and  so  far  as  your  influence  ^'oes  over  others,  will 
abstain  from  using  violence  of  any  kind  in  the  country.     Our  posi- 
tion is  passive  resistance.     We  are  an  unarmed  people,  and  every 
man  of  sense  who  loves  his  country,  who  wishes  to  do  nothing  to 
bring  disgrace  and  injury  upon  it,  will  do  all  he  can  to  prevent  vio- 
lent action."     With  these  words  the  legal  existence  of  the  League 
terminated,  and  these  words  were  spoken  by  an  eminent  and  virtu- 
ous clergyman  from  the  chair  of  the  association,  who  had  been  de- 
nounced as  the  aider  and  abettor    of    outrage    and    intimidation. 
(Cheers.)     These  words  he  said,  the  last  ever  spoken  in  connection 
with  the  League,  would  remain  upon  its  records  to  the  latest  day  in 
defiance  of  calumny  and  in  repulse  of  falsehood.     The  right  honora- 
ble gentleman  (Mr.  Forster)  told  them  that  he  should  not  have  ar- 
rested the  honorable  member  for  Cork  and  the  other  members  ofi 
Parliament  if  they  had  confined  themselves  to  giving  advice,  but  in 
the  face  of  all  that  had  been  said,  in  the  face  of  the  published  pro- 
ceedings of  the  League,  in  the  face  of  its  known,  uncontradicted  and 
uncontradictable,  peaceful,  passive  policy,  he  had  discovered  in  some 
mysterious  manner  that  the  member  for  Cork  and  the  other  members 
were  responsible  not  only  for  advice,  but  for  threats — not  merely 
for  threats,  but  for  outrages.     (Cheers.)     He  confessed  he  was  ut- 
terly unable  to  follow  the  course  of  reasoning  by  which  the  right 
honorable  gentleman  arrived  at  his  conclusion.     He  arrived  at  it,  as 
he  just  said,  by  the  method  of  the  political  scavenger.     (Cheers.) 
Mr.   Parnell   said  at  the  Tyrone  election   and  the   right  honorable 
gentleman  thought  he  made  a  great  discovery,   that  the   end   and 
object  of  the  Land  League  was  the  abolition  of  all  rent  and  the  mak- 
ing of  the  people  the  owners  of  the  land.     He  asked  what  was  there 
novel  in  that?     He  might  have  found  precisely  the  same  thing  in  any 
speech  of  Mr.  Parnell's  delivered  three  yeai*s  ago — and  what   was 
the  impropriety  of  such  a  statement  provided  it  was  accompanied,  as 
it  was  on  the  Land  League  platform,  with  the  statement  that  the 
landlords  should  be  severed  from  the  soil  by  purchase  on  fair  and 
equitable  terms.     (Cheers.)     IMr.  Parnell  said  in  order  to  carry  out 
the  policy  of  the  League  it  would  be  necessaiy  to  keep  evicted  farms 
vacant.     The  right  honorable  gentleman  professed   to   believe   that 
this  involved  some  violence,  vsome  threats,  illegal  and  secret  action. 
Certainly  not.     The  League  from  the  beginning  relied  and  had  rea- 
son to  rely  upon  the  sufficiency  of  social  opinion  and  the  negative 
system  of  boycotting  to  keep  these  farms  vacant.     The  right  honor- 
able gentleman  contested  indignantly  the  notion  that   ^Ir.   Parnell 
was  arrested  because  of  his  reply  to  the  Prime  Minister.     He   (Mr. 
Sexton)  could  assure  him  that  a  widespread  suspicion  to  that  effect 


792  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

existed  amongst  the  Irish  people.  Mr.  Parnell  replied  to  the  Prime 
Minister  on  the  9th  of  October,  and  upon  the  13th  of  October  Mr. 
Parnell  was  arrested.  There  was  just  sufficient  time  for  communi- 
cation between  the  two  right  honorable  gentlemen  (Messrs.  Glad- 
stone and  Forster),  who  sat  side  by  side  upon  the  Treasury  Bench, 
and  the  prevailing  opinion  was  that,  if  Mr.  Parnell  had  not  de- 
nounced the  Prime  Minister  as  a  coercionist  and  a  slanderer  of  the 
Irish  people  he  might  have  enjoyed  a  somewhat  longer  term  of  lib- 
erty. If  Mr,  Parnell  was  not  arrested  upon  the  ground  of  his  reply 
to  the  Prime  Minister,  why  was  it  that  they  had  no  explanation  of 
the  arrest  of  Mr.  Dillon?  The  honorable  member  pointed  out  the 
curious  coincidence  that  only  four  days  elapsed  between  Mr.  Par- 
nell's  reply  to  the  Prime  Minister's  Leeds  speech  and  his  arrest,  and 
four  days  between  Mr.  Dillon's  speech  spurning  the  praises  of  the 
Prime  Minister  and  his  arrest.  He  then  referred  to  the  extraordi- 
nary character  of  the  warrants  on  which  Mr.  Parnell  and  himself 
had  been  arrested  and  showed  that  the  warrant  charging  them  with 
treasonable  practises  was  an  after  thought  of  the  Government.  There 
was  not  a  particle  of  evidence  to  maintain  such  a  charge,  and  he 
had  been  waiting  with  curiosity  an  account  of  the  reasons  for  such  a 
formidable  charge.  Of  course  the  right  honorable  gentleman  endea- 
vored to  eke  out  the  contention  that  it  was  a  treasonable  practise 
to  make  an  organized  attempt  to  replace  the  Queen's  courts  by  the 
courts  of  irresponsible  leaders.  So  it  was,  but  who  made  the  at- 
tempt? Such  an  idea  never  entered  into  the  mind  of  the  Land 
League  or  any  of  its  members.  They  wished  to  know  as  soon  as 
possible  precisely  how  much  the  Land  Act  meant  as  a  measure  of 
reform  for  the  different  classes  of  tenants  in  Ireland. 

During  his  stay  in  Ireland,  from  May  until  the  14th  of  October, 
until  the  right  honorable  gentleman,  the  Chief  Secretary,  arrested 
him  he  delivered  upwards  of  one  hundred  speeches,  which  certainly 
afforded  a  considerable  area  for  the  selection  of  treasonable  prac- 
tises if  any  such  existed.  But  he  found  he  was  arrested  in  conse- 
quence of  one  sentence,  in  fact  one  line,  in  a  single  speech  delivered 
in  the  open  air  at  a  moment  of  great  excitement  to  an  immense 
torchlight  meeting.  He  said  that  "Dublin  had  broken  loose  from 
the  Lion  and  the  Unicorn,  and  had  arrayed  itself  that  evening  un- 
der the  banner  of  the  Shamrock  and  the  Harp."  Certainly  he  never 
suspected  that  those  animals  were  so  sacred  to  the  theory  of  the 
British  Constitution.  He  might  add  with  perfect  accuracy  that  he 
was  not  thinking  at  the  time  of  the  Parliamentary  relations  which  still 
existed  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  It  was  rather  a  jocular 
allusion  on  his  part  to  describe  the  torchlight  procession  as  a  happy 
departure  from  the  old  system.  He  was  thinking  of  certain  social 
objects  of  life  in  the  city  of  Dublin,  where  the  Lion  and  the  Unicorn, 
being  the  sign-board  of  the  Castle  tradesman,  were  the  types  and 
emblem  of  a  slavish  and  toadying  section  of  the  community.  It  was, 
however,  a  dear  joke  for  him,  for  the  right  honorable  gentleman 
pounced  upon  the  phrase;  the  right  honorable  and  learned  gentle- 
man smelt  treason  in  it,  and  as  a  consequence  he  was  taken  out  of 
bed  to  Kilmainham,  and  put  into  a  bed  there  and  kept  there  for 
eighteen  days,  during  which  time  he  had  an  ample  opportunity  of 
experiencing  the  philanthropy  which  they  were  told  distinguished 
the  character  of  the  right  honorable  gentleman  by  the  leader  of  the 
Crovernment  in  language  likely  to  earn  for  him  an  enduring  fame. 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  793 

He  beliovod  that  tlio  administration  of  tho  Coorcion  Act  will  be  an 
endurinfi:  nionnni(>nt  for  the  rifrht  honorable  fr<'ntlcman,  a  monument 
from  the  top  of  which  lonj;  after  he  liad  j)assc(l  away  the  finp^er  of 
history  wouhl  point  in  contempt  and  unclianfjjinf?  execration,  lie 
should  not  pass  the  subject  of  tlie  philanthropy  of  the  ri<,'ht  honor- 
able p:entleman  without  sayinpj  that,  althoujrh  his  condition  of  health 
when  thrown  into  Kilmainham  was  such  as  mif(ht  have  well  earned 
the  consideration  of  even  a  sterner  jailer  than  the  rij^dit  honorable 
gentleman,  he  took  advantage  to  deny  him  the  ordinary  privileges 
accorded  to  prisoners  under  the  Coercion  Act,  and  was  not  allowed 
to  see  the  visitors  who  called  at  the  prison.  He  went  one  step  fur- 
ther, and  his  being  one  of  the  names,  he  was  proud  to  say,  affixed  to 
the  "No  Rent"  manifesto,  he  was  condemned  to  solitary  confine- 
ment. So  under  the  regime  of  this  philanthropist  who  spent  his 
youth  in  the  hovel  and  in  the  cabin,  and  who  was  spending  his  age 
in  reversing  the  record  of  his  youth,  under  this  regime  he  suffered 
seven  days'  solitary  confinement.  In  addition,  he  suffered  pains  and 
indignities  which  he  would  hesitate  to  describe  to  the  House.  He 
might  mention,  Jiowcver,  that  on  one  occasion  when  the  honorable 
member  for  Cork  quitted  his  cell  the  honorable  member  for  Roscom- 
mon, who  was  also  there,  was  removed  in  consequence  of  the  prison  reg- 
ulation which  was  for  enforcement  against  the  lowest  criminals  in  the 
land  to  prevent  the  committal  of  an  offence  which  he  could  scarcely 
suggest  to  the  House.  These  were  the  rules  which  under  the  regime 
of  this  philanthropist  were  applied  to  members  of  that  House  who 
were  arrested  on  false  and  impudent  fraudulent  pretences.  The 
right  honorable  gentleman  who  had  so  signalized  and  so  unhappily 
distinguished  himself  w^as  looked  upon  by  the  Irish  people  as  a 
clumsy  Cromw^ell.  (Cheers  and  laughter.)  Yes,  a  commonplace, 
clumsy  Cromwell,  a  man  who  has  all  the  spirit  and  all  the  will  to 
tyrannize  without  the  capacity  or  the  genius  of  Cromwell.  The  main 
feature  of  the  charge  against  the  honorable  member  for  Cork  was 
his  policy  with  reference  to  the  Land  Act,  and  he  proposed  to  make 
it  clear  to  the  House  w^hat  his  policy  really  was,  and  how  little  it 
deserved  the  denunciations  which  had  been  levelled  against  it.  He 
might  say  to  all  concerned  that  IMr.  Parnell  had  ulterior  objects. 
Every  Irishman  worthy  of  the  name  had  ulterior  objects,  and  if  he 
had  not  he  w^as  not  worthy  to  be  called  an  Irishman.  Mr.  Parnell 
himself  and  other  associates  of  the  Land  League  regarded  the  land 
movement  as  only  a  stepping  stone  to  that  union  of  classes  which 
would  lead  to  the  restoration  of  the  rights  of  Ireland,  but  they  de- 
nied that  these  ulterior  objects  involved  any  reproach.  They  con- 
sisted in  the  performance  and  consummation  of  a  patriotic  duty,  and 
within  the  lines  which  had  been  laid  down  for  them  by  the  most  emi- 
nent authorities  they  would  fight  for  these  ulterior  objects  to  the 
end.  Mr.  Parnell  expressed  his  belief  that  as  long  as  the  question 
of  how  much  rent  the  tenant  should  pay  remained  in  dispute  it  would 
prove  a  source  of  discontent  and  enmity  between  the  classes  of  the 
country.  Michael  Davitt,  he  further  declared,  truly  saw  that  the 
first  step  to  be  taken  towards  the  recovery  of  their  legislative  inde- 
pendence was  the  abolition  of  landlordism.  *'It  was  not,"  said  Mr. 
Parnell,  "a  question  of  novel  or  condemnable  revolution;  it  was  a 
question  of  regaining  the  rights  of  the  Irish  people  and  recovering 
their  legislative  independence." 

Mr.  Parnell  had  been  subjected  to  some  fierce  attacks,  because  it 


794  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

was  said  that  he  proposed  to  reduce  the  rental  of  Ireland  from  Sev- 
enteen IMillions  to  Two  or  Three  Millions. 

In  one  of  his  speeches  he  declared  that  in  the  difference  between 
two  or  three  millions  and  seventeen  millions  there  was  plenty  of 
room  for  the  reformer.  The  House  would  at  once  appreciate  the 
expression,  which  showed  that  the  honorable  member  for  Cork  did 
not  bind  himself  to  one  figure,  but  pointed  out  that  between  the  two 
practical  legislation  might  find  a  fitting  medium.  On  the  question  of 
the  reduction  of  the  rental  of  Ireland,  Mr.  Paruell  said  they  should 
contend  that  in  the  legislative  reform  on  the  subject  the  presumption 
in  respect  of  the  period  for  which  the  tenant  was  allowed  for  past 
improvements  should  be  changed  to  them  from  time  immemorial,  as 
it  was  he  and  his,  and  that  the  tenant  should  be  deemed  to  be  en- 
titled ancestors  who  created  them,  and  not  the  landlord.  On  this 
point  the  Honorable  member  for  Cork  read  the  declaration  of  Mr. 
John  Bright  that  nine-tenths  of  what  was  to  be  seen  in  Ireland  in  the 
shape  of  houses,  fences  and  land  cultivation  had  been  put  there  by 
the  tenants  of  Ireland,  and  not  by  the  landlords. 

Mr.  Parnell  then  went  on  to  say  that  the  Land  Act,  which  Mr. 
Bright  and  his  Government  had  passed,  handed  over  about  one-tenth 
of  the  improvements  to  the  tenant  and  left  the  remaining  nine-tenths 
to  the  landlord,  and  it  would  be  their  duty,  he  continued,  to  struggle 
until  the  British  Legislature  had  sanctioned  the  restoration  to  the 
tenants  of  all  the  improvements  to  M^hich,  according  to  Mr.  Bright, 
they  were  entitled.  Two  or  three  millions  might  be  an  extravagant 
estimate  to  which  to  reduce  the  rental  of  Ireland,  but  unquestionably, 
if  it  were  extravagant  the  responsibility  for  such  extravagance  lay 
more  at  the  door  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster  than 
at  the  door  of  the  Honorable  member  for  Cork.  But  it  was  obvious 
that  if  the  declaration  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster 
were  carried  into  legislative  effect,  the  rental  of  Ireland  would  be 
more  likely  to  be  reduced  to  one  million  than  to  two  or  three.  To 
illustrate  the  manner  in  which  the  rents  had  been  raised  upon  the 
tenants'  improvements,  the  Honorable  member  referred  to  the  his- 
tory of  the  Farney  estate,  which  was  related  by  Mr.  Townsend  French, 
an  eminent  Irish  land  agent.  In  1789  the  rental  of  the  estate  was 
eight  million  pounds,  and  in  1843,  seventy-four  years  afterwards,  the 
rental  of  the  estate  was  forty  million  pounds.  What  had  been  the 
cause  of  such  an  enormous  difference  in  seventy-four  years?  It 
was  evidently  the  improvements  eft'ected  by  the  tenants.  Taking 
the  Healy  clause  in  conjunction  with  the  declaration  of  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Duchy,  he  confessed  he  was  amazed  and  bewildered  to  account 
not  merely  for  the  imprisonment  of  the  honorable  member  for  Cork, 
but  for  the  charges  of  public  immorality  which  had  been  made  against 
him.  The  Healy  clause,  which  received  the  assent  of  both  Houses  of 
Parliament,  declared  that  no  rents  should  be  made  payable  for  im- 
provements made  or  executed  by  the  tenant  or  his  predecessors,  in  title, 
unless  they  had  been  compensated  for  them  by  the  landlord.  Ac- 
cording to  the  reading  of  the  lawyers,  who  were  guided  by  the  Act  of 
1870,  that  should  not  extend  farther  back  than  thirty  years.  Why 
should  it  not?  Why  should  it  not  apply  to  improvements  made  a 
hundred  years  ago,  as  well  as  improvements  made  yesterday?  But 
the  Honorable  member  for  Cork  did  not  see  in  the  reduction  of  the 
rental  of  Ireland  to  two  or  three  millions  the  final  solution  of  the  Land 
Question.     The  final  solution  he  believed  would  be  the  abolition  of 


Great  Speeches  ox  Great  Occasions  795 

landlordism  by  pnrcliase,  and  he  montionod  two  or  throe  millions 
as  the  sum  to  which  the  rental  mipfht  bo  reduced,  for  the  purpose  of 
making  clear  the  untenable  position  of  the  landlords  of  Ireland.  If 
the  rights  of  the  landlords  of  Ireland  were  represented  by  such  a 
small  fijLjure,  it  was  the  interest  of  every  one  of  them  to  put  an  end 
to  the  landlord's  interest  in  the  soil  of  Ireland.  The  Honorable 
member  read  the  declarations  of  INIr.  Parnell  upon  the  test  eases, 
and  said  his  object  and  the  object  of  his  followers  in  selecting  those 
cases  was  a  double  one.  Firstly,  by  selecting  average  cases,  to  ascer- 
tain at  the  earliest  possible  moment  the  amount  of  benefit  which  the 
act  would  confer  upon  the  general  body  of  the  tenantry  of  Ireland. 
They  felt  that,  if  cases  of  rackrenting  were  first  introduced  to  the 
court  and  first  dealt  with,  large  reductions  would  have  been  made 
which  would  lead  to  the  creation  of  a  false  reputation  for  the 
Land  Act,  a  reputation  which  would  induce  large  numbers  of  tenants 
to  rush  into  court  and  doom  them  to  bitter  disappointment.  But 
what  was  it  that  had  since  come  about?  The  tenants  to  the  number 
of  70,000  rushed  into  court.  The  (Joverument,  instead  of  allowing  the 
wifjcly-considered  policy  of  Mr.  Parnell  to  prevail,  and  to  permit  the 
court  to  deal,  first,  with  the  average  rental  of  the  country,  silenced 
]Mr.  Parnell,  extinguished  the  Land  League,  and  left  the  crmrt  to 
deal  with  cases  of  rackrent,  and  defeated  the  hopes  Avhich  had  been 
generated  among  the  tenants  of  Ireland.  The  tenants  wc^re  thus 
induced  to  rush  in  tens  of  thousands  into  court,  and  to  involve  them- 
selves in  legal  costs  which  already  had  terribly  aggravated  their 
position.  It  had  been  said  that  the  issue  of  the  manifesto  of  no 
rent  would  become  a  dead  letter.  Since  the  20th  of  October  last 
it  was  within  the  power  of  the  Government  to  have  trustful  to  the 
merits  of  the  act  in  which  they  had  believed  so  much,  and  the  "no 
rent"  policy  was  not  intended  to  last  until  the  last  trumjiet  should 
sound,  would  have  disappeared.  The  necessity  for  the  manifesto  had 
been  abundantly  proved  by  all  that  had  occurred  already  in  the  fourth 
month  of  its  operation.  The  Land  Act  had  been  proved  to  be  a  dis- 
mal failure.  Even  in  the  North  of  Ireland,  in  the  province  of  Ulster, 
where  the  farmers  had  never  been  tainted  with  the  fever  of  the 
Land  League,  the  act  Avas  a  failure.  The  Land  Act  was  a  failure  in 
regard  to  its  cost  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  failure  in  regard  to  its 
effect  on  the  tenants.  Up  to  last  Christmas  tlie  cost  of  administering 
the  Land  Act  wan  ninety  thousand  pounds,  and  up  to  last  Christmas 
the  amoimt  of  the  rents  dealt  with  amounted  to  eighteen  thousand 
pounds.  What  did  the  house  think  of  the  fact  that  everv  pound's 
worth  of  rent  dealt  with  by  the  Land  Courts  involved  an  expense  of 
fifty  pounds  to  the  State?  If  he  were  one  of  the  economists  on  the 
]\Iinisterialist  side  of  the  House,  he  should  shudder  to  think  that 
there  had  been  a  reduction  of  only  four  thousand  pounds  in  rents 
at  a  cost  of  ninety  thousand  pounds  to  the  State.  The  game  was 
then  hardly  worth  the  candle.  Already  a  few  hundred  cases  had 
been  dealt  with  by  the  Sub-Commissioners,  and  nearly  one-half  of 
their  decisions  had  been  appealed  against  in  superior  courts,  and  the 
miserable  tenants,  who  were  not  in  a  position  to  pay  arrears  of  rent, 
how  were  they  to  pass  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  courts?  If  the 
plan  of  the  Honorable  member  for  Cork  had  been  allowed  to  come 
into  operation  all  this  would  have  been  rendered  unnecessary.  One 
case  only  under  the  Land  Act  had  reached  the  final  Court  of  Appeal, 
and  he  believed  that  the  landlords  had  been  encouraged,  by  the  Lord 


796  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Mayor  of  London,  the  Prime  Minister,  and  the  First  Commissioners 
of  Works  to  pursue  every  decision  to  the  final  Court  of  Appeal 
before  the  practical  effects  of  the  act  would  be  allowed  to  be  felt 
at  all.  In  the  vast  majority  of  cases  that  would  be  the  result.  There 
is  already  in  the  Land  Courts  a  glut  of  70,000  or  80,000  cases  and 
there  were  fully  100,000  tenants  who  were  in  arrears  of  rent,  and 
the  First  Commissioner  of  Works  on  the  previous  night  thought  that 
the  landlords  had  the  right  to  evict  those  tenants,  although  the  Land 
Courts  of  the  Government  provided  no  remedy  for  this  state  of 
things.  What  was  now  happening?  The  landlords  were  at  that 
moment — Sir  H.  Bruce — "instigated  by  the  Government,"  Mr.  Sex- 
ton— Yes;  and  supported  by  the  First  Commissioner  of  Works,  and 
the  infant  Hercules,  with  its  bodyguard  of  60,000  troops,  determined 
to  evict  those  100,000  poor  tenants  now  in  arrears.  A  more  shameful 
thing  never  took  place  under  any  Government  in  Ireland,  The 
landlords  told  the  Government  distinctly  that  they  were  now  evad- 
ing the  Land  Act.  They  threatened  the  tenants  that  if  they  go  into 
the  Land  Courts  they  will  take  them  to  Superior  Courts,  and  there 
obtain  writs  against  them  for  the  arrears,  and  thus  the  Superior 
Court  would  enable  the  landlords  to  evict  the  tenants  who  happened 
to  be  in  arrears.  This  was  the  fault  of  the  Government,  who  left  it 
optional  with  the  landlord  to  say  whether  he  should  or  not  accept 
the  arrears  clause  of  the  act,  and  in  consequence  of  this  choice  being 
permitted  under  the  act,  100,000  tenants  were  left  naked  and  defence- 
less in  the  hands  of  the  landlords.  The  landlords  were  threatening 
that  those  poor  tenants  would  be  evicted  for  the  old  arrears,  and  the 
effect  of  this  was  that  the  tenants  were  obliged  to  accept  whatever 
terms  were  offered  to  them  by  the  landlords.  He  assured  the  head  of 
the  Government  that  the  Land  Act  was  being  evaded  by  the  landlords 
all  over  the  country,  and  because  the  Government  had  refused  to 
provide  in  the  act  protection  for  the  tenants  in  arrears,  the  land- 
lords were  placing  their  arrears  as  an  insurmountable  barrier  between 
their  tenants  and  the  Land  Courts.  Supposing  that  all  the  cases  now 
before  the  courts  could  be  dealt  with  as  by  a  magician's  wand,  what 
would  be  the  result  ?  It  was  a  mistake  to  presume  that  the  Land  Act 
applied  to  the  whole  of  Ireland.  Four  million  acres  being  superior 
land,  was  let  on  lease  and  did  not  come  under  the  act.  Three  or 
four  million  more  acres  was  land  held  by  the  landlords  who  let  it  to 
graziers  by  agreement  for  terms  of  six  or  twelve  months,  and  then 
there  was  between  seven  and  eight  million  acres  of  land — inferior 
land — which  was  held  by  the  poorer  classes  of  tenants  and  which 
would  not  come  under  the  operation  of  the  act.  The  value  of  this  land 
was  about  seven  million  pounds  sterling  and  no  more,  and  if  the 
Land  Act  could  be  applied  to  these  seven  millions  of  acres,  based 
upon  the  decisions  of  the  Sub-Commissioners,  and  their  decisions 
had  not  been  based  upon  any  principle  that  he  could  discover,  the 
result  would  be  more  satisfactory. 

The  decisions  of  the  Commissioners,  by  some  strange  portentous 
circumstance,  had  come  to  what  he  called  a  fluctuating  level,  like  a 
Will  o'  the  Wisp  over  a  bog,  never  on  the  surface  exactly,  but  still 
visible  at  a  certain  line,  and  they  appeared  to  accept  Griffiths* 
valuation  as  their  basis,  that  which  had  been  recommended  by  the 
Land  League.  But  that  was  a  decision  which  might  have  been 
acceptable  some  years  ago,  but  which  would  not  be  acceptable  now. 
What,  for  instance,  would  be  the  effect  of  a  reduction  on  that  basis 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  707 

on  the  seven  million  acres  of  land?  Why,  a  gross  reduction  of  about 
one  and  a  half  million  stcrlinf^  on  the  whole  rent  of  Ireland.  Did 
the  Right  Honorable  Gentleman,  the  Prime  Minister,  believe  that 
the  great  agrarian  movement  in  Ireland  could  be  satisfied  with  a 
reduction  of  one  and  a  half  millions  sterling  in  the  rents  of  the 
country  or  a  reduction  of  two  shillings  in  the  pound  in  the  rental  of 
Ireland?  The  idea  would  be  absurd.  Even  if  this  reduction  came 
into  operation  to-morrow,  it  could  not  satisfy  and  could  not  abate 
the  agrarian  demands  of  the  people.  But,  far  from  this  being  pos- 
sible, it  was  now  stated  on  authority  that  the  reductions  to  be  made 
in  rent  would  henceforth  be  at  a  lower  figure  than  twenty-five  per 
cent.  Then,  another  point  to  be  considered  was  this,  that  no  matter 
how  closely  the  Land  Connnissioners  applied  themselves  to  their 
duties,  between  twenty  and  thirty  years  must  elapse  before  the  cases 
in  the  Land  Court  could  be  dealt  with.  But  the  Irish  people  were 
not  prepared  to  wait  until  the  Twentieth  Century,  nor  even  till  next 
year,  to  have  the  agrarian  question  settled.  Seeing  that  the  tenants 
of  Ireland  were  unprotected,  seeing  that  they  had  no  organization 
to  counsel  them,  seeing  that  they  were  liable  to  eviction  and  ruin, 
their  friends  recommended  the  only  remedy,  that  there  should  be 
"no  rent"  paid  until  their  defensive  organization  was  restored  to 
them.  Considering  how  the  landlords  were  evading  the  Land  Act, 
considering  how  they  were  threatening  to  increase  the  costs  of  those 
who  w^ent  into  those  courts  to  have  removed  a  rent  that  was  unjust 
and  tyrannical,  he  expressed  the  sincere  and  fervent  hope  that  the 
tenants  of  Ireland  would  have  the  courage  as  well  as  the  wisdom  to 
stand  upon  the  lines  of  the  "No  Rent"  manifesto.  He  should  delay 
the  House  by  proceeding  to  examine  the  grounds  for  considering 
the  Right  Honorable  Gentleman  (the  Chief  Secretary's)  claim  to 
be  called  a  philanthropist.  Those  claims  are  written  broadly  on  the 
history  of  Ireland  for  the  past  few  months.  He  had  imprisoned  and 
subjected  to  indignity  and  needless  pain  some  of  his  fellow  members 
of  the  House.  He  had  arrested  hundreds  of  the  most  respectable 
men  in  Ireland,  and  while  he  spoke  of  the  Land  League  as  practising 
terrorism  and  intimidation  on  the  people,  he  could  not  have  failed 
to  observe  that  any  one  who  was  honored  by  the  Right  Honorable 
Gentleman's  warrant  became  immediately  the  object  of  veneration 
and  love  to  the  Irish  people.  A  man  was  arrested  and  instantly  a 
whole  countryside  assembled,  and  reaped  his  crops  or  ploughed  his 
land  or  cut  and  supplied  his  family  with  sufficient  turf  for  the  winter. 
A  man  is  sent  to  Kilmainham  and  he  becomes  a  poor-law  guardian 
before  his  release,  or  finds  himself  elected  as  a  chairman  of  the  board. 
A  common  burgess  is  imprisoned,  and  he  is  released  to  find  himself 
a  mayor,  or,  rather,  he  does  not  come  out  because  the  Right  Honorable 
(ientleman  keeps  him  imprisoned,  and  only  by  a  stretch  of  his 
philanthropy  allows  the  right  worshipful  suspect  to  sign  the  official 
declaration.  All  this  showed  that  the  Land  League  means  the  Irish 
people,  and  that  it  was  only  nonsense  and  malignity  to  speak  of  it 
as  terrorism.  The  proceeding  of  the  Right  Honorable  Gentleman's 
Irish  policy  reached  its  climax  of  absurdity  with  regard  to  "United 
Ireland,"  the  Ladies'  Land  League,  and  the  Political  Prisoner's  Aid 
Society.  The  member  for  Wexford  {Mr.  Healy)  on  one  occasion 
amused  the  House  by  describing  the  Right  Honorable  Gentleman  as 
a  "Lady  Killer."  He  thought  the  description  scarcely  applied  now, 
for  the  present  situation  in  Ireland  was  this:  the  Right  Honorable 


798  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Gentleman  had  not  snecoeded  in  beating  tlie  men,  and  the  women 
had  beaten  the  Right  Honorable  Gentleman.  Despite  all  his  en- 
deavors to  suppress  the  ' '  Ladies '  Land  League ' '  by  means  of  a  police 
circular,  and  by  throwing  the  responsibility  upon  the  magistrates, 
he  had  failed  in  this  purpose,  and  the  ladies  of  Ireland  had  proved 
that  they  possessed  spirit  and  patriotism,  and  ingenuity  in  conduct- 
ing their  organization  notwithstanding  all  the  acts  of  the  Right 
Honorable  Gentleman  and  all  the  devices  of  his  agents.  The  meanest 
act  of  his  policy  was  this:  that  not  being  satisfied  with  having 
arrested  a  number  of  gentlemen  and  with  having  weighed,  measured, 
and  searched  them ;  not  satisfied  with  having  first  licensed  vintners, 
and  then  broken  their  licenses  on  the  ground  that  they  were  bad 
characters;  not  satisfied  with  having  tortured  men's  minds  and  de- 
prived them  of  their  means  of  living,  he  instructs  the  police  to 
suppress  the  organization  whose  object  was  the  collection  of  funds 
to  save  the  suspects  from  living  on  prison  fare.  With  regard  to 
"United  Ireland"  it  was  no  uncommon  sight  in  the  streets  of  Dublin 
to  find  a  burly  detective  rushing  about  in  pursuit  of  a  barefooted 
little  boy,  with  a  group  of  awe-stricken  citizens  surveying  the  chase, 
and  the  big  policeman  marching  off  in  triumph  with  one  copy  of 
"United  Ireland"  which  he  had  discovered  beneath  the  boy's  ragged 
shirt.  Such  was  the  liberality  and  the  decency  of  this  Liberal  Gov- 
ernment that  the  detective  invariably  refused  to  give  the  little  beggar 
a  penny  for  the  paper.  There  were  several  other  points  to  which  the 
amendment  referred,  but  the  Government  and  the  managers  of  that 
paper  had  for  some  time  past  been  playing  hide  and  seek  through  the 
United  Kingdom,  eyeing  every  suspicious  parcel  and  running  away 
with  some  of  them  before  they  could  be  aware  of  the  nature  of  the 
contents.  Everybody  was  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  legal  justifica- 
tion of  this  conduct.  A  parcel,  because  labeled  "United  Ireland," 
was  seized  by  the  police  before  they  could  ascertain  its  contents. 
They  had  no  legal  power  to  seize  unless  they  were  aware  the  papers 
contained  seditious  matter.  It  had  all  been  so  ably  dealt  with  the 
previous  night  by  his  Honorable  friend  the  member  for  County 
Carlow,  the  High  Sheriff  of  Dublin,  that  he  would  not  further  delay 
the  House.  He  believed  the  rents  in  reference  to  the  gale  coming  in 
March  would  be  smaller  than  the  rents  paid  last  September.  He 
believed  that  the  rents  paid  next  September  would  be  fewer  than 
those  paid  in  March,  and  that  in  March  of  next  year  they  would  be 
fewer  still.  He  believed  that  the  effect  of  this  policy  being  continued 
by  the  people,  in  the  face  of  the  open  incitement  by  the  Government 
last  night  to  the  landlords  to  become  wholesale  evietors,  would  prove 
that  there  was  no  means  of  settling  the  Irish  land  question  except  by 
taking  up  the  second  article  of  the  policy  of  the  Land  League,  and 
extinguishing  the  interest  of  the  landlord  in  the  soil.  The  rules  of 
the  Land  League  are  firm  in  the  minds  of  the  people  and  the  spirit 
of  the  Land  League  is  in  their  hearts.  It  was  from  the  moral  force 
resulting  from  these  facts  that  he  looked  for  the  emancipation  of  the 
Irish  people.  In  the  last  generation  the  English  Government  im- 
prisoned O'Connell  and  his  movement  died  soon  after.  But  when 
they  arrested  O'Connell  the  hand  of  old  age  was  heavy  upon  him, 
and  he  did  not  long  survive.  The  situation  at  present  was  quite 
different.  In  the  height  of  his  popularity  and  influence,  in  the  vigor 
of  his  life  and  mental  power,  had  they  arrested  the  Honorable  member 
for  Cork  City.    But  he  would  come  forth  one  day,  with  his  patriotism 


REV.  Dlf.  CHARLES  O'REILLY 


Great  Speeches  on  Cheat  Occasions  799 

confirmocl,  and  his  inflnoneo  strongtlionod,  having  snfforcd  tlir-  ponalty 
which  every  Irishman  nuist  sufVer  who  eoiispicuously  and  courage- 
ously defends  the  cause  oi"  the  Irish  jx-ople.  He  wouM  come  forth 
the  advocate,  not  only  of  tlie  Irish  truants,  but  of  the  Irish  people, 
and  he  (Mr.  Sexton)  fondly  cherished  the  hope  that  th(!  political 
and  mental  force  wliich  that  illustrious  prisoner  has  nniy  be  suc- 
cessfully used  to  lead  to  victory  a  pecjple  who  had  been  taught  by 
bitter  adversity  to  suffer,  without  giving  way,  and  to  struggle  in 
dark  and  evil  days  without  ever  losing  hope.  He  confessed  he  could 
not  resume  his  seat  without  referring  to  the  eloipient  and  touching 
words  addressed  to  the  House  last  night,  at  the  close  of  his  speech, 
by  the  senior  Honorable  and  learned  member  for  the  University  of 
Dublin.  One  of  the  saddest  circumstances  of  an  Irishman  holding  a 
seat  in  that  House  was  the  necessity  he  Avas  under  of  constantly 
listening  to  some  of  the  ablest,  the  most  intellectual,  and  best  known 
of  their  countrymen  leading  the  cause  of  the  alien,  and  attacking 
the  people  from  whom  he  had  sprung.  Last  night  the  senior  member 
for  the  University  elo(iuently  declared  himself  a  lover  of  his  country, 
and  avowed  himself  an  Irishman  to  the  backbone.  He  (]Mr.  Sexton) 
felt  to  this  statement  an  answering  thrill,  and  the  thought  passed 
through  his  mind  that  it  may  not  surpass  the  genius  of  the  Honorable 
Gentleman  who  was  now  at  the  head  of  alifairs  (Mr.  Gladstone),  that 
it  may  not  surpass  the  possibilities  of  coming  years  and  politics  to 
devise  and  execute  some  method  which  may  save  Irishmen  from  the 
shame  and  agony  of  occupying  hostile  camps  in  that  House,  and  which 
may  enable  them  at  last  to  find  a  common  ground  for  patriotic  effort 
and  honorable  emulation  on  the  soil  of  their  native  country. 

Mr.  Sexton  then  resumed  his  seat,  having  spoken  for  two  hours 
and  twenty  minutes.  The  House  divided  on  the  amendment  at  five 
minutes  to  eight  o'clock  amidst  the  cheers  of  the  Irish  members,  who 
challenged  the  Attorney  General  for  Ireland  to  address  the  House. 


THOMAS  MOORE,  "tHE  POET  OP  ALL  CIRCLES  AND  THE  IDOL  OF  HIS  OWN,   ' 

BY    REV.    DR.    CHARLES   o'REILLY,    DEI-IVERED    IN   CENTRAL 

MUSIC  HALL,  CHICAGO,  MAY  28tU,  1S94. 

American  independence  was  three  years  old.  The  British,  with  char- 
acteristic ingenuit.y,  were  investing  Charleston  in  denial  of  its  birth 
and  existence ;  and  Paul  Jones  was  sweeping  the  cobwebs  from  their 
brains  and  the  commerce  from  their  seas  in  the  capacity  of  an  Ego- 
contra,  when,  in  a  latitude  a  little  farther  north  than  the  upper  .shore 
of  Lake  Superior,  Tom  Moore  was  born.  It  is  strange  that  Ireland, 
situated  so  far  north,  should  have  a  climate  rivaling  that  of  southern 
latitudes;  but  that  country  is  a  land  of  marvels;  God  has  clustered 
more  miracles  within  her  border  than  has  favored  any  other  land 
except  Palestine.  Her  sons  have  been  the  wonder  of  all  ages — and 
one  of  these  w'as  Moore.  A  circumstance  of  his  birth  is  worth  relating. 
His  parents  had  rented  rooms  in  their  house  to  a  gentleman  of  con- 
vivial habits;  a  number  of  select  spirits  had  surrounded  him  for  a 
festive  night,  when  the  servant  entered  and  requested  that  they  sus- 
pend revelries,  in  consideration  of  the  mother  and  child.  The  gallant 
host  at  once  acceded  to  the  request.    It  was  then  O'Connell's  future 


800  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

friend,  Jerry  Keller,  approved  of  the  adjournment  ''pro  re  nata 
for  the  thing  born."  So  it  was  still  listening  to  the  sounds  of  mer- 
riment, to  which  she  had  become  accustomed,  that  this  noble  lady 
gave  birth  to  the  greatest  of  Irish  poets.  That  he  was  a  poet,  I  shall 
agree  to  consider  to-night  as  accidental ;  my  main  contention  being 
that  he  was  a  typical  Irishman  and  that  the  type  was  very  high. 
I  say  this  advisedly,  because  from  the  day  that  an  alien  ritual  was 
read  over  his  inanimate  form  and  the  cold  Wiltshire  clods  were 
choked  in  upon  his  coffin,  a  cool,  ill-delined,  alienating  atmosphere 
has  brooded  over  his  memory  in  the  minds  of  many  of  his  fellow 
countrymen;  and  this  ought  not  to  be.  For.  if  ever  Ireland  had  a 
son  whose  life  was  bound  to  her's  by  chains  of  adamant,  whose  heart 
VvTnt  out  to  her  in  swelling  tides  of  devotion,  whose  soul  reveled  in 
ecstasy  at  contemplation  of  her  glories,  or  burned  with  lethal  rage 
at  sight  of  her  misfortune  and  sorrows — I  fear  not  to  say  it — that  man 
was  Moore.  He  was  Irish  and  nothing  else.  Irish  in  his  filial  affec- 
tion, Irish  in  his  domestic  devotion,  Irish  in  his  patriotism  and  his 
profound  religious  conviction,  I  am  far  from  claiming  for  him  an 
exclusive  proprietorship  of  these  qualifications.  No  shade  of  the 
mighty  dead  would  scowl  on  such  an  effort  more  intensely  than 
his.  These  qualities  conspire  to  fix  the  true  standard  of  Irish  man- 
hood, and  are  not  necessarily  allied  with  learning  or  genius  like  to 
Moore's.  It  would  be  enough  for  him,  it  is  enough  for  me,  if,  to-night, 
I  hold  him  up  to  the  high  standard  of  his  national  type.  I  have 
seen  it  presented  in  the  famished  features  of  the  peasant,  as  he  came 
for  the  first  time  from  Lismore  or  Connemara,  and  gazed  with  open- 
eyed  astonishment  at  the  tawdry  splendors  of  a  poverty-stricken 
inland  town.  I  have  followed  that  fellow  to  the  harvest  fields  of 
England,  and  there  have  seen  him  toil  and  starve  beside  his  Saxon 
co-laborer — who  must  have  his  beef  and  ale — have  seen  him  do  and 
endure  that  thus  he  might  save  the  extra  shillings  for  the  wife  and 
children,  the  father  and  mother,  the  younger  brothers  and  sisters  at 
home  in  Holy  Ireland;  whilst,  all  the  time,  in  his  inmost  soul,  he 
regarded  the  man  beside  him,  and  the  master  over  him,  of  foreign 
blood  and  alien  creed,  with  contempt  akin  to  that  entertained  by  the 
Israelite  of  old  for  the  uneircumcised  whom  God  allowed  to  lord  it 
over  him  only  that  the  divine  wrath  might  be  thus  in  time  awakened, 
and  the  impious  more  utterly  be  destroyed.  Nothing  in  this  world 
has  been  more  signal  than  the  failure  inscribed  upon  the  English- 
man's endeavor  to  make  the  Irishman  the  creature  of  his  thought. 
He  has  carried  his  defenses  by  cannon  and  the  sword,  he  has  laid 
illegitimate  hands  on  his  possessions.  He  has  swathed  his  form  in 
rags  and  pinched  his  flesh  with  hunger — but  he  has  never  been  able, 
no,  not  in  the  slightest  degree,  to  approach  or  touch  his  soul.  No! 
He  may  submit  to  his  yoke  with  evil  grace,  he  may  dwell  in  his 
country,  he  may  embark  in  his  ships  and  plant  for  him  the  distant 
colony,  but  under  no  circumstances  will  the  Irishman  ever  accept  the 
Englishman's  standard  of  thought.  And  in  any  and  every  case 
where  we  are  called  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  all-important  ques- 
tion of  the  individuality  of  one  of  our  race,  I  should  submit  that  it 
should  be  the  principle  of  our  Celtic  ethics  to  get  to  a  man's  thought. 
Let  me  hear  him,  or  read  him,  or  study  him,  and  I  will  determine 
easily  and  infallibly,  has  he  an  Irish  thought'?  Now,  take  up  Tom 
Moore  and  read  him  line  by  line,  cull  every  recorded  incident  from 
the  history  of  his  extraordinary  career,  and  tell  me,  only  after  due 


Great  Speeches  ox  (Ireat  Occasions  801 

reflection,  can  you  catdi  a  p:linip«!0  from  that  ricli  mental  repertoire 
of  a  thought  that  was  not  cminontly  Irish?  Jiut,  if  I  have  estab- 
lished this,  I  have  establisluni  much.  For  I  have  not  to  plead  the 
superiority,  in  energy,  in  intensity,  in  spiritual  refinement  of  Irish 
intelleetuality,  in  quality  at  least.  It  has  been  too  forcefully  illus- 
trated through  the  ages  to  the  nations,  and  l)y  few,  if  by  any  more 
than  Moore  himself.  It  accounts  for  what  tlic  Encyclopedia  Britan- 
nica  calls  "the  most  extraordinary  incident  in  the  history  of  our 
literature,  the  instantaneousness  with  which  the  son  of  an  humble 
Dublin  grocer,  just  out  of  his  teens,  on  his  first  visit  to  London,  cap- 
tivated the  fashionable  world  and  established  himself  in  the  course  of 
a  few  months  as  one  of  its  prime  favorites.  It  was  not  his  personal 
magnetism,  though  he  was  not  without  it;  it  was  not  his  engaging 
manners,  though  he  knew  how  to  be  agreeable;  it  was  not  his  min- 
strelsy, which  was  acknowledged  faulty;  it  was  the  fact  that  he 
turned  upon  ripened  intellects  the  pure  tide  of  lustral  Irish  thought, 
and  to  those  intellects  it  came  like  the  chorus  of  angels  to  the  wakeful 
shepherds  amid  the  chill  dews  of  the  winter  night  at  Bethlehem — 
it  was  not  merely  music;  it  was  not  revelation.  It  enchanted  such 
men  as  Thierry,  the  French  historian  who  exclaimed:  "Ireland,  the 
elder  child  of  the  Celtic  race!  The  island  of  saints!  Land  of  poets; 
of  bold  thinkers,  of  John  Erigna,  of  Berkley,  of  Toland,  of  :Moore 
and  O'Connell;  land  of  brilliant  speech  and  of  lightening  sword, 
which  in  the  senility  of  the  world  still  preserves  the  original  power 
of  poetry."  It  vanquished  the  haughty  Byron,  an  Irish  hater  by 
birth  and  character  into  the  declaration  that  "there  was  something 
so  ivarm,  so  sublime  in  the  core  of  an  Irishman's  heart  that  I  envy 
the  dead."  It  won  such  men  as  Willis  and  Washington  Irving  even 
at  sight.  It  melted  Roger,  and  Sidney  Smith,  and  Cristopher  North 
into  tears.  It  delighted  Scott,  Campbell,  JelVry,  :McAuly,  Sheridan, 
Shields  and  O'Connell,  with  its  indigenous  strains. 

It  spoke  to  the  European  world  with  its  unhesitating,  unobstructed 
accents  of  a  mother's  voice.  The  Orient  opened  its  dreamy  eyes  at 
the  approach  of  the  sympathetic  sounds,  and  extracted  the  Asiatic 
thought  from  the  barbarous  dialect  in  which  it  was  enveloped,  and 
received  it  for  its  own. 

"I'm  told,  dear  Moore,  your  lays  are  sung, 

Can  this  be  true,  you  lucky  man. 
By  moonlight  in  the  Persian  tongue 

Along  the  streets  of  Ispahan?" 

What  is  it  I  mean  to  say?  that  there  is  something:  unique,  especial 
and  distinctive  in  Irish  thought?  C'est  moi.  That  is  just  what  I 
mean ;  and  would  you  know  it  all,  or  know  it  better,  familiarize  your- 
self with  T^Ioore.  ^  It  is  a  rich  and  varied  thought  balancing  from 
grave  to  gay;  now  as  joyous  as  the  note  of  the  nightingale,  now 
plaintive  as  the  plover's' song;  betimes  as  gentle  as  the  zephyr's 
breath  and  anon  as  scorching  as  the  fiery  touch  of  the  fierce  sirocco, 
e.  g.,  "The  Last  Rose  of  Summer,"  and  the  "Curse  of  the  Informer." 
It  has  been  said  that  although  :\roore  commenced  life  as  a  patriot, 
he  sank  in  after  years  into  the  condition  of  a  mere  Whig  or  Liberal, 
all  sentiment  of  Irish  nationality  having  died  out  of  him.  The 
imputation  is  an  unjust  one.  It  is  utterly  impossible  to  divest  such 
a  soul  of  the  love  of  motherland  so  long  as  reason  crowned  her  throne 


802  Ireland's  Crown  or  Thorns  and  Roses 

on  the  apex  of  that  lofty  mind.  No  person  has  done  more  to  make 
the  world  understand  the  real  relationship  subsisting  between  the 
Irish  soul  and  the  Irish  soil,  to  teach  the  alien  that  the  cause  of 
Ireland  is  not  an  affair  of  vulgar  material  interests,  but  is  woven 
so  inextricably  around  the  Irish  heart  as  the  network  of  arteries 
through  which  it  draws  the  blood,  and  the  delicate  machinery  of 
nerves  by  which  it  receives  and  communicates  its  impressions,  that  it 
has  all  the  passionate  romance  and  pathetic  glows  of  love,  that  it  is 
invested  with  something  of  the  mysterious  sanctity  of  religion.  No 
man  with  heart  or  brain  can  read  Moore  and  not  become  convinced 
that  patriotism  is  a  passion  of  the  Irish  heart,  which  is  blent  with 
whatever  is  ennobling  and  divine  in  Irish  nature.  It  dawns  upon  us 
like  the  memory  of  the  first  fond  gaze  of  a  loving  mother's  eyes. 
It  is  the  whispered  poetry  of  childhood's  hours.  It  is  the  song  that 
is  sung  by  every  gurgling  brook  in  the  land,  for  every  brooklet  in 
Ireland  has  been  incrimsoned  with  the  blood  of  heroes.  It  is  the 
weird  voice  that  comes  to  us  from  the  green  hillside  where  our  fathers 
lie  sleeping,  for  every  Irish  hillside  has  been  strewn  with  heroed  dead. 
Moore  has  crammed  his  pages  with  the  records  of  their  noble  deeds, 
with  the  triumphs  of  their  tragic  deaths.  He  could  be  said  to  have 
penned  his  lines  with  the  blood  of  the  martyred  heroes  of  his  nation. 
He  deified  their  deeds  in  allegorical  epics  that  are  without  a  parallel 
for  pathos  and  passion.  He  entwined  their  names  with  imperishable 
strains  of  music,  which  wafted  them  over  the  world.  What  is  the 
burdens  of  his  melodies,  the  inspiration  of  his  epics,  the  acidity  of  his 
satires,  the  soul  of  his  lyrics,  but  Ireland,  her  scenery,  her  sons  and 
her  sadness?  Moore  never  could  have  so  written  Ireland  if  he  did  not 
think  Ireland;  as  well  you  might  suppose  the  psalms  of  David  to  have 
emanated  from  a  soul  but  superficially  in  love  with  God.  The  condi- 
tion of  Ireland  has  been  such  that  ordinary  language  is  inadequate 
to  express  her  wrongs.  Some  unusual  agency  of  speech  must  be 
employed,  such  as  poetry,  parable  or  prayer,  and  these  Moore  wielded 
with  unexampled  vigor  and  unequalled  skill.  When  estimating  his 
character  the  condition  of  Ireland  ought  never  to  be  lost  sight  of. 
It  is  almost  impossible  for  any  one  of  the  present  day  to  realize 
the  political  and  social  condition  of  the  Catholics  in  that  country 
a  century  since.  It  was  but  a  little  before  the  time  of  Moore's  birth 
that  a  gentleman  holding  the  position  and  title  of  Lord  Chancellor 
stated  from  the  bench  "That  the  laws  did  not  presume  a  Papist  to 
exist  in  the  kingdom,  nor  could  they  breathe  without  the  connivance 
of  the  Government."  From  1665  exercise  of  the  office  of  professor, 
schoolmaster  or  tutor,  by  a  Catholic  was  declared  penal,  and  from 
1695  the  education  of  the  Catholics  abroad  was  prohibited.  Moore 
was  thirteen  years  old  before  Catholics  were  allowed  to  open  schools 
in  Ireland.  I  need  not  avert  to  the  repeated  confiscations  of  the 
estates  of  Catholics,  to  the  laws  which  prevented  them  from  holding 
land  on  lease,  to  their  exclusion  from  corporate  and  municipal  bodies 
as  well  as  from  the  practice  of  the  liberal  profession,  and  the  for- 
feiture of  the  horse  if  he  were  worth  twenty-five  dollars.  Still  the 
darkest  hour  of  the  penal  night  may  be  said  to  have  been  that  which 
measured  the  distance  between  Emmett  and  O'Connell  when  it  was 
transportation  for  three  or  more  Irishmen  to  be  found  conversing 
together,  and  when  Irishmen  were  run  outside  the  gates  of  Irish 
cities  like  lepers  at  sundown  by  the  sound  of  the  evening  bell.  This 
reference  to  the  condition  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  at  the  period 


Great  SpEFrnER  on  CiREat  OrcAfiiONS  803 

of  Moore's  birth  and  .if tor  is  absolntoly  nocossary  if  wc  would  fairly 
estimate  his  courajje,  his  patriotism  and  the  political   iriHuenc**  he 
exercised.     It  has  been  too  much  the  habit  to  detach  Moore's  char- 
acter from  the  environment  of  the  time,   and    judge  it  by  stand- 
ards that  are  anachronism,  histt)rically  and  philosophically  unsound 
and  unjust.     As  well  mij^ht  we  consider  Wasliin^^ton  apart  from  tlie 
War  of   Independence   or   O'Connell   extracted   from    emancipation. 
It  was  a  crime  to  christen  Tom   Moore,  yet  he  was  christened ;   it 
was  a  penal  offence  to  educate  him,  yet  he  became  a  great  scholar; 
the  colleges  were  closed  against  him,  yet  he  went  through  with  all 
the  honors  they  could  confer  and  ripened  into  a  lofty-souled,  liberal- 
minded  man;  it  was  "treason  to  love  his  country  and  death  to  defend 
her,"  yet  he  loved  her  passionately  and   defended  her  efl'eetively. 
He  wa.s  not  the  stuff  of  which  military  martyrs  like  Robert  Ennnett 
are  made.     lie  had  not  in  him  the  material  of  an  active  politician 
like  O'Connell.    His  genius  led  him  into  different  directions,  but  bin 
heai^t  was  none  the  less  a  good  warm  heart,  full  of  love  and  frieml- 
ship,  fidelity  and  patriotism,  which  overflowed  in  songs  of  sympathy 
and  sorrow — songs  that  will  be  remembered  till  the   end  of  time. 
Though  small  of  stature,  in  physical  courage  we  know  he  was  not 
wanting.     If  it  be  objected  that  he  was  not  implicated  in  Emmett's 
insurrection,  how  much  of  this  may  we  not  attribute  to  the  generous, 
self-sacrificing  friend?     These  two  young  men,  so  attached  to  each 
other  in  youth,  are,  each  in  his  own  way,  admirable  types  of  the  Irish 
man.     One  is  a  strange  mixture  of  gentleness,  tenderness,  modesty, 
terrible  determination,  obstinacy  if  you  will,  utter  self-abnegation, 
all  included  in  the  highest  nobility  of  soul.    The  other  was  gay,  genial, 
kindly  affectionate,  feeling  the  Irish  tragedy  to  the  marrow  of  his 
bones,  but  not  possessed  of  the  vocation  to  follow  his  devoted  and 
doomed  brother  unto   death.     For   national   no   less   than   rdifjious 
martyrdom  must  have  its  call.     Circumstances  ordinarily  reveal  the 
will  of  God.    And  in  political  revolutions  as  in  religious  convulsions 
all  are  not  meant  to  die.    Here,  no  less  than  there,  the  intruder  is 
left  unsupported  by  opportune  race  in  a  vain-glorious  pretension, 
and  makes,  as  a  rule,  poor  and  profitless  work  of  his  undertakings. 
Never  was  a  vocation  to  national  martyrdom  more  definitely  marked 
than  Avas  that  of  Robert  Emmett.    He  was  called  to-  die  for  his  coun- 
try, and  never  did  man  make  death  more  profitable.     The  death  of 
Moore  would  have  done  no  good  at  all.     Nay :  what  was  sublime  in  Em- 
mett would  have  hardly  failed  to  be  ridiculous  in  :Moore.     Ennnett 
died,  and  INIoore  wept  and  sang  over  his  grave !     From  the  grave  a 
whost  is  forever  rising  and  going  forth  upon  its  walk  around  the  world. 
it  is  no  longer  imprisoned  within  the  limits  of  the  land  he  died  to  be 
saved.     It  floats  over  the  ocean  in  Music's  misty  mantle  and  stalks 
through  the  land  of  the  stranger.     It  weaves  its  magic  spell  around 
the  youth  of  Irish  birth  and  blood,  captivates  his  senses  and  enlists 
his  soul  in  the  lost  enterprise.     Through  the  darkness  of  night  that 
music  carries  those  plaintive  words  to  his  imagination  like  voices  on 
the  night-winds  from  his  own  mother  land.     It  comes  to  his  mnid 
laden  witli  the  memory  of  a  wrong  unavenged  and  a  strife  unfinished, 
of  a  hope   which   oniv  brightened  suffering  and  which  no  human 
weapon  could  subdue."  It  carries  with  it  the  conviction  that,  so  long 
as  the  epitaph  remains  unwritten,  his  mission  is  unfulfilled.     It  fires 
his  heart  and   sends  the  blood   boiling  through  his  veins,  till   all 
unconsciously  his  nerves  are  strung  for  heroic  deeds  and  even  for 


804  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

reckless  enterprises.  This  is  not  the  language  of  fancy.  Far  less  is 
it  exaggeration.  I  come  from  a  city  whose  native-born  but  recently 
went  forth  and  coolly  perished  in  a  desperate  attempt  to  blow  up 
London  Bridge,  not  because  he  envied  any  man  his  wealth  or  station, 
not  that  he  entertained  any  animosity  towards  civil  society,  nor  had  he 
any  quarrel  with  humanity.  No;  but  because  Robert  Emmett  was 
butchered  like  a  beast  and  his  epitaph  remained  unwritten.  I  knew 
him  well ;  so  did  many  of  you.  He  was  sedate  and  thoughtful,  tender, 
brave  and  tranquil.  I  have  rarely  known  a  more  religious  soul.  I 
once  found  him  weeping  in  a  corner  while  "Breathe  Not  His  Name" 
was  being  sung  in  the  parlor  adjacent.  I  have  ever  since  found  a 
fearful  significance  in  the  lines: 

''And  the  tear  that  we  shed,  though  in  secret  it  rolls, 
Shall  long  keep  his  memory  green  in  our  souls." 

The  young  Protestant  aristocrat,  Emmett,  obeyed  the  divine 
* '  call ' '  and  died  for  his  countrymen  all  without  distinction  of  race  or 
creed,  and  the  son  of  the  Catholic  peasant  exile  gave  life  for  life 
to  "keep  green  the  martyr's  memory,"  and  by  this  shall  all  men 
know  what  a  spiritual  intensity  lies  deep  down  in  Irish  patriotism. 
Between  Robert  Emmett  and  William  Mackay  Lomasney  there  would 
seem  to  have  been  an  infinite  distance,  but  Moore  brought  them  close 
together.  Wanton  vengeance  for  vengeance's  sake  is  not  a  passion 
of  the  Irish  heart.  The  Celtic  race  is  a  race  ruled  by  its  spiritual 
instincts  rather  than  by  those  more  ravenous  virtues  we  share  with 
the  hyenas  and  wolves,  and  a  race  clad  in  the  celestial  armor  of 
faith  and  hope  is  imperishable,  no  matter  how  disarmed,  bare  and 
degraded  it  may  appear  in  the  eyes  of  a  triumphant  soldiery  or  a 
more  ruthless  legislature.  ]\Ioore  thoroughly  appreciated  this.  He 
knew  how,  in  that  dark  penal-night  I  have  mentioned,  the  song  of 
"Drimmin  dhu  Deilish"  or  the  "Black  Bird"  sung  lov/  around  the 
winter  turf  fire  in  the  Shelling,  had  more  influence  to  preserve  the 
spirit  of  Irish  nationality  than  all  the  enactments  of  coercion  min- 
istries, enforced  by  all  the  might  of  England  was  able  to  counteract, 
and  he  set  himself  resolutely  to  the  task  of  binding  up  with  the 
national  music  those  memories  of  an  honest,  noble  past — that  spirit 
of  defiance  to  the  misfortune  of  the  present — those  hopes  in  a  golden 
future  which  will  never  cease  to  act  upon  the  Irish  organization 
while  a  drop  of  Celtic  blood  courses  in  a  human  vein.  It  is  the 
claim  I  make  for  INIoore  that  he  knew  as  well  what  he  was  doing 
while  he  lived  as  Emmett  did  when  he  died.  "I  would  hold  that  life 
any  more  than  death  were  unprofitable,"  cried  Emmett,  "while  a 
foreign  power  held  my  country  in  subjection."  It  is  to  the  im- 
perishable glorj^  of  these  two  men  that  they  did  their  work  without 
malice  and  forethought,  and  precisely  at  a  time  when  action  was 
imperatively  demanded.  The  fires  of  liberty  that  lit  the  hillsides 
in  '98  had  been  quenched  in  blood.  The  leaders  of  the  Irish  people 
had  been  banished  or  slain;  the  iniquitous  union  had  been  effected 
with  circumstances  of  atrocity  that  have  no  parallel  in  history.  The 
necks  of  the  devoted  nation  had  been  placed  in  Chancery  under 
England's  iron  arm,  where  she  was  for  all  time  to  be  kept  quiet- 
when,  like  a  meteor  from  the  sky  rendered  incandescent  by  the 
rapidity  of  its  approach  to  earth,  and  bursting  from  suppressed 
emotion,  young  Emmett  came  with  lightning  sword  and  flashing  eye— 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  S05 

appeared  and  died,  crying  like  Winkleried,  "Make  way  for. liberty." 
It  was  Ireland's  answer  and  defiance  of  P^n^dish  power  and  perfidy 
to  wrest  from  her  autonomy  or  shake  her  trust  in  freedom's  God. 
That  death  showed  England  and  showed  the  world  how  Ireland  was 
to  be  kept  in  subjection.  It  fixed  the  seal  upon  the  resolve  of  Irish 
manhood  never  to  submit  to  a  colonial  existence.  But,  my  friends, 
1  believe  that  death  would  have  lost  its  force  had  INIoore  not  lived 
to  give  it  meaning ;  and  with  this  view  in  head  and  this  purpose  kept 
steadily  in  hand,  I  dare  to  believe  that  it  was  as  heroic  in  him  to  live 
as  in  Emmett  to  die.  For  think  again  of  the  time,  think  of  the  con- 
ditions. After  the  terrible  disaster  of  the  Williamite  war  following 
close  upon  the  footsteps  of  the  confederacy  of  1641,  of  the  hangings 
and  the  burnings  and  wholesale  confiscation  and  banishm.ents  of 
1798,  after  the  brutal  and  powerful  and  sanguinary  suppression  of 
1803,  he  still  was  found  the  plucky  little  fellow,  to  fearlessly,  art- 
lessly take  up  the  part  of  his  country,  with  the  inspiration  of  a 
bard  of  ancient  Israel,  and  fling  it  proudly,  fiercely  in  the  face  of  a 
scornful,  scoffing  world.  In  the  very  face  of  defeat  and  disaster  and 
^vreck  and  ruin,  he  dared  to  assert  that  he  still  had  a  country— a 
country  wnth  a  past  that  could  not  be  taken  from  her,  that  her  glories 
were  imperishable,  her  histoiy  indestructible,  her  sorrows  pathetic, 
her  heroes  sublime.  Aye,  when  Ireland  was  lying  before  her  con- 
queror, as  dead  as  a  corpse  on  a  dissecting  table,  he  seized  her  harp 
and  made  its  every  chord  vibrate  with  heroic  history  from  Brian 
Boru  to  the  martyred  Emmett.  He  dared  to  remind  the  exultant 
foeman  that  when  England  had  yielded  to  the  Dane  and  stretched 
<5ut  its  neck  to  the  yoke  of  the  feudal  Norseman,  he  had  a  country 
which  had  offered  to  the  invader  the  attitude  of  uncompromisnig 
war.  "Remember  the  Glories  of  Brian  the  Brave,"  that  Ireland  had 
a  people  stamped  with  the  undeniable  device  of  freedom  and  refine- 
ment. "The  Harp  That  Once  Through  Tara's  Hall"— that  they  had 
peace,  order  and  civilization.  "Rich  and  Rare  were  the  Gems  She 
Wore,"  that  at  a  time  when  the  coasts  of  Italy  were  darkened  by 
the  Saracen  invasions,  when  feudal  Gernumy  was  laid  waste  liefore 
the  arrows  of  the  Hungarians,  and  the  hoofs  of  the  Lombard  horse 
were  trampling  on  the  vineyards  of  the  south,  Ireland  lay  far  away 
amidst  the  billows  of  the  Atlantic,  an  island  devoted  to  the  culture 
of  reli^-ion  and  the  peaceful  sciences,  the  home  of  Christian  letters 
and  the  nursery  of  Christian  virtues.  "Like  the  bright  lamp  that 
shone  in  Kildare's  Holy  Fame."  He  pointed  out  to  his  own  people 
that  they  had  a  country  woi-th  fighting  and  dyins  for.  "Thcn-e  is  not 
in  this  Wide  World  a  Valley  so  sweet,"  and  that  Ireland  had  sons 
who  were  proud  and  felt  blest  to  die  for  her  still,  as  he  puts  in  the 
mouth  of  his  murdered  friend  those  deathless  words  addressed  to 
his  country: 

"Oh,  blest  are  the  lovers  and  friends  who  shall  live 

The  days  of  thy  glory  to  see ; 
But  the  next  dearest  blessing  that  Heaven  can  give 

Is  the  power  of  thus  dying  for  thee." 

And  I  say  that  next  in  order  of  benediction  was  the  blessing  and 
bindint^  up  that  sentiment  with  imperishable  strains  of  music,  and 
sendino-  it  forth  upon  the  wild  winds  to  accompany  Emmett 's  ghost 
and  '^ive  it  voice  through  time  and  space,  and  so  make  his  memcrv 


806  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

as  efit'eciive  as  it  is  immortal.     Aye,  and  I  repeat,  the  best  of  all  is 
that  he  knew  what  he  was  doing. 

"The  stranger  shall  hear  thy  lament  on  his  plains; 

The  sigh  of  thy  harp  shall  be  sent  o'er  the  deep, 
Till  thy  masters  themselves,  as  they  rivet  thy  chains, 

Shall  pause  at  the  song  of  their  captive  and  weep." 

Ireland  will  remember  and  love  both  these  men,  but  Moore  more 
for  the  sake  of  Emmett  than  for  his  own  very  extraordinary  claims 
upon  her  gratitude.  These  claims  would  be  paramount  though  he 
had  done  nothing  more  than  snatch  from  obscurity  so  much  of  the 
sweet,  wild,  pathetic  music  floating  over  our  hills  and  through  our 
valleys  and  preserved  it  to  us  for  all  time,  by  linking  it  with  his 
own  tender  and  charming  verse.  The  IRISH  MELODIES,  words 
and  music  are  unique.  If  every  other  production  of  his  genius  were 
destroyed  or  forgotten,  these  alone  would  immortalize  his  memory  and 
establish  a  claim  to  the  enduring  gratitude  of  his  country.  Closely 
examined,  in  comparison  with  the  national  lyrics  of  any  other  people 
or  age — Pagan,  Jew  or  Christian,  Oriental,  European,  Greek  or 
Roman,  ancient  or  modern — ^we  find  no  such  other  collection.  Bal- 
lads, songs,  lays,  odes  and  historiettes  abound  indeed  in  all  lands, 
in  all  tongues  and  at  all  periods,  differing  in  culture  and  in  form. 
But,  so  far  as  known,  no  attempt  has  ever  been  made  to  embody  so 
many  characteristics  of  a  nation,  its  social  life,  scenery,  manners 
and  customs;  legends,  traditions,  victories  and  defeats;  its  dark  his- 
tory and  bright  hopes  in  lyric  form  welded  to  music,  familiar  by 
its  antiquities  and  its  winning  pathos  to  the  entire  people;  and  in- 
spiriting their  dances  and  athletic  games,  that  proclaimed  their  tri- 
umphs and  softened  their  defeats.  Analyze  the  lyric  poetry  of  any 
country  you  choose,  ancient  or  modern,  and  you  will  find  that  it  covers 
a  comparatively  small  portion  only  of  the  life  and  history  of  the  peo- 
ple; whereas  the  subjects  of  the  IRISH  MELODIES  range  over  nearly 
the  entire  scope  of  Irish  life,  past  and  present.  The  appearance  of 
the  first  number  produced  a  profound  political  impression.  They 
were  the  most  effective  auxiliaries  brought  up  to  siipj)ort  the  elo- 
quence of  0 'Council  in  the  struggle  for  Catholic  Emancipation.  They 
served  to  immense  advantage  in  the  agitations  for  popular, education, 
Parliamentary  reform,  the  tithe-war  and  the  church  establishment. 
So,  this  man  who  has  been  accused  of  a  want  of  patriotism,  served 
through  three  campaigns  and  scarcely  wrote  on  any  other  theme.  In 
fact,  the  astonishing  thing  about  it  all  is,  that  he  was  read  with 
much  avidity  throughout  Europe  whilst  he  hardly  wrote  anything 
but  IRELAND.  To  point  out  particulars  w^re  a  task  of  despair, 
unless  we  consented,  and  the  idea  is  not  a  bad  one,  to  resolve  our- 
selves into  a  Chautauqua  Circle  with  IMoore's  Avorks  for  the  one 
subject  of  research.  It  is  the  fire  of  the  passion  of  Irish  patriotism 
that  illuminates  his  every  page.  Of  course,  as  a  boy,  he  wrote  some 
trash,  which  his  amateur  judgment  amends  for.  "Few  poets  have 
sailed  to  Delphi  without  touching  at  Cythera."  The  spirit  of  Irish 
hospitality  is  the  only  apology  we  can  offer  for  the  composition  of 
the  "Prince's  Day,"  and  I  am  willing  to  concede  it  never  ought  have 
been  written ;  but  perfection  is  not  to  be  looked  for  on  earth  and  you 
and  I  are  too  well  actiuaiiited  with  practical  life  to  institute  such  an 
inquisition  first  on  a  poet  and  then  an  Irishman.     Still  I  say,  the 


THOMAvS  MOOKE. 
"The  Poet  of  all  circles  and  the  Idol  of  his  own. 


GllKAT   Sl'EliCilES   UN   CUEAT  OcCASlO.NS  807 

more  you  familiarize  youi-self  with  ^Moore,  the  mtdc  will  you  become 
convinced  that  his  patriotism  was  his  all-al)sorbiiig,  consuming  pas- 
sion. It  was  the  sacred,  inextinguishable  fire  that  burned  upon  the 
holy  mountain — 

"Though  fled  the  priest,  the  votary  gone, 
Still  did  the  mighty  tiame  burn  on 

Through  shame  and  change,  through  good  and  ill, 

Like  its  own  God's  eternal  will, 
Deep,  constant,  bright,  unquenchable." 

The  truth  is  he  could  write  nothing  else.  He  failed  in  the  com- 
position of  LALLxVH  KOOKIl,  until  his  imagination  clothed  in  the 
eastern  garb  his  Irish  conception.  The  four  Oriental  poems  are  only 
lengthened  melodies  in  which  the  political  and  religious  struggles  of 
liis  own  country  are  dramatized  in  Asia.  "The  Loves  of  the  Angels" 
are  grand  allegories  of  the  spiritual  life.  Hymns,  poems,  and  at 
least  one  book  which  has  made  its  author  famous,  "The  Gates  Ajar," 
have  sprung  from  suggestions  in  the  "Loves  of  the  Angels."  I  have 
seen  more  severe  criticism  of  these  poems,  but  I  cannot  say  that  I 
ever  discerned  anything  to  admire  in  the  mental  structure  of  the 
critics.  David  and  Solomon  might  well  dread  the  effects  of  their 
productions  upon  such  minds.  Moore's  satirical  writings  produced 
an  immense  sensation.  They  flash  w'ith  wit  and  wound  like  swords. 
His  mind  was  like  a  diamond — it  glittered  at  once  and  cut.  Like 
most  of  his  other  writings,  they  were  brought  out  in  support  of  his 
own  country;  but  if  any  statesman  or  political  economist  will  peruse 
the  productions  to-day  I  promise  him  compensation  in  the  fact  that 
he  will  find  so  many  of  them  applicable  to  the  somewhat  abnormal 
circiunstances  which  just  now  surround  us.  i\Ioore  was  never  engaged 
in  any  composition  depending  on  false  idiom  for  wit  or  character. 
The  stage  representation  of  the  Irishman,  generally  rendered  by  some 
idler  from  Vermont  or  Boston,  passing  off  as  "Pat  Rooney"  or 
"Larry  O'Neill,"  has  had  nothing  to  borrow  from  INIoore.  What  has 
he  done  to  divert  from  him  the  full  tide  of  the  admiration,  love  and 
gratitude  of  his  countrymen !  It  is  undeniable  that  his  popularity  has 
been  weaning  since  his  death.  Is  it  his  success  that  man  has  come 
to  harbor  against  him?  It  was  indeed  phenomenal,  but  was  it  not 
deserved  ? 

"Perhaps  he  was  not  hero  born, 

Like  those  he  sung.  Heaven  only  knows; 
He  had  the  rose  without  the  thorn, 

But  he  deserved  the  rose, 
For  under  its  gentle  light 

His  heart  was  warm,  his  soul  was  strong; 
He  kept  his  love  of  country  bright 

And  sung  her  sweetest  songs." 

At  the  time  that  the  meteoric  Lord  Byron  was  advancing,  torch 
in  hand,  to  the  stage  of  English  lettei*s,  wh'^n  Scott.  Rogers,  Camp- 
bell, Crabbe,  Southey,  were  rushing  forward  to  divide  the  attention 
of  the  English-speaking  world — think  of  the  poor  little  fellow  starting 
out  from  his  home  above  the  grocery  store  in  Aungier  street,  with 
the  "Odes  of  Anacreon"  in  his  pocket  and  the  few  sovereigns  and 


808  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

scapular  his  pious  mother  had  stitched  into  the  waistband  of  his 
trousers,  going  forth  alone  to  hostile,  conceited,  supercilious  London 
and  taking  front  rank  amongst  them  all !  Alone  did  I  say  ?  No,  not 
alone,  for  God  was  with  him,  God  and  his  own  true  heart!  He  has 
been  accused  of  playing  the  sycophant  because  he  placed  himself 
in  association  with  the  great !  Where  were  his  associations  to  be,  if 
he  were  to  do  any  good?  "What  evidence  is  there  that  he  ever 
pawned  his  independence  for  aristocratic  patronage?  I  have  studied 
his  life  somewhat  intently,  and  so  far  as  I  can  discern,  he  played  in 
this  particular  the  role  of  the  Irishman  up  to  the  letter,  viz. ;  when 
there  was  any  patronizing  to  be  done,  he  did  it  on  the  other  fellow  as 
the  Prince  of  Wales  and  Duke  of  Wellington  learned  to  their  chagrin. 
The  only  reason  he  did  not  keep  Leigh  Hunt  company  in  jail  was 
that  His  Royal  Highness  did  not  dare  incur  the  odium  of  such  an 
act.  The  patronage  of  the  Earl  of  Moira  has  been  used  to  Moore's 
prejudice  in  som^e  quarters.  Lord  IMoira  was  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished soldiers  and  statesmen  of  his  age.  He  supported  the 
patriotic  party  in  Ireland,  being  ahvays  on  the  side  of  Grattan  and 
Charlemont.  He  promoted  the  Catholic  claims;  denounced  the  cruel- 
ties of  1798,  and  opposed  the  "Union."  It  was  in  repairing  to  his 
house  to  see  his  wife  that  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  was  set  upon  in 
Watting  street,  I\Iay  17th,  '98,  by  officers  of  the  Crown,  whom,  after  a 
brisk  encounter,  he  defeated,  "himself  against  four."  Next  day  he 
was  captured  after  the  terrific  conflict  with  which  you  are  all  fa- 
miliar. Surely  there  was  nothing  in  this  association  to  compromise 
Moore's  principles!  O'Connell  retained  respect  for  and  confidence 
in  him  to  the  end  of  his  life,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1852 
he  offered  him  the  representation  in  Parliament  of  the  city  of 
Limerick,  the  tender  being  made  by  another  Irish  poet,  the  just  and 
gentle  Gerald  Griffin.  Moore  declined,  OAving  entirely  to  his  circum- 
stances, but  records  that  were  he  to  go  to  Parliament  he  would  take 
the  "Repeal  Pledge,"  co7ifident  though  he  was  that  it  would  lead  to 
separation  from  England. 

Moore  had  been  charged  with  being  an  "absentee"  and  living 
out  of  Ireland.  Literature  was  his  profession,  and  what  market  had 
he  for  it  in  Dublin?  Has  he  no  claim  to  justice  at  our  hands?  The 
incident  I  have  already  alluded  to  touching  his  last  days  and  inter- 
ment is  alike  susceptible  of  explanation.  From  1846  or  thereabout 
he  showed  increasing  signs  of  decay  of  mental  power,  and,  as  with 
Swift,  Scott,  Southey,  O'Connell,  and  other  literary  veterans,  soft- 
ening of  the  brain  steadily  set  in.  The  last  three  or  four  years  of 
his  life  his  intellect  became  quite  clouded.  No  one  but  his  wife 
so  much  as  saw  him  the  last  two  years  of  his  life.  This  is  the  period 
fixed  upon  by  the  religious  scandalmongers  for  his  so-called  apostasy. 
What  other  man  was  ever  held  accountable  for  the  days  he  had  passed 
in  mental  darkness?  It  is  feared  he  v/as  buried  with  a  Protestant 
service  of  some  kind,  and  poor  Bessie  was  roundly  rated  for  it  by  the 
Catholic  journals  of  the  day  as  "an  outrage  on  her  Catholic  husband 
and  an  insult  to  Catholic  Ireland."  From  all  I  have  been  able  to 
find  out  regarding  this  thing,  the  charge  has  never  been  duly  sub- 
stantiated by  even  respectable  hearsay  evidence.  He  was  buried  very 
quietly  in  Bronham  Churchyard,  only  three  or  four  friends  being 
in  attendance.  There  were  no  Catholics  and  no  Catholic  church 
near  Moore's  residence  for  fifty  or  sixty  years,  and  if,  perchance, 
some  service  was  read  or  some  prayer  offered  at  their  dismal  little 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  809 

funeral,  those  few  friends  and  poor  Bessie  undoubtedly  thought  they 
were  doing  tlio  best  they  could.  I  certainly  do  not  conceive  that 
there  was  anything  in  these  facts  to  c;ist  a  shadow  of  suspicion  on 
the  constancy  of  one  who  stood  so  manfully  by  his  co-religionists 
amid  their  darkest  hours,  and  has  left  so  many  imperishable  monu- 
ments of  his  faith  behin(i  him.  He  was  a  regular  attendant  at  mass* 
in  Warwick  street  chapel  when  in  London,  and  so  was  his  eldest  son. 
Lord  John  Russell  attests  "that  he  lived  and  died  a  Catholic."  He 
enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  Archbishops  Murray,  McHale,  Dr. 
Doyle,  O'Connell  and  all  of  the  Catholic  opinion  in  Ireland.  While 
in  England  he  was  the  intimate  friend  of  Cardinal  (Dr.)  Wiseman 
and  Dr.  Lingard,  and  was  invited  by  AViseman  to  contribute  articles 
on  delicate  ecclesiastical  subjects  in  the  Dublin  Review.  In  dis- 
missing this  subject,  I  desire  to  say,  as  a  priest  and  one  whose  in- 
tensity as  a  Catholic  priest  has  never,  I  think,  been  questioned,  that 
the  longer  I  live  the  less  respect  I  am  learning  to  feel  for  that  genius 
of  Catholic  who  is  forever  coming  forward  with  imputations  like  this 
upon  prominent  men,  whose  ambition  and  aim  in  life  seems  to  be  to 
read  somebody  out  of  the  Church,  and  whose  religious  functions  are 
exhausted,  as  is  generally  the  case — in  swooping  around  to  determine 
2)ro  bono  puhlico  whether  someone  else  "made  his  Easter  duties" 
or  not.  So  far  as  I  have  observed,  the  eminent  service  these  persons 
render  to  the  Church  is  to  deprive  the  membership  of  such  men  as 
Moore,  Michand,  Chateaubraind,  Pope,  Dryden  and  Boyle  O'Reilly. 
It  is  to  that  class  of  animal  that  we  owe,  quite  exclusively,  the 
insinuations  in  circulation  regarding  IMoore's  religion,  and  he  is 
twin-brother  to  that  other  ape  who  thought  to  deprive  Ireland  of 
him  by  impugning  his  patriotism.  Religious  and  racial  ghouls  who 
unearth  dead  men's  bones,  but  whose  grimaces  can  only  impose  upon 
the  ignorant.  If  Ireland  had  borrowed  O'Connell  from  Spain;  if 
she  had  caught  Father  ]\Iathew  from  the  skies;  if  France  had  given 
birth  to  her  noblest  son  and  named  him  Robert  Emmett,  and  if 
Curran  and  Grattan  had  never  been  born,  still  I  think  that  little 
island  would  be  remembered  for  ages,  and  I  think  forever,  as  the 
birthplace  and  country  of  Thomas  IMoore. 

Why,  this  man  was  greater  than  Columbus,  for  he  faced  more 
determined  hostility  and  vantjuished  it  with  greater  ease,  he  opened 
to  the  world  a  mental  and  spiritual  continent  which  will  be  sought 
out  by  the  oppressed  of  every  clime  till  Time  or  Tyranny  shall  be 
no  more;  whilst  the  multitudes  of  the  earth  that  claim  an  Irish 
ancestry  in  every  land  will  continue  to  learn  to  love  "Tom  IMoore" 
the  more  as  the  light  of  receding  ages  brightens  his  memory.  When 
nations  dissolve,  their  great  men  move  behind  a  curtain  that  but  few 
ever  raise;  when  wars  are  over  and  the  dashing  soldier  and  great 
commander  rest  for  fame  in  some  historical  catalogue  or  brief  pub- 
lication, then,  as  the  psalms  of  David  and  songs  of  Solomon  outlive 
the  triumphs  and  the  temples  whicli  they  reared,  so  will  the  melodies 
of  Moore  resist  the  corroding  marks  of  time  and  live,  and  still  live 
on  while  the  human  soul  retains  emotion  and  Ireland  raises  her  lofty 
peaks  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  my 
purpose  here  to-night  to  discuss  his  poetry.  I  have  disclaimed  this 
intention  at  the  beginning,  though  candidly  I  profess  some  slight 
pretensions  thereon.  He  has  many  anniversaries  yet  to  come.  Let 
me  say  that  I  consider  our  failures  to  do  justice  to  his  memory  due 
to  the"^  fact  that  we  try  to  do  too  much  at  once.     I  honor  intensely 


810  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  purpose  of  this  association.  I  commend  to  those  who  follow 
me  the  consideration  of  his  merits,  point  by  point.  He  is  one  of 
those  men — those  rare  men — whom  you  cannot  deal  with  biograph- 
ically  in  one  evening;  he  is  a  man  whose  writings  you  cannot  con- 
dense. A  great  lawyer  and  literateur  said  to  me  some  years  ago,  "I 
tried  to  lecture  on  Lallah  Rookh,  but  it  was  like  writing  a  brief  upon 
Erskine — the  condensing  had  all  been  done."  I  think  any  one  who 
has  studied  Moore  a  little  will  see  the  virtue  of  this  saying.  He  was 
too  many  sided  to  be  dealt  with  once  for  all.  It  cannot  be  done; 
and  the  simple  reason  is  that  he  was  imbued  so  thoroughly  with  the 
spirit  of  his  country,  and  comprehended  so  accurately  the  range  of 
his  subject,  and  lent  his  mind  so  exclusively  to  the  condensation  of 
it  that  no  man  thereafter  can  "draw  a  brief."  He  has  written  a 
book  of  poetic  national  gospels.  What  we  have  to  do  is  study,  con- 
template and  explain  them.  Therefore,  this  evening  I  have  tried  to 
confine  myself  to  the  one  leading  point — the  salient  feature  of  his 
character — that  lie  was  an  Irishman.  It  is  a  worthy  subject  and 
I  leave  it  in  worthy  hands.  I  hope  that  those  who  follow  me  will 
train  the  harpsichord  and  acquaint  you  with  the  power  which  he  did 
not  indeed  create — but  which  he  had  the  soul  to  appreciate — the 
power  there  is  in  Irish  recollection  and  which  lives  in  Irish  music 
expressive  of  Irish  life.  And  if,  in  that  refined  disquisition,  you 
find  as  years  go  on  that  he  was  not,  in  all  things  and  on  every 
occasion,  clear  up  to  the  type  we  have  learned  to  love  and  to  exact 
from  our  own  alone — why,  then,  I  will  ask  you  with  a  tear  to 

"Blame  not  the  bard,  if  in  pleasure's  soft  dream 

He  has  tried  to  forget  what  he  never  could  heal; 
Oh!    give  but  a  hope,  let  a  vista  but  gleam 

Through  the  gloom  of  his  country,  and  mark  how  he'll  feel; 
That  instant,  his  heart  at  her  shrine  would  lay  down 

Every  passion  it  nursed,  every  bliss  it  adored, 
While  the  myrtle,  now  idly  entwined  with  his  crown 

Like  the  wreath  of  Harmodius  would  cover  his  sword!" 

Mr.  Parnell,  a  few  years  since,  voiced  a  practical  thought  when 
he  said  in  prospect  of  Ireland's  independence  that  "she  would  need 
every  man  she  had,  be  he  Protestant  or  Catholic,"  and  it  seems  to 
me,  in  view  of  the  present  state  of  affairs,  that  Ireland  needs  every 
man  she  ever  had  (excepting  Castlereagh).  We  are  not  standing 
high  in  the  world's  estimation  to-day,  nor  what  is  infinitely  worse — 
in  our  own;  nor  do  I  think  that  our  former  prestige  with  ourselves, 
with  the  nations,  will  again  be  restored  until  Irish  swords  shall  once 
again  be  lifted  in  battle.  Our  forensic  ability,  our  parliamentary 
performances  are  all  very  well,  but  the  world  has  had  too  much  of 
them.  The  nations  have  ceased  to  think  of  us,  we  have  almost  ceased 
to  think  of  ourselves,  as  the  men  not  alone  of  lightening  wits,  but  of 
lightening  sabres,  and  I  know  of  nothing  better  calculated  to  prepare 
us  for  that  dread,  but  inevitable  ordeal,  which  we  have  so  often 
sustained  before,  than  the  music  of  Ireland,  the  poetry  of  Moore. 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  811 

A  PLEA  FOR  IRELAND. 

BY   HON.   W.   BOURKE  COCKRAN,   M.   C. 

Wednestlay  evening,  iMarch  4,  1896,  witnessed  the  most  remark- 
able Nationalist  demonstration  ever  held  by  the  Irish  people  of  New 
York  City.  In  every  respect  it  was  a  memorable  meeting.  One  of 
the  {greatest  of  living  orators  delivered  the  speech  of  his  life  and  the 
audience  which  listened  to  him  was  in  numbers,  intelligence  and  en- 
thusiasm the  finest  that  ever  greeted  an  Irishman  pleading  Ireland  s 
case  before  the  civilized  world. 

The  occasion  was  the  celebration  of  the  Robert  Emmet  anniver- 
sary  by  the  Clan-na-Gael;  the  scene  was  the  great  hall  of  the  Grand 
Central  Palace,  Lexington  avenue,  43rd  and  44th  streets;  the  orator 
was  William  Bourke  Cockran.  There  were  over  10,000  people 
crowded  into  the  hall,  every  available  inch  of  space  on  the  floor,  the 
galleries  and  in  the  aisles  being  occupied,  and  the  men  and  woinen 
there  assembled  were  the  elite  of  the  Irish  people  of  the  Empire  City. 
On  the  platform,  in  the  boxes  and  the  reserved  seats  were  more  dis- 
tinguished Americans  than  ever  before  listened  to  an  Irish  orator. 
I^Ien  of  national  reputation  on  the  bench,  at  the  bar,  in  the  pulpit- 
priests  and  ministers— in  the  medical  profession,  in  commercial  and 
public  life,  were  there  and  vied  with  the  seething  mass  of  Irish  people 
around  them  in  the  vigor  and  enthusiasm  of  their  plaudits.  They 
came  to  hear  an  eloquent  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Robert  Emmet; 
they  heard  instead  a  vindication  of  the  cause  for  which  Emmet  gave 
his  life,  an  unansw^erable  arraignment  of  English  rule,  a  masterly 
statement  of  Ireland's  unalienable  and  indestructible  right  to  govern 

herself.  ,  t    i  • 

It  was  a  military  as  well  as  a  civic  display,  and  the  prominence 
given  to  the  fighting  element  by  the  organizers  of  the  demonstration 
was  significant  of  the  present  drift  of  opinion  and  of  the  new  hopes 
born  of  England's  thickening  international  difficulties.  The  First 
Reo-iment  of  Irish  Volunteers,  over  600  strong,  under  Colonel  James 
Mtmin,  armed  and  fully  e(iuipped,  lined  the  aisles  and  guarded  the 
doors  and  a  finer  body  of  Irish  soldiers  never  shouldered  rifle  or  s^tood 
in  line  When  the  orator  of  the  evening  was  escorted  to  the  platform 
with  thirty  officers  with  drawn  swords  as  a  guard  of  honor,  there  was 
a  scene  of  enthusiasm  that  will  not  soon  be  forgotten  by  those  who 

witnessed  it.  x?  ^i      r     i 

And  to  cap  the  climax  of  the  military  character  of  the  display  a 
distinf-uished  Irish  soldier  of  the  American  Civil  War,  General  James 
R  O'Beirne— as  fine  a  type  of  physical  manhood  as  ever  left  the 
shores  of  Ireland— was  chairman  of  the  meeting  and  opened  the  pro- 
ceediii'^s  with  a  short,  but  elo(|uent  speech,  explaining  the  aims  and 
obiects  of  the  Clan-na-Gael  and  asserting  Ireland's  right  to  recover 
her  freedom  by  the  same  means  as  brought  the  great  Republic  of  the 
West  into  existence.  The  meeting  did  not  inaugurate  any  "new  move- 
ment "  but  it  demonstrated  that  the  old  Clan-na-Gael  is  still  full  of  a 
vio-or'ous  vitality  and  entering  on  a  new  era  of  progress  and  energetic 
prosecution  of 'the  old  struggle  with  England. 

Amonf^  the  prominent  people  present  were  Supreme  Court  Judges 
J  0  Dyekman,  Martin  J.  Keogh,  :Morgan  J.  O'Brien,  Frederick 
Smvth  Judges  Leonard  J.  Giegerich.  Calvin  E.  Pratt.  J.  P.  Bernard, 
William  J.  Gay  nor,  Judges  Clement,  James  Fitzgerald,  Van  Hoesen, 


812  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

ex-Lieut.-Governor  William  F.  Sheehan,  John  C.  Sheehan,  ex-Judge 
Edward  Browne,  Richard  S  Emmet,  Fordham  ]\Iorris,  Chauncey  J. 
Secor,  Congressman  Fairehild  of  Port  Chester,  State  Comptroller 
Roberts,  John  E.  Milholland,  Thomas  Costigan,  Dr.  Gregory  Cos- 
tigan. 

Fully  a  hundred  priests  v/ere  in  the  audience.  Among  those 
noticed  in  the  front  seats  were :  Rev,  Dr.  McDonald,  D.  D.,  Rev.  Fr. 
Scott,  Rev.  R.  J.  O'Keefe,  Rev.  Fr.  Doyle,  Rev.  Fr.  Wallace,  Rev. 
Fr.  Harrigan,  Rev.  Fr.  Dougherty,  Rev.  Fr.  Powers. 

Every  member  of  the  Clan-na-Gael  in  the  city  and  vicinity  not 
detained  by  duty  elsewhere  was  present.  All  the  old-timers  were  on 
hand  and  the  young  blood  which  is  fast  pushing  to  the  front  was  fully 
represented.  Among  those  known  outside  of  New  York  were  Chair- 
man R.  J.  Kennedy  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  Henry  V. 
Doyle  of  Yonkers,  County  Clerk  John  ]M.  Digney  of  White  Plains, 
Assemblyman  John  King  of  Passaic,  N.  J.,  Assemblyman  Trainor  of 
New  York  City,  John  J.  Rossiter  of  Newark,  James  F.  Gallagher  of 
Brooklyn,  John  Conway,  John  Devoy,  Edward  0 'Flaherty,  Michael 
Breslin,  National  Delegate  Haggerty,  A.  0.  H.  (Board  of  Erin),  State 
Secretary  Terence  Donohue,  Capt.  James  S.  Treacy,  James  0 'Sullivan, 
John  Timmons,  Wm.  Leonard,  John  Kenny,  Bernard  F.  McCabe, 
Timothy  Breslin,  James  McCarthy,  Michael  Ledwith,  P.  F.  Higgins, 
Edward  Quinncll,  Frank  Blullin,  Wm.  R.  McCauley,  Patrick  J.  Con- 
way, Denis  Kerwick,  Michael  T.  Sharkey,  James  G.  Dyer,  T.  J.  Smith, 
Luke  C.  Quinn,  P.  J.  Connolly,  Lieut.-Col.  Edward  Duffy  and  Major 
McCarthy  of  the  60th  Regt.  and  many  others. 

General  O'Beirne  in  introducing  the  orator  of  the  evening  made  a 
strong  and  eloquent  speech  explaining  the  aims  and  objects  of  the 
Cian-na-Gael.     He  was  vigorously  applauded  throughout. 


BOURKE  COCKRAN  S  GREAT  SPEECH. 

Mr.  Cockran  was  received  with  an  outburst  of  enthusiasm  such  as 
is  seldom  witnessed,  the  vast  audience  rising  to  its  feet  and  waving 
hats  and  handkerchiefs.  When  the  applause  had  subsided  he  spoke 
as  follows: 

Mr.  Chairman,  ladies  and  gentlemen.  I  have  recently  heard  it 
proclaimed,  and  we  all  have  heard  it  proclaimed,  with  vociferous  una- 
nimity, by  the  supporters  of  the  present  English  Government,  that  the 
Irish  National  movement  was  dead.  If  any  person,  friend  or  foe,  has 
been  misled  by  that  statement,  a  glimpse  of  this  meeting  would  dispel 
his  misapprehensions,  and  at  the  same  time  cuable  him  to  appreciate 
the  depth  of  those  springs  from  which  Irish  patriotism  is  fed. 

As  we  survey  this  meeting  we  realize  that  the  soil  which  has  been 
stained  with  the  blood  of  patriots  is  sown  with  dragon's  teeth,  and  will 
yet  yield  armed  men  to  strike  vehement  blows  at  the  power  of  the 
tyrant.  (Applause.)  As  we  realize  that  all  over  the  world  similar 
gatherings  are  applauding  the  same  sentiments,  singing  the  same 
songs,  honoring  the  same  memory,  we  know  that  Robert  Emmet,  in  hi*? 
grave,  is  a  more  powerful  force  for  Irish  emancipation  than  serried 
hosts  in  the  field.  (Applause.)  In  this  aspect  this  celebration  is  Avith- 
out  parallel  among  the  solemnities  or  festivals  of  mankind.   It  awak- 


Grkat  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  813 

ciLs  momorio.s  which  arc  eorrodini,',  it  inspiros  hopos  wliicli  nre  snb- 
Jime;  it  recalls  a  tra}?edy  unutterably  sad,  it  expresses  a  purpose 
inflexibly  stern;  it  typifies  the  history  of  a  lontr-sulT'ering  people,  it 
])roves  the  indestructible  vitality  of  an  indomitable  race.    (Applause.) 

We  celebrate  the  birth  of  a  martyr,  but  the  tears  that  moisten  the 
eyes  as  we  think  of  his  fate  are  dried  on  the  cheeks  of  Irishmen  by  the 
burning  resolutions  wliich  they  form  above  his  grave.  (Applause.) 
And  as  we  hear  the  thunders  of  applause  that  sweep  through  this  hall, 
Mobile  every  breeze  that  blows  across  the  Atlantic  is  laden  with  mes- 
sages of  sympathy  to  the  Irish  race,  we  know  that  the  interest  of  the 
world  is  awakened  on  this  anniversary.  "We  know  that  in  murdering 
Emmet  tlie  foreign  tyrant  showed  tlie  extent  of  liis  cruelty  and  the 
limit  of  his  pow'er.  He  was  able  to  kill  the  patriot,  but  he  was  unable 
to  destroy  the  race  from  wdiich  he  sprung,  the  soil  on  which  he  lived, 
or  the  cause  for  which  he  died.  (Applause.)  We  know  that  the 
attempt  to  blacken  his  memory  has  failed;  we  know  that  the  judg- 
ment of  felony  which  was  rendered  against  him  in  the  English  court 
has  been  reversed  by  the  judgment  of  mankind  (cries  of  "Hear, 
hear!");  that  the  infamy  of  his  sentence  fell  only  on  those  who 
pronounced  it ;  that  the  rope  which  strangled  him  changed  the  suffer- 
ing patriot  into  the  glorious  martyr  and  the  gallows  on  which  he  died 
has  become  the  pedestal  of  an  imperishable  fame.  (Applause.)  The 
stor^'-  of  Robert  Emmet's  fate  is,  perhaps,  the  saddest  page  among 
human  records,  yet  his  life  is  the  most  inspiring  study  in  the  whole 
range  of  human  biography. 

His  execution  was  not  merely  a  crime  of  singular  atrocity;  it  was 
a  blunder  of  unparalleled  stupidity.  Emmet  dying  at  twenty-four  has 
accomplished  ten  thousand  times  more  than  could  have  been  achieved 
by  Emmet  living  for  a  hundred  years.  The  spectacle  of  a  virtuous 
youth  climbing  the  steps  of  the  gallows;  of  an  orator,  whose  genius 
should  have  rendered  immense  service  to  mankind,  strangled  by  the 
English  hangman;  of  a  patriot,  the  purity  of  whose  motives  never 
had  been  questioned,  butchered  in  cold  blood,  revealed  to  the  world 
as  no  rhetoric  could  have  described  it,  the  atrocious  character  of  a 
system  founded  in  crime  and  maintained  in  injustice,  which  had 
rewards  for  the  corrupt  and  punishments  for  the  pure;  which  be- 
stowed coronets  upon  traitors  and  the  rope  on  patriots;  which  raised 
Norbury  to  the  peerage  and  sent  Emmet  to  the  gallows.    (Applause.) 

Of  Emmet's  life,  of  his  personal  virtues,  of  his  intellectual  at- 
tainments, of  his  romantic  love,  of  his  patriotic  purposes,  we  raa.y  not 
speak  to-night.  Standing  at  the  verge  of  his  grave,  while  pronounc- 
ing the  inspired  words  which,  by  attracting  the  attention  of  the  world 
to  his  coiintiy,  have  made  Ireland's  cause  the  cause  of  civilization, 
he  forbade  any  one  to  write  his  epitaph  until  his  country  should  have 
taken  her  place  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  His  prohibition  to 
write  his  epitaph  carries  with  it  the  prohibition  to  pronounce  his 
eulogy.  The  respect,  the  affection,  the  love,  the  reverence,  which  every 
Irishman  cherishes  in  his  bosom  for  the  memory  of  Emmet  must 
remain  without  expression  until  the  foundation  of  his  monument  can 
be  laid  in  the  free  soil  of  an  emancipated  Ireland.  (Applause.)  But 
though  we  may  not  pronounce  his  eulogy,  the  suggestion  of  the  dis- 
tinguished gentleman  who  presides  here  to-night  is  singularly  apposite. 
We  may  consider  how  far  Irishmen  have  discharged  the  trust  which 
he  has  committed  to  their  hands ;  we  may  measure  the  distance  which 
still  separates  Ireland  from  those  happier  conditioiis  under  which 


814  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

Emmet's  monument  may  be  raised  to  heaven  amid  the  enthnsiastie 
applause  of  his  own  race  and  amid  the  respectful  sympathy  of  the 
civilized  world, 

What,  then,  is  the  condition  of  Ireland  to-day?  Is  the  boast  of 
her  enemies  well  founded,  that  the  Irish  National  movement  is  dead ; 
that  there  is  not  sufficient  patriotic  spirit  amonf]^  the  Irish  people  even 
to  compel  a  union  of  the  warring  factions  into  which  the  Parliamen- 
tary party  has  degenerated?  Now,  bear  in  mind  that  I  criticise  no 
man  or  set  of  men.  At  this  distance  it  is  impossilile  to  say  whether 
these  quarrels,  which  we  all  deplore,  are  chargeable  to  any  one  faction, 
or  whether  they  spring  from  conditions  to  which  all  factions  have 
contributed.  I  content  myself  with  stating  the  indisputable  fact  that 
factions  do  exist;  that  the  strength  of  the  party  in  Parliament  has 
been  weakened  by  them  and  that  English  statesmen  have  been  en- 
couraged by  these  divisions  to  contemptuously  reject  Ireland's  peti- 
tion for  redress.  Thus  we  have  seen,  within  a  few  days  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  a  Home  Rule  amendment  rejected  by  a  majority  of  115. 
"We  have  seen  a  petition  for  the  release  of  the  political  prisoners  and 
several  other  measures  for  the  relief  of  the  Irish  people  rejected  by 
about  the  same  vote.  And  yet,  notwithstanding  these  discouraging 
circumstances,  I  decline  to  regard  this  Parliamentary  majority  as 
any  indication  even  of  English  opinion  to-day.  I  do  not  believe  that 
the  defeat  of  the  Liberal  party  at  the  polls,  the  induction  into  office 
of  a  Tory  government,  backed  by  a  large  Tory  majority,  are  in- 
superable obstacles  in  the  pathway  of  Irish  progress,  but,  with  proper 
leadership,  I  believe  they  may  be  made  the  stepping  stone  by  which 
Ireland  can  climb  to  independence.     (Applause.) 

It  is  frequently  said  that,  in  all  discussions  of  Irish  questions  by 
Irishmen,  there  is  such  a  tendency  to  rhetorical  exaggeration  that 
their  statements  do  not  furnish  solid  fomidations  for  safe  conclusions. 
Deeply  sensible,  therefore,  that  accuracy  and  moderation  of  statement 
are  of  vital  importance  to  the  value  of  anything  w^hich  I  may  say,  I 
express  the  belief  that  within  the  lifetime  of  this  generation  the  eman- 
cipation of  Ireland  will  be  an  accomplished  fact,  because  invincible 
forces  are  working  to  accomplish  it.  (Applause.)  Now,  I  base  that 
belief,  first,  on  my  conviction  that  England  herself  will  soon  realize 
that  her  own  pathway  to  safety,  amid  the  dangers  and  perils  which 
encompass  her,  lies  through  a  policy  of  reparation  and  justice  to 
Ireland;  and,  second,  on  my  belief  that  if  England  remains  blind  to 
her  own  interests,  and  deaf  to  the  voice  of  justice,  then  the  civilized 
world  will  compel  her  to  make  that  reparation  which  an  enlightened 
policy  would  prompt  her  to  make  spontaneously  and  freely,  (Ap- 
plause.) 

We  see  the  whole  world  united  to-day  in  a  spirit  of  hostility  and 
opposition  to  England,  which  not  only  prevents  any  extension  of  her 
influence  and  power,  but  which  actually  threatens  the  integrity  of  her 
empire.  But  a  few  wrecks  ago,  when  the  President  of  the  United 
States  intervened  in  a  dispute  between  her  and  a  South  American 
republic  (applause)  with  whose  boundaries,  I  do  not  believe,  one  of 
our  citizens  in  ten  thousand  was  familiar,  the  American  people  with 
one  voice  rose  in  support  of  his  action,  and  his  message  to  Congress 
was  the  most  popular  measure  in  his  whole  administration.  (Ap- 
plause.) The  German  Emperor  cast  diplomatic  etiquette  to  the  winds 
in  his  haste  to  express  satisfaction  at  the  defeat  of  an  English 
marauding  force  which  had  invaded  a  ^QUth  African  republic,    (Ap- 


(IrKAT   RPEEfHEft   ON   GrEAT   OCCASIONS  815 

plause.)  Whcivvor  slio  lias  attoi-npicd  id  cxtond  lirr  powfr,  tlioro  the 
world  has  arisen  in  protest  af<ainst  it.  (Cries  of  "Hear!  hear!") 
Now,  why  is  Enghmd  universally  disliked?  Why  stands  she  encircled, 
by  the  confession  of  her  own  statesmen,  with  enemies  everywhere? 
Why  is  she  overhniij;  Avith  ;i  hliick  cloud  of  distrust,  from  which  at  any 
moment  may  leap  the  lif^lihiiut;  Hash  of  destructive  war'?  It  is  be- 
cause she  has  violated  the  moral  law.  It  is  because  she  staiuls  dis- 
credited before  the  woi-ld  by  her  treatment  of  Ireland;  it  is  because 
the  world  judj^cs  of  her  policy  by  its  fruits;  and  where  they  see  ruin, 
desolation  and  hatred  amonj^  the  jroverned,  they  know  the  government 
must  be  oppressive,  tyrannical  and  unjust.  (Api)lause.)  In  vain  she 
boasts  that  Canada  is  loyal,  that  Australia  is  attached  to  the  British 
Crown.  The  world  knows  that  in  these  counti'ies  she  is  jealously 
excluded  from  any  participation  in  their  internal  affairs,  and  that 
her  part  in  their  goverinnent  is  simply  to  provide  for  their  defense 
against  foreign  aggression.  But  in  Ireland,  where  her  control  of  the 
government  is  complete,  absolute  and  unchallenged  the  world  sees  the 
fruits  of  her  policy  to  weaker  and  dependent  nations,  and  judges  her 
by  them.  As  they  l)ehold  the  severity  with  which  every  display  of 
natural  feeling  is  suppressed  in  the  one  place  where  she  has  been  able 
to  proscribe  patriots,  American  citizens  feel  that  if  the  fortunes  of 
war  had  delivered  these  colonies  helpless  into  her  power,  she  would 
have  cemented  her  conquest  of  them  by  the  blood  of  the  patriotic  and 
the  brave;  that  here,  too,  she  would  have  made  the  hangman  the 
exponent  of  her  policy,  and  the  gibbet  the  bulwark  of  her  authority. 
(Applause.) 

Now,  this  universal  hatred  of  England,  which  defeats  her  diplo- 
macy, thwarts  her  policy  and  threatens  her  interests  everywhere,  is 
not  the  work  of  Irishmen.  They  have  contributed  to  it,  but  they  have 
not  made  it.  It  rests  on  a  broader  foundation  than  Irish  resentment 
for  English  oppression.  It  rests  upon  the  hatred  of  injustice  which 
is  instinctive  among  civilized  men.  It  rests  upon  the  opposition  to 
tyranny  for  its  own  sake,  no  matter  what  the  theatre  on  which  that 
tyranny  may  have  been  displayed.  (Applause.)  Does  anybody  sup- 
pose that  if  a  question  under  the  ^lonroe  Doctrine  arose  between  this 
country  and  France  or  Germany  or  Russia,  the  people  of  the  United 
States  would  show  a  passionate  eagerness  for  war  with  either  of  those 
countries?  America  will  maintain  the  ]\Ionroe  Doctrine  against  any 
country  in  the  world,  or  all  the  countries  in  the  world  combined  (ap- 
plause) ;  but  while  she  would  maintain  it,  if  occasion  arose,  against 
these  other  countries  with  firmness,  every  person  in  the  United  States 
would  regret  and  deplore  a  condition  which  might  embroil  us  with 
them.  Does  anybody  suppose  that  if  England  to-day  stood  before  the 
world  exercising  a  beneficent  influence  everywhere,  using  all  the  power 
of  her  immense  capital  to  promote  the  welfare  of  all  the  people  who 
speak  her  language,  that  it  would  be  popular  in  the  United  States  to 
threaten  her  security?  Does  anybody  believe  that  if  ]\Ir,  Gladstone's 
Home  Rule  bill  had  become  a  law  and  England  to-day  were  loyally 
engaged  in  an  effort  to  bury  the  wretched  recollections  of  centuries 
under  new  measures  of  reparation,  and  to  open  up  before  the  people 
of  both  countries  a  future  of  peace,  of  promise  and  of  prosperity,  that 
the  American  people  would  welcome  a  war  that  would  interrupt  the 
recuperative  progress  of  the  Irish  people?  (Applause.)  Wlien  we  re- 
fleet  on  what  England's  condition  is,  owing  to  this  policy  of  ruin  in 
Ireland,  and  what  her  condition  might  be,  if,  with  clean  hands,  she 


816  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

stood  before  the  world  upon  the  services  which  she  has  rendered  to 
humanity  elsewhere,  is  it  extravagant  or  unreasonable  to  express  the 
hope  that  some  time  or  other  even  Englishmen  will  realize  that  injus- 
tice does  not  pay,  and  that  reparation  must  be  made  for  every  viola- 
tion of  the  moral  lav/  by  nations  as  well  as  by  individuals.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

But  assuming  that  ^jugland  does  not  of  her  own  accord  and  for  her 
own  sake  adopt  that  policy  of  justice  in  which  she  will  find  her  own 
security,  then  I  believe  that  the  civilized  world  will  make  the  cause  of 
Ireland  the  cause  of  civilization.   Ireland,  by  the  political  conditions 
under  which  she  was  compelled  to  exist,  is  unable  to  make  the  contri- 
bution to  the  sum  of  human  wealth  which  the  natural  genius  of  her 
people  and  the  natural  advantages  of  her  soil  show  that  Providence  in- 
tended she  should  make.   Just  as  soon  as  civilization  understands  that 
the  paralysis  of  Irish  industry  is  due  to  political  causes,  those  causes 
will  be  overthrown.     The  question  will  then  no  longer  be  a  question 
between  Ireland  and  England,  but  between  England  and  the  whole 
civilized  world.    The  growth  of  inventions,  the  spread  of  intelligence, 
has  led  men  to  realize  that  their  interests  are  not  bounded  by  their 
geographical  frontiers ;  that  every  man  who  toils  and  breathes  is  inter- 
ested in  the  condition  of  every  foot  of  the  earth's  surface.   Everything 
that  affects  the  supply  of  commodities  in  the  world  affects  you  and 
affects  me.  Every  ear  of  corn  that  is  produced  by  the  earth  affects  the 
price  of  bread  to  you  and  to  me  and  to  eveiy  human  being  in  all  the 
world.    The  exercise  of  my  trade  concerns  not  me  alone  and  depends 
not  alone  on  me.  If  I  be  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  tables,  I  can- 
not proceed  with  my  w^ork  until  I  secure  tools  and  lumber,  which  must 
be  prepared  by  other  hands,  and  as  I  must  exchange  the  product  of 
my  labor  for  the  things  which  I  need,  I  must  sell  my  tables  for  the 
clothes  that  wdll  keep  me  warm,  for  the  shoes  that  will  protect  m,v 
feet,  the  food  that  will  nourish  me,  the  roof  which  will  shelter  me.    I 
am,  therefore,  deeply  interested  in  the  production  of  wool,  the  prepa- 
ration of  hides,  the  quarrying  of  stone,  the  garnering  of  corn,  the 
felling  of  trees  everywhere  upon  the  globe.    No  one  man  stands  alone. 
Each  one  depends  upon  all  the  others.   Whatever  swells  the  sup- 
ply of  commodities  in  one  place,  stimulates  industrial  activity  else- 
where.    An  increase  in  production  anywhere,  whether  it  comes  from 
better  natural  conditions,  a  more  intelligent  cultivation  of  the  soil,  or 
the  reduction  to  cultivation  of  lands  formerly  left  untilled,  increases 
the  price  of  labor  and  stimulater^  prosperity  everywhere.    A  large  crop 
means  that  more  houses  must  be  built  to  store  it ;  it  means  that  more 
lines  of  railroad  must  be  constructed  to  accommodate  it ;  it  means  that 
more  ships  must  be  used  to  transport  it,  and  more  machinery  to  manu- 
facture it;  it  means  a  larger  demand  for  labor  and  consequently  an 
increase  in  the  rate  of  wages.   On  the  other  hand,  where  from  natural 
or  political  causes  there  is  a  diminished  production  anywhere,  it  means 
that  empty  cars  will  be  switched  upon  side  tracks;  that  idle  ships  will 
be  tied  to  docks ;  that  the  manufacturer  will  reduce  his  output  every- 
where; laborers  will  be  discharged,  and  the  rate  of  wages  will  fall. 
Thus  we  see  the  interests  of  the  whole  world  are  closely  intertwined. 
The  farmer  at  his  plow  in  the  Minnesota  wheat  field,  the  weaver  at  the 
English  loom,  the  mechanic  in  the  German  workshop,  the  laborer  in 
the  French  vineyard,  the  sailor  climbing  the  masthea<l  upon  the  At- 
lantic billow,  the  diver  exploring  the  sunken  wreck,  the  carrier  who 
transports  a  crop  to  market,  the  clerk  v/ho  keeps  an  account  of  it,  the 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  817 

merc'liant  wlio  sells  it,  the  consumer  who  buys  it — each  depends  on  all 
the  others  for  the  reward  of  his  industry — all  are  elements  in  one 
nii{::hty  scheme  of  industrial  eo-opcrjition,  which  we  call  commerce, 
and  commerce  is  civilization.     (Applause.) 

Political  institutions  which  prevent  a  country  with  great  natural 
advantaires  from  contributing  to  the  industrial  resources  of  mankind 
are  a  bar  to  human  progress,  the  overtlirow  of  which  is  essential  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  world.     Ireland,  with  a  fertile  soil,  in.stead  of  being 
an  active  agent  in  promoting  the  comfort  of  nuin,  is  a  mendicant  in  the 
family  of  nations.    The  etl'ect  of  Ireland's  exclusion  from  active  par- 
ticipation in  the  industrial  co-operation  of  men  may  be,  measured  in 
some  degree,  by  considering  the  results  to  us  here;  if  France  or  Ger- 
many should  suddenly  become  sterile  and  unproductive;  or,  if  its  con- 
tribution to  our  commerce  should  be  reduced  one-half.    If  our  trade 
with  France,  for  instance,  were  seriously  diminished,  land  in  this  city 
would  decline  in  value,  the  price  of  everything  elsewhere  would  de- 
cline, vast  numbers  of  laborers  would  be  discharged,  the  humblest 
toiler  would  find  his  means  of  sustenance  imperiled,  and  the  proudest 
millionaire  would  be  on  the  brink  of  ruin.    The  world  can  easily  un- 
derstand what  would  be  the  effect  on  its  condition  if  France  or  Ger- 
many or  England  or  any  of  the  great  productive  nations  were  reduced 
to  industrial  prostration,  and  the  world  will  some  day  learn  what  it 
loses  by  Ireland's  failure  to  contribute  to  the  sum  of  human  wealth  all 
that  its  fertile  soil  could  produce  and  all  that  the  wonderful  commer- 
cial genius  of  its  people  could  accomplish,  if  they  were  afforded  the 
protection  of  free  institutions.    (Applause.)    The  apologists  for  Eng- 
lish  rule   in   Ireland  realize  that   a   government  which   blights   the 
prosperity  of  the  governed  is  indefensible,  and  they  attempt  to 'tell  us 
that  Ireland's  condition  is  not  due  to  political  causes;  that  it  is  due  to 
some  inherent  vice  or  defect  in  the  Irish  character.     If  that  assertion 
were  true,  two  conclusions  would  necessarily  flow  from  it :    It  would 
prove,  first,  that  the  Irish  race  was  worthless,  and  that  it  would  be  a 
gain  to  the  world  if  they  were  sunk  under  the  Atlantic.    But,  even  if 
that  be  so,  it  would  only  furnish  an  additional  reason  why  England, 
for  her  ov/n  sake,  should  abandon  any  further  attempt  to  control  a 
government  which  she  could  not  administer  successfully.     "Whatever 
Ireland's  condition  may  be,  England  controls  lier  government.   Now 
by  the   declaration   of   England's   representative  body,   when   King 
James  II  was  driven  from  the  country,  the  basis  of  loyalty  to  the 
throne  was  declared  to  be  the  reciprocal  obligation  of  the  King  to 
protect  the  subject;  that  is  to  say,  the  business  of  government  was 
to  protect  the  governed.     The  merits  of  a   government   are  to  be 
judged  by  the  condition  of  the  governed.     If,  therefore.  England's 
contention  be  true,  that  this  deplorable  industrial  condition  of  Ireland 
is  due  to  causes  which  can  neither  be  remedied   nor  mitigated  by 
government,  then  the  quicker  she  leaves  the  island  the  better  for  her 
own  reputation,  and  we  will  take  the  chances  on  its  being  better  for 
Ireland.     (Applause.) 

But,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  statement  is  not  true.  The  con- 
ditions which  have  produced  Ireland's  industrial  prostration  are  as 
plain  and  as  easily  ascertained  as  an^i:lling  within  the  experience  of 
mankind;  Ireland's  industrial  condition  is  due  to  her  political  condi- 
tions. "Wliile  they  continue  she  can  never  recover  prosperity.  It  is 
idle  to  talk  of  beneficial  legislation :  idle  to  talk  of  remedial  measures 
by  an  English  Parliament.    The  cause  of  Ireland's  industrial  decay 


818  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

is  an  alien  government,  and  while  an  alien  government  lasts,  that 
decay  must  always  be  progressive,  growing  worse  from  day  to  day. 
(Applause.)  Bearing  always  in  mind  the  necessity  for  moderation 
of  statement,  let  us  look  at  the  nature  of  English  rule  in  Ireland, 
according  to  English  authorities,  and  the  ruin  of  the  Irish  people  will 
be  at  once  explained.  The  true  reason  for  Ireland's  prostration  is 
lack  of  capital.  Without  capital  production  is  impossible.  Under  her 
present  political  conditions  Ireland  every  year  is  drained  of  the 
capital  essential  to  industrial  activity,  and  while  those  conditions 
exist  it  is  plain  that  the  drain  must  continue. 

Now  if  I  may  again  use  the  table  before  me  by  way  of  illustration 
let  us  assume  that  I  am  still  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  tables. 
Without  capital  I  can  do  nothing.  Capacity  or  willingness  to  work 
will  of  itself  avail  me  nothing.  To  make  my  labor  effective  I  must 
have  lumber  and  I  must  have  tools.  But  labor  and  tools  are  capital. 
Whatever  a  person  works  on  or  works  with  is  capital.  Labor  in  con- 
nection with  capital  makes  wealth.  If  I  have  sufficient  tools  and 
lumber  to  produce  five  hundred  tables  in  a  year,  and  four  hundred  be 
sufficient  to  support  me,  it  follows  that  I  will  have  one  hundred  tables 
left  over,  and  those  one  hundred  tables,  or  the  proceeds  of  them,  will 
be  available  next  year  to  increase  my  productive  capacity.  With  them 
I  may  buy  new  machinery,  I  may  buy  new  tools,  or  I  may  hire  extra 
help,  and  the  following  year  my  j)roduction  will  be  so  far  increased 
that  I  may  produce  six  hundred  tables.  If  my  wants  remain  the  same, 
I  will  then  have  two  hundred  tables  with  which  to  still  further  broaden 
the  scope  of  my  industry.  Each  successive  year  will  witness  a  still 
larger  addition  to  my  product,  and  conse<iuently  my  productive  effi- 
ciency will  steadily  increase.  Now,  the  capital  of  a  country  is  the  sum 
of  the  capital  owned  by  all  the  individuals  who  constitute  its  popu- 
lation. It  is  that  portion  of  its  product  which  is  left  over  after  the 
wants  of  all  the  people  have  been  supplied.  Under  normal  conditions, 
under  honest  government,  that  capital,  year  after  year  is  a  growing 
quantity,  and  as  it  grows  it  takes  the  form  of  houses,  of  fences,  of 
machinery,  of  locomotives,  of  live  stock  and  of  all  the  elements  of 
property  which  constitute  prosperity,  and  w^hich  are  essential  to  the 
development  of  new  and  diversified  industries. 

In  Ireland,  since  the  conquest,  there  has  never  been  an  oppor- 
tunity for  capital  to  grow.  In  the  beginning  the  conquest  was  simply 
pillage.  The  Norman  invaders  were  granted  lands,  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  conciliating  the  Irish  race,  but  for  the  purpose  of  exterminat- 
ing them.  Those  of  them  who  settled  upon  the  soil  yielded  to  that 
extraordinary  fascination  which  the  Irish  people  have  always  exercised 
over  those  who  came  in  direct  contact  with  them.  They  married  Irish 
wives,  they  spoke  the  Irish  language,  they  adopted  Irish  customs — • 
they  become  more  Irish  than  the  Irish  themselves.  (Applause.) 
Against  that  irresistible  tendency  to  assimilation  with  the  natives  the 
whole  power  and  policy  of  England  were  steadily  exercised.  Thus, 
in  the  reign  of  King  Richard  II.,  a  statute  was  passed  by  which  any 
member  of  the  English  colony  was  absolutely  prohibited  from  marry- 
ing an  Irish  woman,  and  every  English  family  was  prohibited  from 
putting  a  child  to  foster  with  an  Irish  family.  When  repressive  stat- 
utes, threats  and  rewards  all  proved  unavailing  to  keep  the  two  races 
apart,  the  torch  of  destruction  was  kindled,  the  sword  of  war  was 
drawn,  and  a  ruthless  persecution  was  instituted  against  the  English 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  819 

s<'ttlers  as  well  as  against  tho  native  Irish.    Thoso  wars  were  not  con- 
tests such  as  were  enj^afred  in  by  civilized  men. 

From  purely  En^Misli  sources  they  hav(t  been  characterized  as 
more  bloodtliirsty  than  any  which  dis^^raced  any  tribe  of  savages  that 
ever  I'ed  upon  tlie  ])odies  of  their  victims.  (Apphiusc)  Thus,  during 
Elizabeth's  war  against  the  Cieraldines,  linglish  authorities  tell  us  the 
whole  Province  of  ]\Iunster  was  laid  waste,  so  that  the  lowing  of  a  cow 
could  not  be  lieard  within  its  limits,  and  Spencer,  the  author  of  the 
"Faerie  Queene,"  says  that  the  people  were  reduced  to  such  awful 
starvation  that  at  night  they  escaped  from  the  woods  and  morasses  in 
which  they  had  taken  refuge  from  the  English  armies  during  the  day 
to  feed  upon  decaying  carrion.  During  her  war  against  O'Xeill, 
Essex,  who  conducted  himself  like  a  civilized  soldier,  was  withdrawn 
from  command  and  sent  to  the  scaiYold — sent  to  the  scaffold  for  his 
clemency — sent  to  the  scaffold  because  he  observed  the  laws  of  civil- 
ized war — and  Mountjoy  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  English  forces 
in  Ulster.  According  to  his  ovm  reports,  according  to  English  author- 
ities, he  deliberately  destroyed  eveiy  living  tiling  in  the  province — 
burning  every  l)lade  of  grass  down  to  the  sod.  Thus,  at  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  we  find  Ireland's  industrial  condition  worse 
than  it  was  in  the  eleventh. 

The  capital  available  to-day  in  England  and  in  Germany  and  in 
France  for  the  productive  energies  of  these  countries  has  been  the  ac- 
cumulation of  many  centuries.  The  volume  of  its  capital  always  bears 
a  proportion  to  the  tranquillity  which  each  country  has  enjoyed  and  to 
the  commercial  capacities  of  its  people.  Those  500  years,  which  in 
other  countries  were  years  of  advancement,  years  of  preparation  for 
the  great  industrial  development  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  Ireland 
were  years  of  deva.station,  years  of  destruction,  years  of  retrogression, 
years  whicli  prepared  the  conditions  from  which  she  is  suffering  to-day 
— yet  Englishmen  tell  us  that  Ireland's  distress  is  not  the  result  of 
political  conditions.  But  England's  hostility  to  Ireland  did  not  end 
with  Elizabeth.  It  did  not  end  with  the  ma-ssacre  of  ]\Iunster  or  the 
pillage  of  Ulster.  After  her  death  James  the  First  initiated  the  scheme 
of  confiscations,  which  thenceforward  became  the  settled  policy  of 
England.  Taking  advantage  of  what  is  known  as  the  "Flight  of  the 
Earls,"  he  claimed  that  the  whole  of  Ulster  belonged  to  them,  seized 
their  lands  on  an  accusation  of  treason  and  settled  them  with  Scotch 
families.  Cromwell  adopted  that  policy  and  amplified  it.  He  confis- 
cated all  the  lands  lying  east  of  the  Shannon,  after  he  had  put  the 
people  of  the  most  populous  cities  in  the  country  to  the  sword  and 
moved  the  whole  native  Irish  population  west  of  the  Shannon.  Wil- 
liam the  Third  took  almost  every  acre  that  had  been  restored  to  the 
native  Irish  under  Charles  tlie  Second 's  act  of  settlement ;  and  the 
penal  laws  of  Queen  Anne,  by  prohil)iting  any  Catholic  from  owning 
land  or  even  from  renting  it,  except  for  a  very  brief  term  of  years,  re- 
sulted in  transferring  the  whole  soil  of  Ireland  to  strangers.  These 
grants  were  made  in  huge  tracts  to  comparatively  few  individuals. 
They  were  granted  to  some  for  services  rendered  in  the  field ;  to  some 
as  a  reward  for  persecutions  of  the  Irish,  to  others  for  causes  which 
cannot  be  described  before  this  assemblage.  The  beneficiaries  of 
these  grants  did  not  take  with  them  any  idea  of  settling  on  the  land, 
and  cultivating  it.  They  continued  to  live  in  England.  They  allowed 
the  original  owners  to  come  back  and  occupy  the  land  as  tenants  at 
will. 


820  Ireland's  Crown  or  Thorns  and  Roses 

Ever}i;hing  which  the  soil  produced,  except  the  barest  pittance  al- 
lowed for  the  support  of  the  tenant,  was  confiscated  in  the  form  of 
rents.  The  Irish  soil  is  held  to-day  by  titles  based  on  this  system  of 
confiscation.  The  landlords  were  absentees  when  the  lands  were 
granted  to  them ;  they  are  absentees  now.  The  product  of  Irish  indus- 
try has  not  been  reinvested  in  the  soil,  but  for  over  two  hundred  years 
has  been  taken  abroad  and  used  to  support  the  state  of  English  castles 
or  the  opulence  of  residences  in  London.  It  has  been  dissipated  and 
squandered  in  the  haunts  of  folly  and  vice ;  and  while  the  political 
system  remains  which  has  produced  these  economic  conditions,  no  rem- 
edy for  them  is  possible.  But  that  is  not  all.  Ireland  suffers  to-day 
not  only  from  alien  ownership  of  the  land,  but  from  the  consequences 
of  trade  laws  so  barbarously  unjust  that  it  is  diificult  to  believe  they 
ever  formed  a  feature  of  the  legislation  of  a  Christian  country.  (Ap- 
plause.) When  English  critics  say  that  Ireland  is  incapable  of  in- 
dustrial progress,  they  do  violence  to  all  the  facts  of  history  as  at- 
tested by  their  own  historians.  "Wherever  Ireland  has  had  the  benefit 
of  equal  conditions,  she  has  defied  industrial  competition.  In  the 
three  great  elements  of  industry — agriculture,  ship-building  and 
woolen  manufactures — Ireland  during  the  seventeenth  century  fairly 
outstripped  England.  Irish  cattle  and  horses  commanded  the  high- 
est prices  in  the  English  market,  when,  by  a  statute  of  King  Charles 
II,  their  exportation  to  England  was  positively  prohibited,  and  all  the 
Irish  capital  invested  in  that  form  of  agriculture,  was  destroyed  al- 
most in  a  night.  I  think  the  actual  figures  to  which  it  was  reduced 
was  one-seventh  of  its  former  volume.  The  Irish  people  in  the  sev- 
enteenth century  had  outstripped  the  English  in  sliip-building.  The 
Irish  fishermen  were  the  hardiest  sailors  that  sailed  the  deep.  The 
carrying  trade  of  the  world  was  largely  maintained  in  Irish  vessels, 
and  particularly  the  carrying  trade  to  these  colonies,  when  suddenly 
Ireland  was  exempted  from  the  operation  of  the  navigation  laws, 
which  meant  that  no  cargo  could  be  taken  into  an  Irish  harbor  until 
it  had  first  been  sent  to  an  English  port  and  then  transshipped  in  an 
English  bottom.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  budding  Irish  ship- 
building industry  perished  under  this  treatment  as  the  blossoms  per- 
ish under  a  frost.  The  woolen  industry'-,  as  far  back  as  the  time  of 
King  Charles  I,  was  the  strongest  industry  of  its  kind  in  Europe. 
Irish  wool  was  the  best  for  woolen  manufactures  that  v\^as  raised  any- 
v;here  in  the  world. 

In  the  reign  of  William  III.  an  act  was  passed  absolutely  prohibit- 
ing woolen  manufactures  in  Ireland.  Remember  this  was  not  a  mere 
protective  measure,  shutting  Irish  woolen  manufactures  out  of  the 
English  markets.  It  was  a  direct,  positive,  brutal  prohibition  from  all 
manufacture,  and  added  to  it  was  a  clause  which  prohil^ited  the  Irish 
from  exporting  wool  to  any  country  in  the  world  except  England.  It 
was  supposed  that  the  Irish  farmer  would,  of  course,  go  on  raising 
wool,  and  it  was  believed  that  this  legislation,  by  compelling  him  to 
send  it  to  the  English  market,  would  force  him  to  sell  it  to  the  English 
manufacturer  at  any  price  which  that  manufacturer  chose  to  put 
upon  it.  The  demand  for  Irish  wool,  however,  was  active  in  France 
and  in  the  low  countries.  The  Irish  farmer,  prohibited  by  law  from 
selling  his  wool  where  he  could  obtain  the  best  price  for  it,  proceeded 
in  spite  of  the  law  to  sell  it  in  the  most  advantageous  markets.  The 
result  was  a  gigantic  system  of  smuggling.  The  whole  trade  of  Ire- 
land became  contraband.    But  a  contraband  trade  cannot  avail  itself 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  821 

of  those  systoms  of  exehango  hy  wliich  a  cargo  of  commodities  sent 
to  one  port  can  be  cxclianj^'cd  for  commodities  in  a  iar  distant  city. 
Of  course,  1  need  not  explain  to  this  audience;  that  under  tlie  operation 
of  comm^jrcial  customs  and  trade  laws,  if  I  sell  a  cargo  of  corn  in  the 
city  of  New  York  to  a  Liverpool  merchant,  I  get  paid  for  it  by  a  draft 
on  London,  and  with  that  draft  I  can  buy  a  cargo  of  Japanese  curi- 
osities in  Tokio.  Thus,  without  leaving  th<;  city  of  New  York,  and 
without  sending  anything  U)  Jai)an,  1  can  exchange  my  commodities 
against  Japanese  products.  But  the  Irish,  who  during  all  this  period 
were  unable  to  use  bills  of  exchange  because  their  trade  was  contra- 
band, were  driven  to  a  simple  system  of  barter. 

The  only  eonunodities  for  which  they  could  exchange  their  wool 
in  France  were  wines  and  spirits.  For  eveiy  cargo  of  wool  that  went 
out  a  cargo  of  spirits  was  returned.  The  use  of  licpior  grew  enor- 
mously under  such  conditions,  because  increase  of  supply  always  in- 
creases consumption.  The  poor,  always  (juick  to  imitate  the  example 
of  their  wealthier  neighbors,  unable  to  obtain  the  finer  li(iuors  im- 
ported from  France,  were  soon  gratified  by  a  coarser  article  manu- 
factured at  home.  Commerce  cannot  be  long  maintained  by  a  system 
of  barter,  and  in  time  this  contraband  trade  declined  and  perished, 
but  not  until  it  had  established  that  reign  of  intemperance  through- 
out Ireland  which  has  cursed  her  for  the  last  200  years.  (Applause.) 
And  when  Englishmen  tell  us,  as  they  do,  when  they  taunt  us  with 
the  reproach  that  the  only  substantial  returns  Avhieh  Ireland  makes 
to  the  imperial  excheiiuer  are  the  proceeds  of  the  whiskey-tax,  we  can 
say  to  them  if  the  curse  of  this  intemperance  be  Ireland's  the  shame 
of  it  is  England's.     (Applause.) 

Now,  let  any  man  familiar  wdth  the  first  principles  of  political 
economy  explain  to  me  how  trade  can  revive  in  a  country  where  man- 
ufactures have  been  suppressed  throughout  the  period  during  which 
in  other  countries  they  contributed  to  these  accumulations  of  capital 
on  which  their  industries  noM'  depend;  where  tlie  political  conditions 
exhaust  the  soil  of  everything  that  it  produces;  where  the  absentee 
landlord  and  the  alien  government  draAV  from  the  people  in  the  forms 
of  rent  and  taxation  everything  in  the  nature  of  a  surplus  product. 
The  laws  and  the  government  of  Ireland  would  reduce  any  country  in 
the  world  to  poverty  and  distress.  As  we  consider  the  ferocious  spirit 
in  which  they  were  conceived,  the  pitiless  cruelty  with  which  they 
were  enforced,  we  marvel  not  at  the  poverty  of  Ireland  but  at  the 
survival  of  the  Irish  race.  Looking  at  that  picture,  and  realizing 
the  steady  advance  of  civilization  throughout  the  world,  I  feel  per- 
suaded the  government  whose  existence  is  an  injury  and  whose  laws 
are  an  outrage  upon  a  helpless  people  will  not  be  permitted  to  con- 
tinue indefinitely.     (Applause.) 

It  is  said — and  said  with  truth — that  during  the  period  which  I 
have  described,  Ireland  had  a  separate  Parliament,  and  that  many  of 
those  restrictive  and  penal  laws  to  which  I  have  referred  were  enacted 
by  the  Irish  Parliament.  But  it  must  be  remembered,  in  the  first 
place,  that  until  1782  the  Irish  Parliament  M'as  not  an  independent 
body:  and,  in  the  second  place,  it  never  was  a  representative  body. 
As  far  back  as  the  time  of  King  Henry  the  Seventh,  by  a  law  which 
was  kno%vn  as  Ponying 's  act,  the  Irish  Parliament  was  prohibited  from 
passing  any  measure  until  the  heads  of  it  had  been  approved  by  the 
English  Council,  and  in  the  reign  of  King  George  the  English  Par- 
liament claimed  the  right  to  legislate  directly  for  Ireland  at  its  dis- 


822  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

cretion.  With  these  two  acts  controlling  the  Irish  Parliament  it  is 
plain  that  its  powers  of  legislation  were  too  limited  to  merit  serious 
discussion. 

The  Irish  Parliament,  moreover,  was  never  elected  by  the  Irish 
people.  It  was  elected  by  what  is  known  as  the  English  colony  in  Ire- 
land, which  amounted  to  about  one-fifth  of  the  whole  population.  It 
was  composed  of  landlords  whose  title  to  their  lands  depended  upon 
these  confiscations  which  have  been  the  root  of  Ireland's  misery. 
Their  interests,  their  faith,  their  prejudices,  were  all  supposed  to  set 
them  firmly  against  the  Irish  people,  and  to  make  them  a  bulwark  of 
English  authority.  Yet  that  alien  legislature  yielded  to  the  same  in- 
fluence which  had  formerly  made  Irish  patriots  out  of  Norman  con- 
querors, and  ultimately  became  a  patriotic  body.  Behind  the  guns  of 
the  volunteers  they  demanded  legislative  independence  for  Ireland. 
(Applause.)  England  conceded  to  fear  what  she  had  refused  to 
justice.  Ponying 's  act,  and  the  act  of  George  the  First,  were  both 
repealed,  and  from  out  of  the  wreck  and  ruin,  the  misery  and  dark- 
ness of  centuries,  a  new  Ireland  emerged,  glorious,  resplendent;  fac- 
ing the  future  calmly,  confident ;  saluted  in  the  old  Parliament  House 
on  College  Green  with  the  w^ords  "Esto  Perpetua"  from  the  lips  of 
Henry  Grattan.      (Applause.) 

Nothing  in  history,  nothing  in  the  pages  of  the  Arabian  Nights 
describing  sudden  changes  from  poverty  to  affluence  equals  the  trans- 
formation which  clothed  Ireland  in  a  garb  of  radiant  prosperity  im- 
mediately after  her  independence  was  recognized.  Everywhere  new 
factories  started  into  existence.  Everywhere  labor  was  actively  em- 
ployed. The  fields  cultivated  with  spirit  yielded  generous  harvests 
to  hopeful  industry.  Dublin  became  a  capital  of  refinement,  of  opu- 
lence and  of  elegance.  The  Parliament  itself  became  a  theatre  in 
which  statesmanship  exhibited  its  resources,  while  its  debates  adorned 
by  the  eloquence  of  Grattan  and  of  Flood,  of  Plunkett  and  of  Pon- 
sonby,  of  Hussey-Burgh  and  of  Curran  were  an  intellectual  display 
which  dazzled  that  generation,  and  which  left  monuments  of  exceed- 
ing beauty  to  fascinate  forever  the  students  of  English  literature. 
(Applause.)  I  shall  not  attempt  to  describe  the  industrial  revival 
which  accompanied  the  recognition  of  Irish  independence.  Suffice 
it  to  say  that  in  the  eighteen  years  during  which  it  lasted,  notwith- 
standing a  bloody  rebellion,  notwithstanding  a  massacre  of  the  people 
in  which  were  sacrificed  the  lives  of  sixty  or  seventy  thousand  persons, 
notwithstanding  a  heavy  tide  of  emigration  from  political  persecu- 
tions, the  population  of  Ireland  actually  doubled.  Yet  thoughtless 
people,  echoing  the  baseless  English  slander,  say  that  the  Irish  are  not 
fit  for  self-government.  Show  me  in  all  the  history  of  the  world 
fruits  of  independence  and  liberty  equal  to  these.  A  country  which 
had  lain  prostrate  in  the  dust  for  nearly  eight  centuries,  a  country 
which  had  been  ravaged  first  by  Dane  then  by  Norman,  a  country 
whose  manufactures  had  been  suppressed,  a  country  which  for  gener- 
ations had  been  deprived  of  the  products  of  her  soil  by  foreign  land- 
lords— at  the  first  dawn  of  liberty  sprang  to  her  feet,  and  during 
eighteen  years  stood  before  the  world,  a  living  industrial  force  of 
wonderful  achievement  and  still  more  wonderful  promise.  The  eco- 
nomic value  of  freedom  to  Ireland  was  not  more  strikingly  shown 
by  the  fruits  of  independence  than  by  the  consequences  of  political 
enslavement.  The  industrial  revival,  which  followed  1782,  was  ar- 
rested in  1801 — the  commercial  prosperity  of  the  country  was  para- 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  823 

Ivzed  l>y  tho  Act  of  Union.  Since  the  loss  of  her  independence  Ire- 
land has  been  steadily  decliniii},'  and  decaying,  morally  and  materi- 
ally. The  restoration  of  her  liberty  is  the  only  remedy  that  will 
restore  her  prosperity.     (Ai)plause.) 

It  is  often  said  that  the  condition  of  Ireland  is  beyond  the  com- 
prehension of  ordinary  men,  yet  1  may  state  as  a  fact,  which  no  man 
who  examines  the  subject  will  (luestion,  that  if  the  same  political  con- 
ditions existed  in  Long  Island  or  in  the  most  thriving  section  ot  New 
York  State,  or  in  the  fertile  valley  of  the  Scioto,  where  the  rising  river 
fertilizes  the  fields  every  year  without  any  exercise  of  human  labor, 
a  conaition  of  distress  and  industrial  prostration  would  overtake 
these  favored  regions  as  bad  as  that  which  afflicts  Ireland,  tor  the 
inevitable  fruits  of  an  alien  government  are  ruin  and  decay. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  assume,  as  English  apologists  tell  us,  that  the 
Irish  people  are  attempting  to  establish  a  separate  government.     Ire- 
land has  a  separate  government  now.     There  never  was  a  union  ot 
govei-nments  between  England  and  Ireland.     (Applause.)      Ihe  Gov- 
ernment of  Ireland  is  now  and  always  has  been  entirely  separate  trom 
the  Government  of  Great  Britain.     A  separate  Executive  exists  in 
Dublin  Castle.     The  jurisdiction  of  the  English  courts  does  not  run 
to  Ireland.     Ireland  has  a  separate  judiciary,  a  separate  system  of 
laws    a  separate  system  of  local  government,  a  separate  system  ot 
taxation.    Irishmen  demand  the  control  of  that  government,  and  they 
will  never  be  satisfied  until  they  have  secured  it.     (Applause.)     Ihey 
demand  that  laws  affecting  Ireland  shall  be  framed  by  a  Parliament 
sitting  in  Ireland.     They  demand  that  these  laws  shall  be  adminis- 
tered by  an  executive  sworn  to  protect  Irish  interests,  to  promote  Irish 
industry    to  defend  Irish   independence.      (Applause.)      While  the 
government  of  Ireland  is  administered  in  England,  every   motive 
that  can  animate  the  human  mind  operates  to  draw  from  Ireland 
the  capital  which  it  produces— the  very  flower  of  its  moral  and  intel- 
lectual forces.    Every  man.  who  is  in  any  way  interested  in  the  ope- 
ration of  the  government,  whether  it  be  in  the  construction  ot  a  bridge 
across  a  river,  in  the  improvement  of  a  harbor,  in  the  administration 
of  a  custom  house,  in  the  establishment  of  a  post-office,  and  who 
wishes  to  make  personal  representations  to  the  authorities,  must  spend 
more  or  less  time  in  England,  and  thus  contribute  to  the  gro^rth  and 
opulence  of  London.    A  young  man  anxious  to  secure  a  field  in  which 
to  display  his  talent,  must  go  to  the  seat  of  government   where  the 
prizes  of  intellectual  competitions  are  to  be  won— toward  which  all 
interests  are  inevitably  drawn.     If  a  man  be  a  worthless  and  vicious 
member  of  the  absentee  landlord  class,  he  will  naturally  take  up  his 
residence  in  those  cities  where  life  is  made  attractive  to  the  profligate 
and  amusing  to  the  idle.     Thus  ambition  and  idleness,  industry  and 
profligacy    vice  and  virtue,  all  combine  to  draw  from  Ireland  the 
product  of  her  soil,  and  the  men  of  talent  for  whose  capacity  she 
can  furnish  no  field,  on  whose  industry  she  can  bestow  no  re^yard. 
(Applause  )     How  can  prosperity  be  revived  under  such  conditions? 
What  prospect  but  one  of  misery  can  ever  confront  the  Irish  people 
while  they  are  held  in  subjection  to  a  government  which  could  not  be 
just  if  it" tried  to  be? 

The  best  government  that  ever  existed  within  the  limits  ot  its  own 
country,  when  it  extends  its  authority  to  another  nation,  against  the 
protest  of  that  nation,  becomes  by  that  act  oppressive,  confiscatory, 
unjust,  immoral,  reprehensible  and  indefensible.     (Applause.)     Na- 


824  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

tions  are  like  families,  for  a  nation  is  hut  the  aggregation  of  the  fam- 
ilies that  constitute  it.  Now,  will  anybody  pretend  that  it  would  be  a 
justifiable  system  of  laws  which  would  allow  a  member  of  one  family 
to  interfere  with  the  affairs  of  another  family?  The  very  essence 
of  the  family  relation  is  the  right  to  control  its  own  private  affairs. 
Will  anybody  pretend  that  because  one  man  may  be  successful  in 
business,  or  skillful  in  the  management  of  the  young,  it  would  be 
justifiable  for  that  reason  to  allow  him  to  control  the  family  aft'airs 
of  another  man  less  capable  perhaps  to  instruct  his  children  or  less 
prosperous  in  his  worldly  aft'airs  ?  Suppose  the  English  Colonial  Sec- 
retary to  be  more  affectionate  in  his  disposition,  more  capable  in  busi- 
ness matters  than  the  Prime  Minister,  could  anybody  on  that  ground 
defend  a  law  that  would  authorize  Mr.  Chamberlain  to  interfere  in 
the  management  of  Lord  Salisbury's  family?  (Hisses.)  Now,  what 
would  be  immoral  and  improper  in  the  government  of  families  is 
more  immoral  and  more  improper  in  the  government  of  nations,  for 
it  extends  a  vicious  principle  over  a  wider  area. 

A  government  that  operates  outside  of  its  own  country  cannot 
possibly  be  beneficent.    In  the  nature  of  things  it  cannot  be  efficient. 

All  law  is  but  public  opinion.  No  law  is  enforceable  that  does  not 
conform  to  the  customs  and  the  opinions  of  the  people  affected  by  it. 
But  where  the  body  which  legislates  for  a  country  sits  in  another 
country  it  cannot  understand  and  therefore  it  cannot  obey  the  opin- 
ion of  the  people  who  will  be  aft'ected  by  its  enactments.  It  therefore 
lacks  the  first  essential  capacity  for  effective  legislation.  The  Legis- 
lature of  one  country  can  no  more  legislate  properly  for  another  coun- 
try than  an  organ  in  the  human  body  can  operate  effectively  if  it  be 
displaced. 

To  say  that  a  country  can  be  prosperous  with  its  affairs  adminis- 
tered in  a  city  outside  of  its  limits  is  as  absurd  as  to  say  that  a  man 
could  be  prudent  and  healthy  if  his  brains  were  outside  of  his  head. 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  Now,  we  have  heard  it  said  recently  that 
Mr.  Balfour  contemplates  a  measure  of  comprehensive  relief  to  the 
Irish  people.  (Hisses.)  I  think  it  has  been  prophesied  that  it  would 
be  a  very  generous  measure.  Now,  no  government  can  be  generous 
and  just  at  the  same  time.  A  government  can  bestow  nothing  of  its 
own,  because  it  can  create  nothing.  A  government  cannot  create  a 
blade  of  grass ;  it  cannot  make  a  table  out  of  lumber ;  it  cannot  form 
a  chair  out  of  wood.  What  it  gives  it  must  take.  Where,  therefore, 
it  is  generous  to  one  person,  it  must  be  oppressive  to  another.  The 
most  that  the  best  government  can  do  is  justice.  But  an  alien  gov- 
ernment cannot  even  be  just,  because  if  it  ever  rose  to  the  plane  where 
justice  would  control  its  operations  its  very  first  application  of 
its  o\m  principles  would  be  to  abolish  itself.  (Laughter.)  A  gov- 
ernment which  is  administered  in  a  foreign  city,  not  being  subject 
to  the  opinion  of  the  country  whose  welfare  its  legislation  affects,  is 
a  monstrosity  in  this  age.  It  is  not  necessary  to  condemn  each  act 
of  its  existence  in  order  to  condemn  the  principle  that  underlies  it. 
It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  it  is  an  alien  institution  to  render  its  exis- 
tence indefensible,  its  operation  as  unjustifiable  as  an  attempt  by 
one  man  to  correct  the  child  of  another  man. 

We  have  often  heard  it  said  that  the  Irish  are  not  obedient  to 
law.  Why  should  they  be  obedient  to  it?  (Applause  and  laughter.) 
No  law  has  ever  commanded  respect  unless  it  was  founded  upon  jus- 
tice.   There  has  not  been  a  law  enacted  in  Ireland  in  nearly  seven 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  825 

centuries  thAt  was  onnooivod  in  jnstico.  Durinjor  that  period  every 
cnactinent  of  the  En^Hish  (Joveniriieiit  was  (U'iil)criiiely  fraiin'il  for 
the  purpose  of  injuring  Irish  inten'sts,  and  avowedly  so.  The  Kw^- 
lish  rulers  have  never  made  any  pretense  that  they  were  administer- 
ing the  government  of  Irehind  in  the  interest  of  th(!  governed.  They 
ackuowletlge  tliat  the  whole  seopc;  and  purpose  of  their  policy  was 
repression  of  trade  and  of  national  feeling.  lnjustie('  framed  in  stat- 
utes does  not  become  justice.  Laws  framed  by  an  alien  body  may  be 
executed  by  force,  but  they  have  no  moral  binding  elVect  ui)on  the 
people  of  another  country.  Suppose  a  neighbor  forcrsd  his  way  into 
the  house  of  a  parent  in  order  to  chastise  his  son.  No  matter  what 
that  son  may  have  done,  the  supreme  impulse  of  the  parent  would  be 
to  defend  the  integrity  of  his  family  and  to  eject  the  intruder.  By 
that  time  that  the  process  of  ejection  was  complete,  it  is  not  likely 
the  head  of  the  household  would  have  much  desire  or  energy  left  for 
disciplinary  purposes  in  liis  own  family.  (Laughter.)  His  resent- 
ment at  the  attempt  of  an  iijtruder  to  usurp  his  powers  over  his  child 
would  make  the  father  indulgent  to  liis  offspring,  even  though,  under 
other  circumstances,  he  would  be  prompt  to  punish  him.  The  whole 
history  of  Ireland  is  the  history  of  another  country  attempting  to  ad- 
minister its  justice,  attempting  to  make  its  laws,  intruding  into  its 
family  affairs.  Every  impulse  that  aninuites  the  human  breast  rises 
in  revolt  against  usurpation,  whatever  form  it  may  assume,  and  the 
very  spirit  of  independence,  which  is  the  safest  bulwark  of  order, 
makes  the  Irishman  not  the  enemy  of  natural  law,  but  the  enemy  of 
English  law.     (Applause.) 

I  have  thought  it  wise  to  place  before  this  audience,  and  so  far  as 
I  may,  before  the  American  people,  the  economic  feature  of  this  Irish 
question,  because  it  has  seldom  been  discussed,  and  until  that  aspect 
of  the  subject  be  properly  understood  the  Emmet  movement  can 
never  be  fully  appreciated.  There  has  been  a  rather  general  tendency 
to  consider  him  whose  memory  we  are  celebrating  to-night  as  a  knight- 
errant  rash  and  foolish,  who  raised  an  insurrection  which  was  unjus- 
tifiable, but  who  bore  his  fate  so  bravely  and  so  well  that  the  folly  of 
his  adventure  was  redeemed.  That  view  of  Enmiet  is  a  grievous  mis- 
take. Emmet's  movement  was  a  protest  against  political  conditions 
the  fruits  of  which  were  not  then  apparent,  but  which  he  foresaw. 
He  realized  that  the  destruction  of  Irish  independence  meant  not 
merely  an  outrage  upon  national  sentiment,  but  the  industrial  ruin  of 
the  country.  He  foresaw  the  dreaiy  years  of  decay  and  ruin  which 
have  since  passed  into  history.  His  insurrection  was  a  protest  against 
a  policy  then  in  its  initial  stages,  which  has  since  proved  injurious 
to  the  civilized  world,  dangerous  to  England  and  ruinous  to  Ireland. 
When  the  world  understands  the  effects  of  English  law  upon  Ireland's 
economic  conditions,  when  it  realizes  what  humanity  had  lost  by  the 
decay  of  Irish  industry,  Emmet  will  cease  to  be  considered  the  mere 
head  of  an  Irish  riotous  movement,  and  he  will  be  recognized  every- 
where as  the  apostle  of  progress  and  the  martyr  of  civilization.  (Ap- 
plause. 

How-'  long  do  you  suppose  the  world,  after  it  understands  this  sub- 
ject, will  permit  the  existence  of  these  conditions,  which  Emmet  at- 
tempted to  overthrow?  How  long  will  England  continue  blindly  and 
stupidly  to  injure  herself  by  persisting  in  this  fatal  attempt  to  effect 
the  eonqiiest  of  Ireland?  What  has  England  gained  by  it?  I  would 
like  to  examine  the  ledger,  which  shows  the  profit  and  the  loss  arising 


826  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Rose^^ 

from  her  occupancy  of  Ireland.  I  would  like  to  make  up  the  account 
with  any  Englishman,  however  prejudiced,  and  ascertain  just  what 
has  been  the  profit  to  England  of  her  war  against  the  Irish  people. 
To  narrow  the  inquiry  to  a  period  covered  by  our  own  experience,  I 
would  like  to  know  what  England  has  gained  by  the  denial  of  Irish 
emancipation  during  the  twenty  years  which  have  elapsed  since  the 
Irish  people  first  demanded  legislative  autonomy,  under  the  guidance 
and  leadership  of  Charles  Stewart  Parnell.  (Applause.)  Why  does 
she  persist  in  vainly  attempting  to  maintain  this  unnatural  and 
ruinous  connection  by  force  when  there  might  be  a  durable  salutary 
connection  of  interest  between  the  two  countries?  I  confess  I  can't 
understand  it. 

Englishmen  say  sometimes  that  it  is  necessary  to  maintain  a 
despotic  occupation  of  Ireland  for  military  reasons.  That  statement 
is  absurd.  They  say  that  Ireland  and  England  are  in  such  close  prox- 
imity that  they  cannot  both  be  independent.  France  is  closer  to  Eng- 
land than  Ireland,  yet  France  is  independent.  But  they  say  Ireland 
would  welcome  a  foreign  invader  in  order  to  injure  England.  Well 
that  is  the  strongest  argument  I  ever  heard  for  changing  the  condi- 
tions which  have  brought  about  such  an  extraordinary  opinion  in 
Ireland.  Just  conceive  what  that  statement  means.  Wliy  should  Ire- 
land welcome  a  foreign  invader,  if  it  were  not  that  she  had  less  to 
fear  from  a  foreign  foe  than  from  the  domestic  government?  (Ap- 
plause.) Does  anybody  suppose  that  if  Ireland  were  free  and  pros- 
perous to-morrow,  she  would  not  be  as  jealous  of  the  integrity  of  her 
soil  as  any  other  country  in  the  world?  Does  anybody  suppose  that 
a  prosperous  Irishman  would  want  a  foreign  soldier  quartered  in  his 
house,  eating  his  food,  injuring  his  crops,  taking  away  his  horses  and 
cattle?  England's  best  defence  against  any  danger  of  that  kind  is  to 
establish  in  Ireland  free  institutions  which  will  allow  Irishmen  to  ac- 
cumulate property  or  to  cherish  the  hope  of  acquiring  property.  Ire- 
land, industrious  and  hopeful,  instead  of  being  a  rent  in  England's 
armor,  would  be  a  buckler  of  England's  safety.  Ireland  prosperous 
and  contented, — would  jealously  defend  the  integrity  of  her  own  soil, 
and  in  defending  it  she  would  be  the  outpost  of  England's  western 
defences,  the  rampart  of  England's  security.  England  relieved  of  the 
necessity  of  guarding  the  Irish  coast  line  would  need  less  battleships 
to  defend  her  own ;  England,  with  less  hostile  sympathies  to  apprehend 
from  the  civilized  world,  would  possess  a  defensive  power  greater 
than  all  the  navies  which  she  can  build  or  all  the  armies  which  she 
could  organize. 

Does  England  hold  Ireland  in  chains  because  of  sympathy  with 
the  landlords?  I  confess  I  can't  understand  why  an  English  land- 
lord should  have  any  sympathy  whatever  with  the  Irish  specimens  of 
that  order.  I  have  often  heard  it  asked  by  Americans,  Why  is  land- 
lordism so  unpopular  in  Ireland?  Landlordism  exists  in  this  coun- 
try, yet  nobody  shoots  landlords  from  behind  hedges.  (Laughter  and 
applause.)  Landlordism  exists  in  England,  and  there  never  has  been 
any  popular  uprising  against  it.  But  landlordism  in  England  and 
landlordism  in  Ireland  are  vastly  difiterent  institutions.  The  English 
landlord  is  a  resident  of  the  soil  which  he  owns.  He  is  the  head  of  a 
great  industrial  force.  His  tenants  are  his  industrial  family.  To- 
gether they  cultivate  the  soil.  When  the  crops  are  harvested  they 
divide  the  product,  each  taking  a  portion  sufficient  to  compensate 
him  for  the  labor  which  he  has  expended  on  the  fields.    True,  the  land- 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  827 

lord  takes  th<-  larger  shaiv,  but  all  that  remains  after  his  support  is 
secured  is  reinvested  in  th(>  land  for  the  benefit  of  all  who  are  inter- 
ested in  its  cultivation.  From  time  immemorial  the  chief  landlords 
of  England  have  met  in  London  as  the  great  Parliament  of  the  coun- 
try There  tliey  have  examined  its  condition,  provided  for  its  sup- 
l)oil  and  framed  laws  for  its  protection.  They  have  always  dis- 
charged their  public  functions  with  patriotism.  In  their  private  re- 
lations they  have  usually  been  humane  and  generous.  No  English 
landlord  would  evict  a  tenant  merely  to  raise  his  rent;  the  public  opin- 
ion of  England  would  not  tolerate  such  an  act  of  inhumanity,  and 
the  public  opinion  of  England  has  always  made  the  laws  which  both 
landlord  and  tenant  obey.  The  Parliament  which  he  established 
became  the  most  efficient,  powerful  and  dignified  body  in  the  world 
lie  was  always  <iuick  to  resist  any  invasion  of  liberty.  He  never  failed 
to  assert  the  right  of  the  subject  against  the  power  of  the  monarch, 
lie  sent  his  sons  abroad  to  observe  the  institutions  of  other  countries, 
to  study  their  economic  conditions,  so  that  when  the  land  passed  from 
one  landlord  to  his  heir  it  generally  went  into  the;  hands  of  a  man 
trained  to  discharge  his  public  and  private  duties,  who  realized  his 
responsibility  to  the  State,  of  which  he  was  a  pillar,  and  to  the  ten- 
antry who  were  his  industrial  family.  _ 

Contrast  with  landlordism  beneficent,  liberal,  constructive  in  Eng- 
land, landlordism  cruel,  oppressive,  destructive  in  Ireland.  The 
English  landlo7-d  was  a  native  product  of  the  English  soil.  The  Irish 
landlord  was  a  poisonous  foreign  growth,  planted  by  the  hand  of 
confiscation  and  maintained  by  the  power  of  tyranny.  (Applause.) 
The  English  landlord  was  the  friend  of  his  tenantry,  the  organizer  ot 
their  industry,  the  champion  of  their  rights.  The  Irish  landlord  was 
the  foe  of  his  tenants,  an  injury  to  their  welfare,  cruelly  restrictive 
of  their  prosperity  by  the  ruthlessness  with  which  he  confiscated  the 
fruits  of  their  labor.  Planted  in  robbery,  maintained  in  crime,  he 
curses  the  soil  which  he  pollutes.  He  is  an  obstacle  to  progress,  a  blot 
on  justice.  He  must  be  uprooted  before  the  land  can  support  a  free, 
a  prosperous  or  a  happy  people.     (Applause.) 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  there  are  not  praiseworthy  excep- 
tions among  Irish  landlords.  There  are  a  few  who  live  on  Irish  soil 
and  who  have  been  humane  and  even  generous  in  the  treatment  of 
their  tenants ;  but  they  have  been  exceptions  so  rare  that  their  virtues 
have  only  served  to  'throw  into  darker  shade  the  depravity  of  the 

majority.  ,    ^  ,       -n     i     j 

But,  even  from  the  landlord's  point  of  view,  what  has  England 
gained  'by  this  contest  waged  against  the  Irish  people  for  the  last 
twenty  years?  Suppose,  when  Mr.  Paruell  first  unfurled  the  banner 
of  Irish  independence,  England  had  conceded  his  demand,  does  any- 
body doubt  that  the  condition  of  the  landlords  would  be  vastly  better 
than  it  is  to-day?  The  values  in  1875  of  agricultural  lands  were 
nearly  t\\'ice  what  they  are  now\  If  the  landlord  in  a  general  settle- 
ment" of  the  Irish  question  had  obtained  half  the  value  of  his  land 
then,  he  would  have  received  more  than  the  whole  of  its  value  now. 
The  influence  of  the  landlord  has  succeeded  in  delaying  any  conces- 
sion of  legislative  independence  to  Ireland  for  twenty  years,  and  as 
the  result  of  his  folly  he  is  placed  in  a  position  where  he  is  compelled 
to  witness  the  prospects  of  Ireland  brightening  while  his  chances  of 
compensation  are  steadily  diminishing.  I  am  one  of  those  who  believe 
that  it  would  be  wise  to  settle  with  the  landlord  on  some  terms  of 


828  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

purchase,  and  let  him  go,  if  by  doing  so  the  emancipation  of  Ireland 
could  be  promoted  and  the  period  of  agitation  and  disturbance 
abridged,  just  as  I  think  it  would  have  been  wise  for  this  government 
to  have  bought  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  if  by  so  doing  it  could 
have  avoided  the  sacrifice  of  human  life  and  treasure  entailed  on  this 
country  by  the  struggle  to  suppress  slavery.  But  if  the  land  question 
be  left  open  until  the  right  to  independence  shall  have  been  wrung 
from  England,  there  is  no  man  with  less  moral  claim  to  compensation 
for  any  consequences  which  may  flow  from  a  political  revolution  than 
the  landlord  who  never  had  a  right  to  the  land,  who  never  occupied  it, 
who  never  discharged  the  duty  which  every  landowner  owes  to  the 
country  which  protects  his  property  and  to  the  people  who  live  upon 
the  soil.  (Applause.)  Thus  we  see  the  credit  of  the  English  land- 
lord and  the  interest  of  the  Irish  landlord  injured  by  a  policy  which 
has  been  maintained  largely  through  the  influence  of  both. 

Is  it  the  security  of  property  in  Ulster  which  Englishmen  think 
would  be  endangered  by  Irish  independence?  That  is  another  Eng- 
lish fad,  if  I  may  use  the  expression.  We  are  told  that  an  Irish 
Parliament  would  render  all  property  in  Ulster  insecure,  and  it  is 
said  that,  as  Ulster  is  the  garden  spot  of  Ireland,  the  maintenance  of 
its  prosperity  is  of  more  importance  than  the  happiness  of  all  the 
other  Irish  provinces. 

If  Ulster  is  more  prosperous  than  the  rest  of  Ireland  it  is  only 
because  the  linen  industry  was  spared  when  the  woolen  industry  was 
suppressed.  The  linen  industry  is  to-day  without  a  rival  anywhere 
in  the  world  because  it  enjoys  the  advantage  of  a  peculiar  capacity  in 
the  Ulster  soil  for  the  production  of  flax.  But  the  rest  of  Ireland  had 
a  much  greater  capacity  for  the  production  of  wool.  In  the  time  of 
William  III.  the  woolen  industry  was  far  more  important  than  the 
linen  industry.  Had  both  industries  been  left  undisturbed,  the  man- 
ufacture of  woolens  to-day  would  be  the  most  important  element  of 
Irish  prosperity,  and  in  every  province  of  Ireland  prosperous  towns 
would  be  engaged  in  placing  the  product  of  Irish  looms  before  the 
consumers  of  the  world.  But  owing  to  the  political  conditions,  Ulster 
is  the  most  prosperous  province  in  Ireland,  and  Ulster  can  serve  as  an 
illustration  for  my  proposition  that  the  security  of  property  will  not 
be  endangered,  but  protected  by  the  recognition  of  Irish  independ- 
ence. Property  in  Ulster  or  elsewhere  can  be  exposed  to  but  one  dan- 
ger from  government,  and  that  is  the  danger  of  confiscation.  It  is 
said  that  if  the  restraining  influence  of  English  authority  were  re- 
moved an  Irish  government  would  confiscate  property  in  Ulster  by  an 
unjust  use  of  the  power  of  taxation.  But  if  all  the  wealth  of  Ireland 
be  owned  by  the  people  of  Ulster,  and  an  Irish  government  should 
confiscate  it  by  taxation,  what  would  be  left  to  support  that  govern- 
ment after  the  confiscation  had  been  completed?  The  slightest  re- 
flection should  satisfy  any  one  that  no  Irish  government  could  afford 
to  confiscate  the  property  of  citizens  on  whose  prosperity  its  support 
must  largely  depend.  Whoever  controlled  the  government  would 
have  no  more  important  duty  to  himself  than  to  carefully  conserve 
the  industrial  conditions  which  would  yield  the  largest  revenue  to 
the  public  treasury.  Moreover,  the  springs  of  human  nature  are  al- 
ways the  same.  It  is  because  the  Irish  have  no  responsibility  for  the 
law  which  exists  in  Ireland  that  they  have  been  hostile  to  its  enforce- 
ment. The  moment  a  people  are  made  independent  they  become  re- 
sponsible for  their  own  condition.    They  become  obedient  to  the  law 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  829 

because  tlioy  know  thrj''  ninst  })Oar  tlio  ronRoqiipncrs  of  their  own  acts; 
that  thoy  will  enjoy  the  fruits  of  industry  and  order;  that  they  must 
bear  the  disciplinary  results  of  folly  or  idleness.  Under  an  inde- 
pendent government,  every  man  in  Ireland  who  owned  anything  would 
he  a  force  for  the  preservation  of  pi-operty.  If  all  his  possessions 
consisted  of  a  clay  pipe,  he  would  probably  find  some  other  Irishman 
without  a  clay  pipe  anxious  to  take  it  away  from  him.  The  result 
would  be  that  every  possessor  of  prt)perty,  from  the  owner  of  the 
clay  pipe  up  to  the  millionaire,  would  realize  that  the  law  which  pro- 
tected the  clay  pipe  was  the  same  law  that  protected  every  other  form 
of  property.  The  defense  of  the  law  would  be  the  business  of  all  who 
were  interested  in  the  preservation  of  property — not  merely  of  those 
who  possssed  property,  but  of  those  who  hoped  to  acquire  property. 
And  where  is  the  Irishman  in  whose  breast  there  does  not  spring 
that  hope  of  success  which  makes  him  a  triumphant  toiler  wherever 
he  finds  a  soil  to  cultivate  under  the  generous  light  of  liberty  and 
under  the  protection  of  free  institutions?     (Applause.) 

In  the  light  of  these  truths  surely  we  may  conclude  that  Irish 
freedom  involves  no  danger  to  Ulster,  and  I  do  not  think  even  an 
Englislnnan  will  seriously  contend  there  is  any  justification  for  op- 
posing it  on  military  grounds. 

Now  let  us  see  just  how  England  has  been  affected  in  power  and 
I)restige  by  these  twenty  years  of  continual  struggle.  I  venture  the 
assertion  that  the  Irish  patriots,  headed  by  Charles  Stewart  Parnell, 
(applause),  who  have  waged  the  battle  of  Irish  emancipation,  without 
a  single  soldier  in  the  (ield,  without  money,  without  arms  and  much 
of  the  time  confined  in  English  jails  have  inflicted  more  damage  on 
England  than  the  loss  of  half  her  empire.  More  damage,  I  repeat, 
than  if  she  had  lost  half  her  empire,  and  I  believe  I  can  satisfy  any- 
body that  my  assertion  is  not  an  extravagant  statement. 

There  is  a  very  wide  difference  of  opinion  among  Englishmen  as  to 
whether  her  colonial  possessions  are  of  any  advantage  to  the  mother 
country ;  but  there  is  no  doubt  about  the  impoi-tance  and  value  to  her 
of  her  own  Parliament.  England,  in  the  struggle  with  Ireland,  has 
already  suffered  an  abasement  of  her  Parliament  which  can  never  be 
recovered;  and  I  venture  tlie  statement  that,  if  she  does  not  soon 
concede  parliamentary  independence  to  Ireland,  she  will  be  forced  to 
sacrifice  her  own  parliamentaiy  government.  (Applause.)  Now  let 
us  see  just  on  what  that  statement  depends.  Ever  since  the  time  of 
King  Edward  I.  down  to  1870,  the  English  Parliament  had  existed 
without  rules.  It  was  the  most  eflficient  legislative  body  in  the  world, 
Viecause  it  had  never  been  found  necessary  to  adopt  a  rule  to  repress 
disorder  in  any  form.  Its  ])rocedure  v.as  entirely  governed  by  its 
traditions.  Its  dignity  was  in  the  custody  of  every  meiuber.  In  an 
evil  hour  for  itself  it  undertook  to  pass  coercion  acts  for  Ireland, 
and  by  the  time  its  purpose  was  accomi)lished  the  wh(^l<^  character  of 
the  House  of  Commons  had  been  changed.  It  had  establislied  a  set 
of  rules,  which,  while  they  were  intended  to  nullify  the  opposition 
of  the  Irish  members,  are  now  used  every  day  to  restrict  the  pri\aleges 
of  the  English  members.  The  Parliament  still  lives,  but  the  loss  of 
its  dignity  has  been  the  destruction  of  its  outer  shell,  and  the  frag- 
ments of  that  outer  shell  bestrews  the  floors  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, trampled  under  foot  by  the  Irish  patriots  in  their  struggle  to 
defend  Irish  rights.  (Applause.)  The  closure  has  been  imported 
from  France,  and  this  Parliament,  dressed  up  in  a  French  domino, 


830  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

is  not  the  ancient  Parliament  of  England,  whose  history  is  the  pride 
of  Englishmen.  This  Parliament,  dresed  up  in  the  procedure  of  the 
French  Chambers,  is  something  vastly  different  from  the  Parliament 
which  curbed  the  power  of  kings,  and  wrote  its  declaration  of  rights 
in  the  blood  of  a  monarch.  But  the  abasement  of  its  dignity  through 
the  sacrifice  of  its  ancient  procedure  is  but  a  slight  injury  compared 
to  the  dangers  which  still  threaten  it.  I  have  said  that,  if  she  con- 
tinues to  deny  legislative  autonomy  to  Ireland,  England  will  be  left 
without  a  parliamentary  government  of  its  owai.  I  mean  to  say  that 
parliamentary  government,  as  it  has  heretofore  existed  in  England, 
will  be  impossible  under  the  conditions  which  she  is  now  producing. 
Parliamentary  government  necessarily  means  party  government.  Its 
existence  implies  that  one  party  or  the  other  would  always  control 
a  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  could  always,  therefore, 
be  charged  with  the  power  and  responsibility  of  government.  But 
with  eighty-five  members  of  the  House  indifferent  to  English  ques- 
tions, hostile  to  both  English  parties,  supporting  no  policy,  except  that 
which  will  promote  the  national  aspirations  of  Ireland,  no  Cabinet 
can  undertake  the  government  of  the  country  unless  its  supporters  in 
the  House  of  Commons  outnumber  by  nearly  a  hundred  the  followers 
of  the  opposing  English  party. 

Now,  government  by  a  majority  of  a  hundred  is  not  government 
by  a  simple  majority,  and  is  not  parliamentary  government,  as  it  has 
been  heretofore  understood.  It  may  be  something  better  than  parlia- 
mentary government,  but  it  is  not  the  parliamentary  government  un- 
der which  England  has  grown  and  prospered.  We  have  already  seen 
a  party  which  was  in  a  minority  in  Great  Britain  maintained  in  power 
for  three  years  by  Irish  votes.  And  that  condition  may  arise  again. 
Cabinets  made  and  unmade  by  votes  hostile  to  the  existence  of  the 
Government  which  they  administer  are  simply  absurd.  It  is  a  bad 
thing  for  both  England  and  Ireland  to  have  Irishmen  establishing 
governments  for  England  in  English  Parliaments.  It  is  worse  for 
Ireland  to  have  Irish  affairs  managed  by  an  English  Parliament.  In 
God's  name,  let  each  country  abandon  the  task  of  managing  the  af- 
fairs of  the  other  to  the  injury  of  both ;  let  the  representatives  of  each 
go  their  separate  ways,  and  let  two  independent  parliaments  become 
the  fountains  of  their  common  prosperity. 

The  history  of  this  century  proves  that  Emmet's  insurrection  of 
1803  was  the  initial  step  in  a  movement  which  has  never  yet  been 
suppressed.  The  purpose  which  animated  him  was  the  same  as  that 
which  fired  the  hearts  and  nerved  the  arms  of  Wolfe  Tone,  of  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald,  of  Orr  and  of  the  Sheareses.  As  the  sword  of  re- 
sistance fell  from  his  grasp  it  was  caught  up  by  other  hands.  It  has 
been  often  sheathed,  but  has  never  been  cast  away.  The  cause  for 
which  he  died  was  never  more  severe  than  it  is  now,  never  more  vig- 
orous than  it  is  at  the  present  day. 

I  confess  to  some  sense  of  humiliation  and  regret  that  the  century 
should  almost  have  elapsed  and  that  Emmet's  monument  is  still  with- 
out a  foundation.  It  is  related,  I  think,  of  King  Edward  I.  that, 
when  the  fatal  sickness  overtook  him  while  he  was  at  the  head  of  an 
invading  force  on  the  Scottish  frontiers,  he  summoned  his  son  and 
charged  him  that  his  body  should  not  be  buried  but  should  be  carried 
before  his  army  until  the  last  foot  of  Scottish  territory  had  been  con- 
quered. We  cannot  carry  Robert  Emmet's  body  before  Irish  hosts, 
but  we  must  keep  his  memory  before  Irish  patriots.     (Applause.) 


Great  Speeches  on  Great  Occasions  831 

Emmot's  l)0(ly  is  in  tlio  ftronnd,  l>ut  liis  funeral  olj.scqnios  have  not  yet 
been  celebrated.  When  Irishmen  are  tempted  to  (juarrel,  l(;t  them  re- 
member they  are  still  in  the  presence  of  the  dead,  and  that  no  Irish- 
man is  justified  in  criticisinf?  another  while  a  vestige  of  English 
tyranny  oppresses  the  Ii'ish  soil.     (Applause.) 

I  say  this  not  to  blames  or  critcise  any])ody,  but  as  an  appeal  to 
all.  Ireland  stands  at  the  bar  of  international  opinion,  asking  judg- 
ment against  England,  invoking  the  arm  of  the  civilized  world  to  do 
justice  to  her  and  thus  to  protect  itself.  The  answer  will  not  be  long 
delayed.  Ireland  has  a  peculiar  claim  on  the  court  in  which  she 
pleads.  The  civilization  to  which  she  appeals  she  has  largely  helped 
to  create.  Whoever  studies  the  intellectual  development  of  Europe 
will  place  the  dawn  of  learning  and  the  restoration  of  letters  at  the 
period  when  Charlemagne,  having  conquered  the  Saxons  after  more 
than  thirty  years  of  resistance,  laid  aside  the  sabre  and  attempted  to 
train  his  hand  to  the  mastery  of  the  pen.  The  school  which  he  founded 
was  the  germ  of  that  University  of  Paris  which  has  done  so  much  for 
the  spread  of  intellectual  light,  and  for  the  advancement  of  civiliza- 
tion. That  school  w^as  largely  taught  by  Irish  professors.  It  was  to 
Ireland  that  he  sent  his  son  for  instruction.  Buckle,  Guizot,  every 
writer  who  traces  the  progress  of  civilization,  admits  that  during  the 
eighth,  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  the  Irish  missionaries  bore  the  lamp 
of  instruction  into  every  country  of  Europe.  Irish  missionaries 
preached  and  taught  in  England,  in  Scotland,  in  France;  they  com- 
pleted the  civilization  of  Germany. 

Historians  have  chronicled  their  achievements,  but  the  world 
has  given  them  little  credit  for  their  service  to  humanity.  These 
humble  servants  of  the  cross,  frequently  disguised  under  names  as- 
sumed in  religion,  have  left  few  traces  of  their  identity,  while  they 
have  erected  everywhere  imposing  intellectual  monuments  of  their 
industry.  To-day  Ireland  faces  the  only  dangers  which  at  the  close 
of  this  century  threatens  Christian  States.  Anarchism  in  crowdetl 
cities  makes  rulers  tremble  and  citizens  uneasy.  Thoughtful  men  are 
alarmed  at  the  spread  of  notions  inconsistent  with  order  and  with 
social  law,  which  proceed  from  a  gi'owing  disbelief  in  the  fountain 
of  all  law,  while  the  very  essence  of  Christian  civilization,  the  mar- 
riage tie,  is  imperiled  by  laws  which  tolerate  and  even  encourage  the 
granting  of  divorce.  Europe,  America,  Christendom,  confronted  by 
such  perils  as  these,  will  welcome  to  the  family  of  nations  as  a  ram- 
part against  the  rising  tide  of  infidelity  and  immorality  that  country 
where  the  chastity  of  the  women  is  never  suspected  (applause),  where 
the  doors  of  the  divorce  court  are  always  closed  (applause),  where 
love  of  country  is  intertwined  with  faith  in  God  (applause). 

As  we  behold  Irish  opposition  to  English  oppression  as  vigorous 
at  the  close  of  this  nineteenth  century  as  it  was  at  the  close  of  the 
twelfth,  we  know  that  Irish  patriotism  is  a  force  which  cannot  be  de- 
stroyed. It  is  a  flame  which  is  unquenched  and  unquenchable,  which 
is  not  smothered,  but  fed,  by  the  blood  of  patriots.  The  emancipation 
of  Ireland  is  assured,  because  the  cause  of  Ireland  is  the  cause  of 
justice ;  it  is  the  cause  of  morality ;  it  is  the  cause  of  progress ;  it  is  the 
cause  of  civilization.     (Applause.) 

Our  faith  in  her  triumph  is  not  built  on  the  promises  of  princes 
which  may  be  broken ;  not  on  treaties  which  may  be  violated,  but  on 
laws  which  are  eternal,  on  forces  which  are  indestructible ;  it  is  built; 
upon  the  fortitude  of  Ireland 's  sons,  the  virtue  of  Ireland 's  daughters, 


832  Ireland's  Crown  of  Thorns  and  Roses 

the  merits  of  Ireland's  cause,  the  memory  of  Ireland's  martyrs,  the 
justice  of  Ireland's  God.  (Great  applause  and  cheers  for  Bourke 
Cochran. ) 


SPEECH  OF  THE  HON.  JOHN  F.  FINERTY,  PRESIDENT  OF 
THE  UNITED  IRISH  LEAGUE  OF  AMERICA. 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  "nEW  M0\':EMENT  CON^^NTION,"  Y.  M.  C.  A.  BUILDING, 
CHICAGO,  WEDNESDAY,  SEPTEMBER  25,  1895. 

Gentlemen  of  the  convention:  I  would  be  utterly  insensible  to 
the  generosity  of.  the  Irish-American  heart  if  I  did  not  deeply  and 
sincerely  feel  the  weight  of  the  honor  you  have  placed  upon  rae.  To 
preside  over  a  convention  of  this  character  is  one  of  the  proudest 
incidents  in  tiio  life  of  any  man;  to  preside  over  a  convection  that 
has  met  to  renew  the  work  of  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone  began  in  France 
100  years  ago,  is  a  matter  of  pride  that  I  shall  cany  with  me  to  the 
grave.  I  observe  already  in  some  of  our  American  papers  editorials 
questioning  the  prudence  of  this  convention  and  dictating  to  us  a 
policy,  hoping  we  will  do  nothing  to  offend  English  sentiment.  What 
do  we  care  for  English  sentiment?  We  don't  want  to  offend  Ameri- 
can sentiment;  we  don't  want  to  offend  French  sentiment;  we  don't 
want  to  offend  Russian  sentiment ;  but  we  do  want  to  offend  seriously 
our  hereditary  and  merciless  foes. 

We  sound  to-day  the  death-knell  of  whiggery  in  Irish  politics ;  we 
stand  here  on  our  rights  as  a  race  to  advocate  absolute  independence 
of  the  land  that  gave  us  or  our  fathers  birth ;  a  land,  not  a  colony  of 
England  in  the  words  of  a  great  orator,  with  a  civilization  older  than 
the  gospel,  a  land  that  has  made  a  heroic  struggle  for  her  rights,  and 
which  has  never  yet  yielded  to  the  rod  of  the  conqueror.  We  admit 
the  physical  conquest  of  Ireland,  but  we  deny  a  moral  concjuest.  The 
self  same  spirit  that  met  the  spearmen  of  Strongbow  animates  the 
hearts  of  the  young  Irishmen  of  to-day.  The  conditions  are  changed 
indeed.  Our  American  friends  may  preach  to  us  the  doctrine  of 
peace  and  prudence.  We  will  follow  them  so  long  as  may  be  neces- 
sary, but  I  will  remind  our  editorial  American  friends  that  when  the 
Americans  had  a  grievance  against  England  they  did  not  stand  on 
the  order  in  which  they  threw  the  British  tea  chests  into  Boston  har- 
bor. They  made  the  law  officers  of  the  British  crown  swallow  their 
own  papers  on  Boston  common,  and  the  dose  was  so  indigestible  that 
it  killed  their  rule  in  this  country. 

The  American  people  have  a  right,  indeed,  to  tell  us  that  we  must 
deport  ourselves  as  American  citizens,  because  we  are  American  citi- 
zens, and  we  will  remind  them  that  they  can  point  to  no  blot  in  our 
history  in  connection  with  this  country.  The  flag  of  our  fathers  has 
never  been  raised  against  the  government,  and  if  they  look  for  a  flag 
that  is  an  enemy  to  America  they  will  find  that  it  is  of  a  very  different 
color  from  the  glorious  green  of  Ireland. 

Why  should  the  American  people  be  so  fearful  of  the  sensibilities 
of  "illustrious"  England?  What  has  she  ever  done  for  America? 
Did  she  not  seek  to  strangle  her  in  the  cradle  ?  Did  she  not  smite  her 
in  the  face  when  she  was  only,  you  might  say,  a  maiden  entering  upon 
womanhood?  Did  she  not  eonspiT-e  to  assassinate  her  when  in  the 
full  strength  of  her  pride  she  declined  to  acquiesce  in  the  disruption 


.i(»ii.\  1.  ll.\l;K|■^■. 

I'rt'sidciit    rnitt'd   Irisli   Loaiiiic  <>f   Aincrica. 


CiiiEAT  6pei:ciii:.s  u.\  (Jukat  Occasions  X83 

of  111*-'  Anicvi(»nn  nninn?  ITnvo  not  llir  Enjilish  «;lio^m  \ho\r  (^nmity 
and  illwill  in  I'Vory  coimcct ion  jiiid  on  o\vyy  ((ccjisiou  in  (lcliain;('  of 
our  AJonroo  Doclriiu' .'  Xot  Iohk^'I"  than  six  months  utio  tli<*y  went 
down  to  our  nt'i^liborinjj;  )t'public  and  they  dared  to  hind  their  iner- 
eenaries  in  detianee  of  rijilit  and  decency.  Editors  say  they  are  afraid 
we  will  complicate  them  with  England.  Suppose  we  do.  1  know 
there  are  plenty  of  English  syndicates  tied  np  in  this  country.  I 
know  tlu're  is  plenty  of  English  ea])ital  tied  up  also,  very  much  more 
than  there  is  of  American  eapital  in  England.  Let  England  dare  to 
tire  the  first  shot.  1  am  awaiv  that  the  English  press  will  sne»'i'  at 
this;  I  know  they  will  say  we  a)'e  here  foi-  other  objects  than  the  lib- 
eration of  Ireland. 

It  is  physically  impossible  and  morally  impossible  for  the  Eng- 
lish press  to  tell  the  ti'uth,  bnt  we  are  met  here  to-day  to  tell  America, 
'France  and  Russia,  and  every  possible  fi-iend  of  ours,  and  every  pos- 
sible enemy  of  the  IJritish  government,  that  we  are  in  this  fight  to 
stay.  "We  are  not  enlisted  for  one  year  or  for  three  yeai'S  but  for  the 
war.  The  Bi'itish  minister  may  send  his  battalions  of  spies;  we  cai-e 
nothing  about  them.  We  don't  care  if  all  Scotland  yard  is  within 
hearing  to-niglit,  because  we  are  stating  openly  and  above  board  the 
nndying  principle  that  Ireland  has  as  much  right  to  separate  and  dis- 
tinct freeciom  as  England  herself.  Ireland  lias  never  acquiesced  in 
the  rule  of  England.  The  so-called  union  of  1801  is  a  fraud,  a  nul- 
lity and  a  usurpation,  and  the  Irish  nation  is  not  bound  by  it. 

We  impeach  the  authority  of  England  by  her  abrogation  of  the 
treaty  of  Limerick;  we  impeach  the  a\ithority  of  England  by  her  viola- 
tion of  the  renunciation  act  of  1783;  we  impeach  the  authority  of 
England  by  the  fraudulent  and  corrupt  means  with  which  she  bought 
a  minority  parliament,  representing  a  minority  of  the  Irish  peoj)le, 
and  which  murdered  Irish  liberty  through  the  unconstitutional  act  of 
voting  its  own  extinguishment.  We  say  to-night  that  by  all  moral 
laws,  by  the  laws  of  nations,  by  the  law  of  treaties,  by  the  law  of 
contracts,  Ireland  is  not  bound  to  be  an  integral  part  of  the  British 
empire. 

England  stole  from  us  our  parliament,  such  as  it  was.  We  have 
asked  it  back;  we  have  gone  out  of  (mr  way  to  humiliate  ourselves 
before  this  proud  and  conscienceless  power.  Are  we  to  wait  forever 
on  the  return  of  the  English  heart  to  charity?  No.  What  was  her 
answer  to  Benjamin  Franklin  when  he  went  on  tluit  mission?  Scorn 
and  contumely.  When  did  the  thought  strike  home  that  she  had  to 
respect  American  opinion  ?  When  the  shot  was  fired  at  Concord  by 
the  American  fai'uiers. 

We  are  here,  my  friends,  not  to  be  bespattered  by  the  slanders  of 
England ;  we  are  not  here  to  be  told  we  contemplate  murder :  we  are 
not  here  to  be  told  we  contemplate  swindling.  Those  properties  be- 
long to  England.  We  are  here  to  invite  the  sympathy  of  the  whole 
world  to  oui"  cause.  We  are  here  to  say  to  our  beloved  F^ncle  Sam 
that  if  he  draws  the  sword  in  defense  of  the  ^lonroe  doctrine,  or  any 
other  American  principle,  we  here,  rei")resenting  the  Irish  of  America, 
from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic,  are  behind  the  American  government. 

We  say  to  the  Russian,  as  he  uuirches  on  India,  "our  sympathies 
are  with  you."  We  say  to  the  German  wrangling  with  England  about 
possessing  Africa,  "Take  all  the  continent  if  you  can."  We  say  to 
the  Frenchman  if  he  menaces  England's  interests  in  her  colonies. 
"God  speed  the  work:  take  them  all."  We  are  the  friends  of  every 
>enemv  of  England,  and  we  are  the  enemies  of  eveiy  friend  of  Eiig- 


834  Irelaxd's  Ceo\vx  of  Thorns  axd  Roses 

bind,  niid  we  want  to  di'ive  it  home  and  nail  it  to  the  mast  to  the 
death. 

Now.  yentUMiien.  we  mean  to  eonduet  this  organization  which  is 
to  be  formed  on  broad  and  manly  and  martial  principles.  We  tell 
England  and  we  tell  the  rest  of  the  world  that  we  are  determined  to 
encourage  the  enlistment  of  our  young  Irishmen,  either  independently 
or  in  regular  battalions.  We  want  to  l>e  ready  when  tlie  time  comes. 
When  Theol)ald  Wolfe  Tone  went  to  France  with  hardly  a  dollar  in 
his  pocket  he  took  with  him  a  letter  of  introduction  from  the  Ameri- 
can secretary  of  state  to  James  ilonroe  at  Paris,  who  presented  hint 
to  the  French  government.  Tie  laid  before  the  French  goverinnent  the 
plan  of  organization  of  the  Fnited  Irishmen.  lie  stin-ed  the  heai'fc 
of  France  to  send  two  expeditions — one  from  the  Dutch  republic  anc? 
one  from  France  herself — to  the  relief  of  Ireland.  The  elements  shat- 
tered them.  Other  expditions  followed.  Wolfe  Tone  himself  fought 
on  board  a  French  line  of  battleship  until  she  was  disabled  and  had 
to  surrender.  lie  was  taken  to  Dul)lin.  You  Icnow  the  sad  story  of 
his  trial  and  death,  but  he  said  to  the  coiU"t-mai'tial  which  sentenced 
him  to  be  hanged:  "I  believed  from  my  .youth  that  the  sole  griev- 
ance of  Ireland  is  English  connection."  This  fiery  gospel  comes  from 
the  churchyard  of  Bodenstown,  from  the  grave  of  St.  Michan's,  where 
the  youthful  lips  of  Enunet  are  silent  forever.  It  is  re-echoed  from 
the  spires  of  Newry.  where  John  ^litchell  sleeps  in  honor,  from  the 
waves  of  the  ^lissouri  that  roll  over  the  relics  of  Meagher,  from  the 
unconsecrated  graves  of  Salford  prison,  where  repose  the  remains  of 
the  martyrs  of  ^lanchester  who  laid  down  their  lives  for  their  coun- 
try. 

The  necessities  of  empire  are  great  indeed,  hut  the  reciuirements  of 
liberty  are  greater  still.  The  loss  of  Ireland  inight  cripple  England, 
but  it  would  restore  Ireland  to  life,  to  honor  and  to  prosperity.  The 
pride  of  empire  is  great  indeed,  but  the  pride  of  patriotism  is  greater 
still,  and  there  is  not  a  man  of  us  here  to-day,  I  venture  to  say  it, 
that  would  not  rather  have  Ireland,  poor  and  trampled  as  she  is,  in 
defense  of  the  maintenance  of  a  principle,  than  have  her  kept  a  harlot 
off  the  spoils  of  the  British  empire.  We  want  no  partnership  in  crime. 
AVe  don't  want  the  rupees  of  India.  We  don't  want  the  Avealth  of 
Africa.  We  have  no  pride  or  concern  in  that  empire.  Our  wish  is 
to  mete  out  to  it  the  same  measure  that  it  has  meted  out  to  us.  We 
are  the  open,  avowed  and  proclaimed  enemies  of  that  empire,  and  will 
devote  our  efforts,  our  means,  and.  if  necessary,  our  lives  to  accom- 
plish our  purpose — the  emancipation  of  Ireland. 

This,  then,  gentlemen  of  the  convention,  is  the  spirit  in  which  we 
enter  upon  this  work.  I  will  again  renew  to  you  my  thanks  and  T  will 
say  to  you  that  old  Ireland  may  well  borrow  hope  from  this  mag- 
nificent demonstration,  and  it  may  be  that  the  dream  of  our  patriots 
may  be  realized  in  our  own  day — that  we  shall  see  the  flag  that  has  no 
home  or  abiding  place,  except  in  other  lands  than  Ireland,  floatinL' 
above  a  free  and  independent  Irish  nation. 

**  'Full  many  a  nobler  heart  than  ours 

Has  perished  that  end  to  gain : 
And  many  a  mind  of  God-like  powers 

Was  wasted  not  all  in  vain. 
They  have  left  us  a  treasui-e  of  pity  and  Avratli. 

As  a  spur  to  our  cold-blood  set. 
And  we'll  tread  in  their  path  with  a  spirit  that  hath 

Assurance   of  triumph  yet.'  " 


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